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Five Tips For Acing the PLAN Test.

admin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 12:54:25 +0000

Are you ready for the PLAN? Photo credit: Eric Hoefler

Are you one of the thousands of high school sophomores across the country taking the PLAN (Pre-ACT) this month? If so, then congratulations. You’re about to get your first taste of the college entrance exam experience!

Don’t worry! Your PLAN test scores won’t be counted when you apply to college. The PLAN is designed solely to prepare you for the more important exams to come later. But it still pays to do your best.

Here are five tips for doing your best on the PLAN.

Take the time to prepare. The PLAN site offers practice questions for all four portions of the exam. Complete them all, and make sure to go back and review subjects that trip you up.
Answer the easy questions first. Since the PLAN only counts the number of correct answers, it’s a good idea to go through each section and answer the questions that you know the answers to before tackling more difficult ones. This also gives you more time to mull over harder questions.
Answer every single question. Since the PLAN only counts right answers, there’s no harm in guessing. It’s also multiple choice, so you have some chance of getting any question right.
Don’t guess unless you have to. Instead, try to use logic to eliminate wrong answers first—even if you’re not 100 percent positive what the correct one might be. Making educated guesses is far better than simply playing eenie, meeny, miney moe.
Double check your answers. If you pace yourself correctly, you should have time to review your answers. If you do, take advantage of the time. After all, simple mistakes could cost you valuable points!

Follow these tips and you’ll be well on your way to PLAN success. For more tips on preparing for college, subscribe to our blog today!

Get a Head Start on Your FAFSA: Things You Can Do Now

admin — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 12:52:48 +0000

Ready to get a head start on your FAFSA? Here's what you need to know. Photo Credit: frozen jek

If you’re hoping to get financial aid when you head off to college next year, you probably already know you need to complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). But do you know what you’ll need to get started?

You’ll need quite a few financial documents. So even though you can’t officially complete the FAFSA until January 1, 2012, it pays to start planning now. When it comes to financial aid, the more organized you are, the better off you’ll be.

So what information will you need to start your FAFSA?

As the student, you’ll need:

1. Your social security card
2. Your driver’s license number
3. Your 2011 W2 forms
4. Any other financial records that apply (investment accounts in your name, etc.)
5. Your 2011 tax return (it’s easier to finish it before you apply. Otherwise, you’ll have to estimate your income and then return to complete the form after your return is completed)

If you are a dependent student (i.e. your parents will be claiming you on their tax return), you’ll also need their financial information. Documents you’ll need include:

Your parents’ 2011 W2s
Your parents’ 2011 tax return
Records of untaxed income in 2011 (IRA deductions, child support, etc.)
Mortgage information (both for your home and any businesses or rental properties your parents own)
Current bank statements

Is there any way to get an estimate of how much financial aid you can expect before January 1, 2012?

Short answer? Yes. You can use FAFSA4Caster to get an estimate of how much financial aid you might be able to expect from the federal government.

Obviously, since you won’t have the most recent financial information available to you yet (since 2011 W2s won’t be available until January), the numbers you get will not be set in stone. But they should give you a good place to start, in terms of deciding how much other financial aid you need to seek out.

When should you complete the FAFSA for real?

Well, the deadline isn’t until June 30,2012. But generally speaking, the earlier you apply, the better. After all, the early bird gets the worm, as the saying goes…

By taking these steps, you’ll be well on your way to financial aid success when official FAFSA-filing season begins. For more helpful information about filling out the FAFSA and getting through the college admissions process with your sanity intact, subscribe to our blog today!

Rock Your Report Card: The Best Online Homework Resources

admin — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 01:08:41 +0000

Find all the homework help you need on the Internet. Photo Credit: Todd Meklem

Before you can attend the college of your dreams, you have to earn the grades that will get you in. And in order to do that, you have to study. Hard.

But what happens when you find yourself in a tough spot? When you don’t understand a problem, or you can’t find the answers you need?

You should always ask your teacher for help when you can, of course. But if you need immediate assistance and school’s not in session, you still have the whole internet at your beck and call.

Read on for directions to some of the best homework resources on the Web.

Best Homework Sites For Reference

The Internet Public Library - The most comprehensive directory of online reference sources, newspapers, magazines and more, the IPL should be your first stop when you’re researching a paper.

Info Please Homework Center – This site also has an extensive directory of resources on every subject you could possibly need to know about!

Best Homework Sites For Math and Science

Math.com – If you have a question about algebra or geometry, there’s no better place to go than math.com. From ratios to square roots, this site has it all.

Discovery Education – This site is home to a large database full of science articles, videos and more, with homework help for almost all high school science classes.

Best Homework Sites For English

CliffsNotes – Need helping making sense of that Faulkner novel? Having trouble making it through that Shakespeare play? Cliff Notes is here to help with plot summaries, character analysis and more.

The Guide To Grammar and Writing – This site has resources to help you with virtually every writing and style question from proper use of adjectives to punctuation and everything in between!

Best Homework Site For Everything Else

BJ Pinchbeck’s- Started by a boy (and his father) when he was just nine years old, this site is a gold mine of homework resources. His tag line is “if you can’t find it here, you just can’t find it.” And he’s probably right.

Those are the best homework sites we’ve found. What are your favorites? Let us know in the comments below. And to make sure you get all the latest news and tips about getting into college, subscribe to our blog today!

How To Find the Right Type of Scholarship: Understanding the Lingo.

admin — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:41:14 +0000

You don't need a dictionary to understand college scholarships. Just this handy blog post! Photo credit: GadgetGirl

Last week, we had you do a little homework to determine what kind of scholarships could be right for you. This week? We’re going to define the most common types of scholarships for you so you know how to tell when you’ve found the right one!

Merit-based scholarships

These are the most common types of scholarships. They are awarded to students who can demonstrate high levels of achievement in a certain area. Often, that simply means they go to people with a really great GPA or rock star test scores. But merit scholarships can also be awarded on the basis of athletic ability, extracurricular involvement or even volunteerism.

Need-based scholarships

As you might expect, these scholarships go to students who really need them, financially speaking. The majority of need-based scholarships come from the federal government and are awarded based on information you’ll supply in your FAFSA. However, there are also tons of organizations with need-based scholarship programs. It’s just a matter of finding them.

Student-specific scholarships

These are the scholarships you can get just for being you! Student-specific scholarships are given out to people who satisfy the specific requirements of the organization giving out the scholarship. So, a scholarship awarded because of your ethnic background would be considered a student-specific scholarship. So would a scholarship you get because of where you live or what you’re interested in.

Career-specific scholarships

Have you known what you want to do for a living since you were 10? Do you know what you want to major in, where you want to intern and what company you want to work for? If so, our hats are off to you—you’re quite the planner! Career-specific scholarships are made for people like you—or at least for students who know what they want to major in. They’re awarded by industry-specific and career-oriented organizations looking to help the next generation of professionals succeed!

College-specific scholarships

Once you know where you want to go to college (and get accepted), you could be eligible for a scholarship awarded by that college. These types of scholarships are sometimes given to help students who have a financial need, but can also be awarded on the basis of personal or academic achievement.

And now you know what the five major types of scholarships are! Although there are many kinds of specific scholarships available, for the most part they fit into one of these buckets. Hopefully, this knowledge will help you as you begin (or continue) your scholarship search.

We’ll be bringing you information about how to find scholarships all year long, so subscribe to our blog today and make sure you don’t miss a thing!

Links To Learn By: The Best In College Prep This Week.

admin — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 02:58:42 +0000

Get warmed up for the upcoming college admissions season!

August is almost upon us. You know what that means. School—and the college admissions process—is set to begin in a few short weeks. Get warmed up by checking out the college blog posts and news articles below!

College news everyone can use.

Ever wondered if getting a college degree is really worth it? This post by UPI will convince you that it is. The trick? Think of it as a long-term investment.

Social media is big business. And social networks? Want your attention. Find out what Foursquare is doing to grab the attention of college students at HackCollege.

College news for high school seniors.

Of course you’re excited about finally starting your senior year. But that doesn’t mean you can forget about your college search. Learn 20 things you should be doing right now to get ready for the college admissions process at CBS MoneyWatch.

Then, read about three completely avoidable college admissions mistakes at Teen College Education.

College news for incoming freshmen.

You’ve got your financial aid package all figured out. But have you taken into account living expenses? Learn about the college costs you might be forgetting at New York HESC.

Then, check out five tips every college freshman should read at CampusSplash.

Random college news.

Do you pride yourself on being just a little bit geeky? Then you’ll want to check out this list of the nerdiest colleges by the Huffington Post.

Photo courtesy of Lululemon Athletica.

How To Get Your Facebook Profile Ready For College Application Season.

admin — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 13:29:32 +0000

Do you know what your Facebook profile says about you?

If you’re like most high schoolers, Facebook is a part of your everyday life. But when it comes time to apply for college, what you posted on Facebook two years ago could come back to bite you.

So what’s an ambitious wanna-be college freshman to do? The smart thing, of course, is to never post potentially embarrassing information in the first place. But even if you have, there are still ways you can protect your online self from the eyes of curious college admissions officers.

Lock down your Facebook privacy settings before sending off those college applications.

Facebook privacy policies change almost as often as Lady Gaga changes her hair. Which means you need to keep a sharp eye on them. Settings you should take a good hard look at include:

How (and with whom) you share information
Who can see your photos
Who can check you into Places
How you show up in search results
How much information your friends can share about you

Comb through all those photos of you before college admissions officers do.

Snap happy people are everywhere. Which means, of course, that you’re probably tagged in a lot more photos than you realize. Sure, you’re notified when someone tags you, but things that seemed harmless six months ago might seem a little less awesome now that you know college official-types might be looking at them.

So do yourself a favor. Go to your Facebook profile page and take a good look at all the photos and videos of you. And if you see something that’s even vaguely scandalous? Un-tag yourself. It’s the smart thing to do.

Make incriminating status updates disappear.

Hopefully, there’s nothing out there that would be of concern. But, it’s better to be safe than sorry, so scroll through your shared content and status updates for potential red flags. And if you find one? Make it go away.

It’s easy. Just place your mouse on the right side of the status update box you want to delete. A little “X” will appear. Hover over it and a button saying “remove post” will pop up. Click it and poof! All evidence of your poor judgment will disappear.

Doing these three things will go a long way toward making your Facebook profile college application-friendly. Want more information about making social media work for your college application? Check out this post.

And don’t forget, we’ll be bringing you great information about college applications and getting into college all year long. Subscribe to our blog so you don’t miss a thing!

Photo courtesy of C. M. Keiner.