I get it. It’s just barely August, and you aren’t ready to think about school yet. But there’s still that copy of Grapes of Wrath sitting on your nightstand to read before AP Lang and Comp starts up, and the school year will be here before you can say “Number 2 pencil,” so it’s time to be proactive!
 
Soon to be juniors and seniors: the next year will be full of a lot of college stuff for you (exciting!). One important part of those college plans should be a couple of college visits.
 
As we are coming off summer, many of you may be just returning from adventures at various campuses around the US (or even the world!). These are valuable in their own right, but a summertime college visit isn’t the same as a visit when the university is in session, so I have a suggestion for you to consider now, while you have plenty of time to plan for it.
 
Plan your campus visits for the next year (at least the fall) now. Whip out your high school’s academic calendar, and take a look at all the student holidays. Some of them are bound to be on random, non-holiday days. That’s what you are looking for!
 
The best campus visits allow you to do four things:

1. Take a general campus tour
2. See students “in action” in the dining halls, studying in the library, playing Frisbee golf on the lawn…
3. Observe a class or meet with a professor in your area of interest
4. Meet with your admissions rep

 
These are the four things I ask students to do AT MINIMUM when they visit a school. You can’t do some of these during the summer, or even on the weekend. This is why the best campus visits are taken during the weekday when school is in regular session.
 
Of course, it’s a pain in the booty to miss a day of school (just like it’s a pain in the booty to miss a day of work – this post is less helpful for the latter, but we have the school part covered!). So plan ahead by looking at the academic calendar and find those couple days in the school year where you have a school holiday but most colleges will be in regular session. Make a circle around them in 24 karat gold leaf, and then plan some visits.
 
LISD kiddos, for example, you have some awesome prime-visit real estate on the calendar October 9th and 10th (a Monday and a Tuesday!). Want to go see Vanderbilt? Book it! Tulane calling? Start Google mapping it now.
 
Here are some academic calendars for quick reference. Happy touring!

• LISD Academic Calendar
• Liberty Christian High School Academic Calendar
• Founders Classical Academic Lewisville Academic Calendar
• Denton ISD Academic Calendar
• Argyle ISD Academic Calendar
• Plano ISD Academic Calendar
• Frisco ISD Academic Calendar
• Grapevine Colleyville ISD Academic Calendar
• Carroll ISD Academic Calendar
• Highland Park ISD Academic Calendar

 
And one more pro tip: when you finish a visit, take time to write down EVERYTHING in DETAIL using a college visit reflection sheet. You can download ours for free right here.
 

BIG IDEA: The best personal statements (this is the type of essay you are writing for your college applications and scholarships) show off your personality and reach out to the reader as if you were sitting in the room having a deep and meaningful conversation about the core essence of who you are. The introduction is an important step in building to that goal. Your intro must engage the reader and compel them forward in your story.
 
How do I “engage and compel” my reader? There are three ways:
 
1. Present a problem that must be solved

• “When I flipped to the last page of the first pre­calculus exam of my junior year, a tornado of numbers smacked me in the face.”
• “As I sat in my chair, I started to shake. It was the nerves. Wiping my hands on my black cotton dress, I stood reluctantly to walk to the bench, suddenly regretting my decision to wear stilettos (the piece didn’t require pedals, and I’d foolishly taken it upon myself to wear fancy footwear accordingly).”
• “Keeping my head down and avoiding eye contact, I tried not to attract attention. Drunken shrieks and moans reverberated through the darkening light of the bus stop, while silhouettes and shadows danced about. My heart pounding, I hoped I would survive the next 40 minutes. I had never seen the homeless at the stop act so deranged. But I had never been there so late.”

 
2. Start with a detailed image that doesn’t at first make any sense

• “The idea that in the morning, LeBron James, somewhere in Ohio, brushes his teeth with the same Crest toothpaste I have sitting by my sink is amazing to me.”
• “Baba opened the door and embraced the dark-featured man on her stoop. His tallness enveloped her, making her short stature almost comically diminutive. She shooed us to the living room, flipping on Crocodile Hunter and pointing firmly at the couch where we were expected to stay. We didn’t sit still there for long.”

 
3. Just start the essay

• “In the back of my closet, amidst winter coats and old family keepsakes, sits the trumpet that once belonged to my great-grandfather, Lawrence Axelson.”
• “The Oath of the Night’s Watch begins with a vow: Night gathers and my watch begins. It shall not end until my death. I am the sword in the darkness. I am the watcher on the walls. I share more than just a name with one of HBO’s most famous characters; Jon Snow and I share a sense of purpose: a determination to live a principled life of leadership.”

If you are wanting a space and guidance to think through what to write about, how to approach this essay, and feedback on how to take it from good to great, you might be a good fit for our College Essay Workshop. It's an intensive but phenomenally productive two days. We cram the class time full of examples and instruction, then you draft in between sessions, getting high-quality feedback on day 2 from two instructors in a class size with low student numbers. Registration is here (three spots left). 

To teach her fledgling to fly, a mama bird will gradually stand further back from the nest with food, encouraging the baby bird to come out onto the limb to get it. The baby often falls, after a couple times realizes the fall can be softened by spreading its wings, and eventually this gives way to flight.
 
But every so often there’s a stubborn bird-ling who would seemingly rather starve than leave the safety and comfort of the nest. So mama bird, in her infinite and instinctual wisdom, shoves him out.
 
As parents teaching our kids to be adults I think we’d all prefer the gradual approach of enticing our kids out on their own until they feel confident to fly the coop. But there really are times in life when we have to shove. If we don’t and we let our kids stay where it’s safe and comfortable for too long, we risk missing an important and formative window of self-actualization.
 
I say all this as a “self-shover”. Many of my students have heard me talk about how painfully shy I was in high school. I was the type of kid who’d throw up on the way to the dentist, not because of any fear of dental work (no, that would be too rational and normal), but because I was afraid to talk to the dental hygienist.  I literally made myself so nervous I’d throw up. I say this as the same kid who would make my three years younger sister order for me in restaurants because I was too afraid to talk to the waitress.
 
In fairness (and because she always reads my posts) my mom did a fair amount of shoving. She forced me to talk to new people, stay in volleyball even though I cried all the way through tryouts (how I made the team is a miracle to this day), look people in the eye even though I was beet red and my cheeks burned, and get a job as at The Whole Enchilada to interact with new people in a “professional” setting.
 
All this incrementally helped, but when it came to college, I took refuge in my acceptance to a highly selective institution that just happened to be a thirty-minute drive from home. I went home at least once a month on the weekends. I still had one foot in the nest.
 
It’s a good thing God gifted me introspection, and eventually I came to the difficult realization that if I were to make the most of my life, I have to shove myself out of the nest.
 
So I took as big a running leap as I could, and I went to study in Tokyo, Japan, for five months. By myself. It was the hardest, and most important, thing I’ve ever done.
 
What I’ve learned in thinking about my own experience with growing up and what I see with the hundreds of students I’ve assisted in their own journeys is that growing up is incredibly hard. There are tears. There are times kids want to quit. There are normal low points where kids want so badly to crawl under the blankets of their childhood bed with a plate of mom’s chicken and rice with the family dog keeping their feet warm. So kids face two decisions:

1. Stick it out, deal with it, and hope it gets better (it almost always does, and the transformation that takes place is literally life-changing)
2. Give in to those tough feelings and return to the safety of the nest

 
Parents are in a tough spot. You dance the line between encouraging independence by letting kids struggle through natural feelings of doubt and panic and stress that are inherent in learning self-sufficiency, and care-taking when children need to still be children: loved, cared-for, and safe.
 
I don’t have a magic formula for when to swoop and when to shove. But I do know that there are ways to build in a more graduated release of responsibility and independence that will help smooth your child’s transition later on.
 
Here are some ideas:

1. Let your student do a residential summer program at a college or university. By doing a program like this, kids are safe, supervised, making friends, and trying out life as a college student before college starts. This is seriously the best suggestion I can give to any pre-college student and family.
2. Keep them in their commitments until they see them through. If they apply to be the “chip girl” at the Whole Enchilada and want to quit after day three, remind them they made a commitment, and the need to see it through for an appropriate amount of time (my mom finally relented after three months of agony for both of us).
3. Give them some control over their schedule. This might take the form of a family calendar where they are expected to add items for where they will be and when, a commitment to text whenever they arrive at a new location, or something else, but high school students should be practicing with managing at least a portion of their own time.
4. Let them (make them) handle their own issues with their teachers, and teach them to do it professionally and respectfully. This means sending the email asking to meet about a low test grade, or requesting a meeting to discuss some unfairness that transpired in class, solo. If you need to follow up with the teacher on your own, that’s fine, but when your child sees you marching in to handle it, they learn to rely on you to solve their problems.
5. Let them explore colleges and majors outside your comfort zone. This is a big one, and I understand it might also be a controversial one. In today’s dynamic and global world, we risk limiting our children if they are confined to a narrow geographic area. Do I believe every child is ready to go to NYU for college? Goodness, no. Do I believe students benefit from exploring for themselves if they are truly ready and wanting to go far from home or be close? Yes, I do. You’d be amazed at student’s abilities to ascertain what’s best for themselves.  

 
Mama-birds (and papa-birds), I know the dance is tough. I wish you all the type of children who willingly climb out on the limb through your incremental enticing until they fly with their full might. But if you have a bird who needs a little shove, I wish you, too, the encouragement to shove lovingly knowing you’re doing the right thing, tough as it may be (and loud as they may squawk).
 
I’m done birding around now. Have a great week, everyone! 

Fear not, we have some ideas to get you started. To begin, brainstorm a list of stuff you need tickets for. Come up with at least FIFTEEN ideas. Why fifteen? Because we want you to move past the stuff everyone else is going to write about. Yes, you need a ticket for a plane to the Bahamas. I can only imagine how many vacation essays the UT Admissions Office is going to read this year… keep thinking.
 
And thinking….
 
And thinking. Are you at fifteen yet? Good. See if you can come up with three more (How does that saying go? If it doesn’t challenge you…?). :) 
 
Ok, so you have your list. Think about your most honest answer to the questions in the prompt. Where is it you would go? If, after brainstorming, it truly is the Bahamas, so be it. But beyond that answer is a why question -- why would you go there? What is it you would gain from the experience? How will your life be different after that experience? It's the depth inherent in your choice that's interesting (meaning what your choice says about who you are rather than where it is you will go). 
 
So, next to each answer for where you will go with your hypothetical ticket, write down a few words about why you would go there, and think about what your choice says about you. Then, here’s the trick, move the essay forward. That same big idea about why you would go there? Think about how that idea will influence your life in the future. Where else will that idea take you in the proverbial journey of life?
 
This isn’t an essay about where you want to go, it’s an essay about who you are. 
​

We are pleased to announce that this summer we will be offering several college application bootcamps for rising seniors (class of 2016). Details are still coming together, but we would love your feedback to help us plan. If you have (or are) a rising senior, take this short survey. This will also let you put down your information to reserve a spot because space will be limited for lots of individual support! 

Survey link: http://goo.gl/forms/wo3bkTzm2X 

School is out (or nearly out for some of you -- sorry! Keep studying!), so is it time to click the brain off and the new "Summer Jam" playlist on? Not completely, but there's a happy medium here. Let's talk about that.

Everyone needs a break, and provided you've worked hard this academic year, you should take a little respite (see how I snuck in that SAT vocabulary?! Clever, huh?) to recharge your jets. Burnout is real thing, and one you really want to avoid (junior year is classic burnout time, which is dangerous as junior year is the year eyed most closely by your list of desired colleges for application). 

Because of this, we don't recommend cramming your summer full of nonstop intense activities like volunteering in South Africa in June, attending Calculus summer camp in July, then rounding things off by winning the national golf championship in August, all while taking an online SAT prep course. You need some down time, and you should use this opportunity to take it. On the other hand, sitting on the couch watching MTV's "Awkward" for three months isn't exactly fueling your intellectual, spiritual, and cultural well-being. Somewhere in the middle of these two summertime extremes is the perfect zone in which to find yourself. Here are some questions to help you figure out how to spend the next three months both challenging yourself to grow and recharging in preparation for next year's adventures:

1. What do you enjoy doing most? 
During the school year, it can be hard to find the time to do the things you love to do. Summer is a perfect chance to pursue things you love simply because you love them. Don't choose activities based on what you think will look best to colleges someday. Instead, choose to unabashedly pursue your passions to their full potential. Colleges actually love to see you doing this; your passions are what make you YOU, and that's what colleges want to see. Love cooking but can't fit a class into your AP-packed schedule during the school year? Do it in summer. Got an itch to satisfy your creative potential by learning to use that nice camera your Dad has in the closet? Teach yourself this summer (there are awesome blogs out there for this!). Do what you love, and don't feel like you are wasting your time doing it if you enjoy it. That's what summer is for (at least, while you are a teenager that's what summer is for. Once you get to be old like me, summer is like the other three seasons, only hotter). 

2. How can you give back? 
Summer is a perfect opportunity to volunteer. There are too many volunteer opportunities out there to name, so when deciding where to volunteer, think first about what you can offer, next about what you enjoy doing most, and then about whom you can be of service to. Search local volunteer opportunities through your city or online. However, don't be afraid to contact an organization, non-profit, or business to see if they could use your help. Often times they can work with you to find a way to utilize your skills, even though they may not advertise the volunteer opportunity elsewhere. In other words, don't be afraid to talk to people to create the opportunity you want to pursue. Colleges consider it a big plus to see you spending your spare time bettering not only yourself, but the community in which you live. There is much to learn from volunteering, and you might be surprised by how helping others recharges your own batteries and fuels your soul (cheesy, I know, but true!). 

3. How can you keep your brain running?
This is important, but it doesn't have to be the main event of your summer. Keeping yourself in the habit of using your brain is a good thing. You can do anything from practicing a vocabulary list, to reading ahead with your lit class book list, to spending a week studying physics at a university camp. These are all great options and not so intense as to put you into burnout mode. Choose one or two academically oriented things to do this summer and that should suffice. 

The key to your perfect summer is to blend these three pieces in a way that works best for you. Do the things you love (travel, write poetry, build a fort), find a way to help others, and keep your brain active. 

The last piece of advice we have is, if you are going to be traveling, see if there's some time to tour colleges along the way. Even if you aren't interested in the school in the city where you're staying, you can still learn a lot about the options available to you in higher education by learning about that university. As always, we can help by answering your questions, talking to you about options best suited for you as an individual, and most everything else related to college planning. Call or email with questions!

School is out (or nearly out for some of you -- sorry! Keep studying!), so is it time to click the brain off and the new "Summer Jam" playlist on? Not completely, but there's a happy medium here. Let's talk about that.

Everyone needs a break, and provided you've worked hard this academic year, you should take a little respite (see how I snuck in that SAT vocabulary?! Clever, huh?) to recharge your jets. Burnout is real thing, and one you really want to avoid (junior year is classic burnout time, which is dangerous as junior year is the year eyed most closely by your list of desired colleges for application). 

Because of this, we don't recommend cramming your summer full of nonstop intense activities like volunteering in South Africa in June, attending Calculus summer camp in July, then rounding things off by winning the national golf championship in August, all while taking an online SAT prep course. You need some down time, and you should use this opportunity to take it. On the other hand, sitting on the couch watching MTV's "Awkward" for three months isn't exactly fueling your intellectual, spiritual, and cultural well-being. Somewhere in the middle of these two summertime extremes is the perfect zone in which to find yourself. Here are some questions to help you figure out how to spend the next three months both challenging yourself to grow and recharging in preparation for next year's adventures:

1. What do you enjoy doing most? 
During the school year, it can be hard to find the time to do the things you love to do. Summer is a perfect chance to pursue things you love simply because you love them. Don't choose activities based on what you think will look best to colleges someday. Instead, choose to unabashedly pursue your passions to their full potential. Colleges actually love to see you doing this; your passions are what make you YOU, and that's what colleges want to see. Love cooking but can't fit a class into your AP-packed schedule during the school year? Do it in summer. Got an itch to satisfy your creative potential by learning to use that nice camera your Dad has in the closet? Teach yourself this summer (there are awesome blogs out there for this!). Do what you love, and don't feel like you are wasting your time doing it if you enjoy it. That's what summer is for (at least, while you are a teenager that's what summer is for. Once you get to be old like me, summer is like the other three seasons, only hotter). 

2. How can you give back? 
Summer is a perfect opportunity to volunteer. There are too many volunteer opportunities out there to name, so when deciding where to volunteer, think first about what you can offer, next about what you enjoy doing most, and then about whom you can be of service to. Search local volunteer opportunities through your city or online. However, don't be afraid to contact an organization, non-profit, or business to see if they could use your help. Often times they can work with you to find a way to utilize your skills, even though they may not advertise the volunteer opportunity elsewhere. In other words, don't be afraid to talk to people to create the opportunity you want to pursue. Colleges consider it a big plus to see you spending your spare time bettering not only yourself, but the community in which you live. There is much to learn from volunteering, and you might be surprised by how helping others recharges your own batteries and fuels your soul (cheesy, I know, but true!). 

3. How can you keep your brain running?
This is important, but it doesn't have to be the main event of your summer. Keeping yourself in the habit of using your brain is a good thing. You can do anything from practicing a vocabulary list, to reading ahead with your lit class book list, to spending a week studying physics at a university camp. These are all great options and not so intense as to put you into burnout mode. Choose one or two academically oriented things to do this summer and that should suffice. 

The key to your perfect summer is to blend these three pieces in a way that works best for you. Do the things you love (travel, write poetry, build a fort), find a way to help others, and keep your brain active. 

The last piece of advice we have is, if you are going to be traveling, see if there's some time to tour colleges along the way. Even if you aren't interested in the school in the city where you're staying, you can still learn a lot about the options available to you in higher education by learning about that university. As always, we can help by answering your questions, talking to you about options best suited for you as an individual, and most everything else related to college planning. Call or email with questions!