One of the many concerns parents have when considering a gap year is that their student will "get behind".

 A gap year taken between high school and college delays a student's entrance into a post-secondary institution.  Many parents worry that this delay will be detrim...

The Dreaded Question

"So, what are you doing next year?” It’s the question asked to most every high school senior at Thanksgiving, Christmas, in the grocery aisle, and almost everywhere they go. It is a terrifying question for many of them. They don’t know their next st...

The Status Quo

The world today our teens are living in is far different from the one in which we, the parents, grew up. While we bought textbooks and attended college classes to gain information from knowledgeable professors, students now log on to their computers and s...

The idea of a gap year has gained prominence in both American culture and in the media.  Malia Obama made news when she took a gap year in 2016 and it seems that the whole idea gained new attention.  In fact, this season on Blackish, Junior decided to take a...

A few weeks ago I was driving to a wedding when my phone died. Suddenly I had no map to show me the way. I was running late and I wasted precious time making wrong turns as I guessed my way to my destination. Did I mention that I was also running out of gas?  I didn't...

As I was writing the 5 Major Steps course, I read many, many books on preparing kids for college, paying for college, choosing the right major and more. These were my favorites. 

Homeschooling for College Credit; second edition  by Jennifer Cook -DeRosa

One of the b...

Good news!  You can skip the expensive camp or the fancy internship for your high school student this summer!

I know it may be too late for this advice, but if you are feeling guilty that you didn’t sign your teen up for a fancy summer learning experience or didn’t arra...

Starting as early as junior high, I began to worry about how to structure my kids’ summers. The last thing any of us parents need is teenagers sitting around on their iphones or computers all day.  And trying to convince most teens to structure their time off wisely is...

In this graphic, the blue lines represent the number of undergraduate degree programs at each UNC school that require 120 credit hours. The yellow lines are programs that require 121 to 124 hours. The orange lines are majors that require 125 to 128 hours.

Courtesy of th...

I have a confession to make.  My fears about the rising cost of college have led me to try some crazy things to start making extra money to set aside. You see, in the next 5 years our family will be sending 3 kids to college.  Their college education will be the bigges...