What Every Parent Needs to Know About College Admissions: How to Prepare Your Child to Succeed in College and Life?With a Step-by Step Planner (College Guidebook)

by Christie Barnes

Overview

The Truth About Career Planning and the College Search Process

“…the go-to guide for students to find the right path, at the right time, for the right tuition amount to lead to their best career outcome.” ―Anna Costaras and Gail Liss, authors of The College Bound Organizer

#1 New Release in Education Research

Society's guiding “truths” about higher education are now incorrect. In What Every Parent Needs to Know About College Admissions, Christie Barnes helps parents and students alike cut through the noise and find the best school, which might not always be the most prestigious or expensive one.

College planning re-examined. All economic levels are getting vastly incorrect information for college and career planning, leading to anxiety-ridden youth and crippling student debt. Less affluent students are being led to more expensive options and high achievers feel compelled to apply for college at the most prestigious institutions. But, whether it’s a state school, safety school, or public school―there are other options beside an overpriced private school. It could be, but it might not be.

A guidance counselor for parents. Learn that it’s not just about the “right” college, it’s about the “right fit” college. Using statistics, experts, and multi-factor analysis to clarify what should and should not be a worry in college planning, Barnes helps parents identify better, and often overlooked, options. In this guide, she dissects the top ten parental worries about  how to get into college, including college applications, college admissions, college requirements, and college acceptance.

Inside find:

• The first comprehensive individualized career and academic planning guide available to parents and teens
• Details on new innovative programs endorsed by schools, colleges, and HR departments
• A bonus “Academic Planning Guide”

If you enjoyed books like Launch, Prepared, or Where You Go Is Not Who You'll Be, you’ll love What Every Parent Needs to Know About College Admissions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781642503159
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	07/13/2021
Pages:	370
Sales rank:	269,143
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Christie Barnes is a writer, animation director (Hallmark, ABC, NBC), and mother. She is a graduate of Mt Holyoke College, and has an MA with honors from City UniversityLondon. She is the author of the Paranoid Parents Guide series.

Read an Excerpt

It may start from the belief that college is the golden ticket to a high paying job, as it has always been, and the added truth that the more selective the college the better—that it is the platinum ticket to a happy life, wealth and security. This has been true for generations.

It may start when a teacher tells the parent how amazing his or her student is and advises that the parents to do all they can to help the student get into a prestigious college. It is unbelievably flattering. How could a parent not sign on for developing their child to the highest levels he or she can attain!

It may start from listening to the media portrayal of elite and selective colleges (or even just preaching the necessity of college) for the place for superior beings or the exclusive creator of superior beings.

It may start from trying to keep up with what friends are doing for their children.

It may come with the belief that your child is amazing.

“It” is the stress and worry, and in some cases, desperation, that it is vitally important for your teen to get into the best college possible, whatever that means for the student and parent.

Parents will pay $6 million to lie, cheat and bribe their teens into great colleges leaving parents wondering how they can help their teens compete against illegal acts and money that can buy an edge in admissions.

Many parents react to the admissions competition as if not getting into a selective college means their child is destined to become a derelict living in a tent down by the river.

Many high schools have what local mental health hospitals call the “Depression Olympics” where even Mr. Frank’s English Honors second period will compete against Mr. Frank’s English Honors 2 fifth period class over which has the most anxiety, depression, and suicide issues—as if it proved they were working the hardest, to the point of mental breakdown, to get into the best college. There are ”individual” competitions, too. College is ‘awesome’ but not worth this—especially for the poor results we are getting.

A sense of failure accompanies the explanation that the teen is going to a perceived ‘lesser’ college. “I didn’t get into the Ivy, I only got into a top 25.” “I’m only going to Metro…I am only going to North *** State University…I’m going to work and go to the community college first, but then I will transfer to a great school” speak to the inferiority that is felt, whatever the level. Condolences are offered for not attending college or choosing a different path. “She is taking time off…” sparks pity, “She was such a bright girl. I am so sorry.” She didn’t die. She got an apprenticeship and is entering the exec level of JP Morgan. Or he is starting a food truck business. Or, a high school certificate led to a drone entry level at Lockheed Martin. Or the seventeen with the $85K aviation job.

But if it isn’t straight to college, then something is wrong somewhere, which is why over 70 percent of high school graduates head to college, with the rest thinking that they should go to college. (Just a constant reminder from me, yes, this is a book about ‘best college’!!!!)

For twenty years, ‘College-for-All’ has been sold as the Golden Ticket to a high-paying secure job. Politicians promise free ‘College-for-All’ as a right and as an election promise. Going to college, being able to learn, to indulge the love of learning is a wonderful experience! We are training all kids to go to college. 3.76 million high school graduates get accepted every year. They can do the college work. Although some strive for elite colleges and others not, America teens who deserve and qualify to go to college.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part One: The Root of Our Worry: Wanting the Best for our Children

Part Two: The Dream College—Defining the “best college”

Part Three: Our Current Approach to Higher Education, College and Career Planning Usually Ends in Failure

Part Four: High School, Academic and Career Planner

Afterword

About the Author

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“This is the go-to guide for students to find the right path, at the right time, for the right tuition amount to lead to their best career outcome. Implementing Individualized Career and Academic Planning in middle and high school helps identify interesting, high-paying careers in growth fields. Barnes' book is the first available for parents and students to plan for a successful future.”
—Anna Costaras and Gail Liss, authors of The College Bound Organizer and the forthcoming The College Bound Planner

“In What Every Parent Needs to Know About College Admissions, Barnes examines how our education systems are adapting to today’s workforce demands by combining practical experience with traditional approaches to create more opportunities for any student to access high-paying, in-demand jobs in modern fields. She walks students and parents past the limiting notion of ‘college or bust’ and explores how work-based learning in combination with related instruction can be an options multiplier for students. It’s that kind of endless possibility we’re building with CareerWise—students can start with a youth apprenticeship and end with a PhD or a corner office—and Barnes’ book helps students find the career and education paths that are right for them. Apprenticeship can be a powerful enhancement to education or a fast-track to a top career, or both.”
—Noel Ginsburg, founder, CEO, & chairman of the board at CareerWise Colorado, the nonprofit tasked with running the state-wide youth apprenticeship system in Colorado

“When it comes to college planning, some parents are like passengers sitting on deckchairs on the Titanic as it sinks, convinced the ship is unsinkable. We need a book like this to explain new realities, new changes, and new opportunities for higher education and college success.”
—Laura Miller, counseling coordinator and CTE Campus Administrator at Cherry Creek Innovation Campus, Centennial, Colorado

“As a Higher Education professional with six years of experience working in Admissions, Assessment, Advising, and, presently, as a Financial Aid Specialist, I have witnessed the considerable strain navigating the college process has on students and their parents. The internet is full of advice, but so much of it is outdated or incorrect. It is evident that Christie Barnes spent many years gathering research that will vastly improve the preparation and transition process from high school to college.”
—Natalie Eck, financial aid specialist at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida

“The path from high school to higher education to a successful career is no longer a straight line. This planner is a map that will help you navigate these treacherous waters.”
—Scott Horn, PhD in Geospatial Information Sciences from the University of Texas at Dallas, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Lecturer

“I’d be honored to say my kid goes to Harvard. But with my kids, I have learned you wind up where you are supposed to be. And this book explains ‘where you are supposed to be.’ We have to stop labeling, ‘reach’ schools, ‘safety’ schools—labeling is setting yourself up for disappointment. This book is great when the kid doesn’t get in somewhere, doesn’t want to go to their only options, or when they get in—is the college really the right place? This book is about understanding and running with the options that present themselves. As Barnes says, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all magic college that will bestow the perfect future on anyone who enters. Every college or higher ed experience can get you there if you are not always fixated on what you might be missing somewhere else. As Barnes says, ‘Hide the name of the college and consider the program, would it inspire my student to learn?’ The student's learning and not the school name is what matters in today's world.”
—Nina Kleinert, graduate of Beverly Hills Public Schools, mom of four Beverly Hills Public Schools' children



“A valuable book that examines how elitism affects college and career choices.”
—Bonnie Timmermann, producer/casting director