Admissions Helpers

The CSS Profile is an online application used by colleges and scholarship programs to award non-federal institutional aid such as endowments and university scholarships. Colleges and Universities have many discretionary scholarships at their disposal and will use your data to determine if you are a good candidate. The CSS takes a deeper dive into your family finances and expenses. Like FAFSA, the application window opens on October 1st. Also like the FAFSA, non-custodial parents are also required to complete the CSS Profile (if CSS is a requirement).  Not all schools require the CSS...here is a list of schools that do: https://profile.collegeboard.org/profile/ppi/participatingInstitutions.aspx

  When you "officially" tour a college, you will inevitably end up in a big auditorium for the "big sell". This is where they will attempt to convince you that this is the place for you.  Every tour I have ever been on included the following term:  "rigor of transcript". This was included in the list of items you needed to be successfully admitted, you must demonstrate "rigor of transcript".  In simpler terms, admissions counselors want to see that you took the highest level courses available to you.  If your school offered Advanced Placement (AP) classes, you didn't take honors instead to get the easier grade.  This does not only apply to courses directly related to your major.  Admissions counselors want to see you challenge yourself in every aspect of your educational journey.  They want to see you take that extra class instead of a study hall, make it something that rounds out your transcript or expand your knowledge base.  The courses yo...

  Giftedness and Siblings - Written for Promise - The Newsletter for the NJ Association of Gifted Children I am not a parenting expert.    I have made mistakes, lots of them.    I am not sure when you reach the age when your children are considered grown (if ever) but my “children” are 23 and 20.    A college graduate and a junior in college. Over my 24 years as a parent of two gifted children, I have learned a lot of lessons, some easy and some very challenging.    I learned a crucial lesson many years too late to save me a lot of self-doubt, aggravation, research and conferences.    That lesson is that children are rarely the same as their siblings and their respective “giftedness” is not always easy to identify. The younger of my two sons would check all the standard checkmarks for giftedness.    He is well-read, sails through any curriculum with ease, is comfortable speaking with peers and adults, is creative and witty...

     I was very fortunate to attend quite a few NJAGC (New Jersey Association for Gifted Children) conferences with my sons.  At one conference, I attended a workshop that had a profound and transformative impact on my philosophy of both parenting and teaching.  The speaker was Nathan Levy, he was at one time the president of NJAGC and is an accomplished author and speaker. The topic of the workshop was something along the lines of "Strategies to enhance learning in gifted children".  He said "children cannot succeed unless they are made to be uncomfortable".  This resonated with me to my core.  As an educator, we give directions that are so precise, no thinking is really required. We compound the problem by repeating ourselves over and over. The result is that we  teach them that they do not need to listen the first time because they will be able to hear them again or just wait until we are done and ask "what are we doing?"  We complain...