College Planning Success Course

Course Details

This college planning curriculum has been used to help thousands of families throughout the past 20 years. For the first time, it is now accessible to more families than ever, at a reduced price. 

Instead of paying for a full-service package (which includes a full-time advisor), we have created a user-friendly course guide with everything you need to do-it-yourself at a more affordable cost to you. 

Everything included in your course package:

• Step-by-step student “to-do” actions for each year of high school (beginning in freshman year)
• Step-by-step parent “to-do” actions for each year of high school (beginning in freshman year) 
• Videos to help you move through each lesson throughout the course
• Best academic plan guidelines to help the student create a 4-year course plan for college acceptance and maximum scholarship consideration 
• Career assessments and research guidelines to best prepare your student for college and streamline his/her future career goals 
• Guidance on college selections based on career choices, aimed at maximizing aid by choosing the right colleges and saving your family money by helping your student graduate in 4 years 
• College Exploration Template for the student to collect and organize college research 
• Job shadow guidelines to get the student out into his/her chosen career field in order to reinforce the current career choice or reject it and move on to the next choice during high school. Remember: it’s free for your student to change his/her mind as many times as possible during high school, but it gets extremely expensive in college. 
• Guidance on best SAT/ACT test preparation tools and strategies to score the highest possible score and receive more scholarships 
• Guidance for filling out college applications in order to best market the student to his/her colleges of choice 
• Pointers on writing the best possible college application essay(s) through a step-by-step process 
• Guidance on financial and merit-award analysis once your student receives all of his/her award letters in order to figure out if you can/should appeal for more aid
• Award Letter Analysis spreadsheet template for you to input all award letter info for comparison and to gain a full understanding of the overall cost for each college 
• Guidance on how to write and send an appeal letter in order to request additional aid for your student  
• Advice on most efficiently applying for third-party scholarships and how to avoid scholarship scams 
• Guidance on college acceptance and next steps, which includes: sending the nonrefundable deposit, filling out entrance counseling forms for federal student loans (if applicable), applying for housing, and applying for additional college scholarships through the student portal 
• Reflection questions for the student to use throughout this process
• Check-in questions for the parent to ask the student throughout the process 
• Regular updates on changes in the process

Considerations

Is This Package Right for You?

The Success Course package works best for counselors who have the time and dedication to work with or encourage their students throughout this process. If your student is self-motivated and works well independently, then the counselors will not need to intervene as much. If the student struggles to keep up with assignments, the counselors will have a larger role in this process.

Counselors and students should have a good working relationship with each other. “Working” is the relative term here—because it is work, and as a counselors, you will be giving your student advice and assigning tasks.

Consider:

• How much time do you have to dedicate to this project?
• How effective are you at scheduling and keeping track of given assignments?
• How well does your student take constructive feedback from you?
• Is the student good at reading directions and moving through assignments?
• If not, is the parent good at reading directions and encouraging the student to move through and complete assignments?

Benefits

Benefits of the Success Course Package

• You have a well-thought-out and strategic plan to follow for college.
• You are saving money and avoiding the many mistakes that cause families to overpay for college.
• You’ll never be wondering if you’re missing something since every step is outlined for you.
• You and your student will have a sense of accomplishment for achieving each milestone together.
• You have direct control over the process—the recommended steps are mapped out for you, but you can customize the process to fit your student’s needs, as well as your family’s.
• You get to have planned, purposeful, one-on-one meetings with your student, helping him or her make successful plans for the future.