Parents

Prepping for the Personal Essay: Who Are We and How Did We Get This Way? Aka, Two Apples a Day…

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[Originally posted 6/16/20, but still all true in 2023, and you can’t say that about MANY things.] There are many ways to understand who we are. We are, for example, in a literal sense, what we EAT and drink and breathe. When we digest things, we literally take the external world and make it part of ourselves (hence the magic of the pig, who, as Jim Gaffigan has noted, can take an apple—basically garbage—and miraculously turn it into bacon!). Less literally, we are the sum total of our THOUGHTS and FEELINGS, in that what we think about all day and […]

Teaching and Learning with the Heart: Mindfulness and Appreciating Kids’ Slang

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At my north-of-50 age, I feel like you’re supposed to start protecting the trivial cultural treasures of your particular generation and start railing against the crazy new trends, fashions, music, and expressions of the dumbed-down next generation—tomorrow’s treasures of today’s “kids.” Happy to say when I hear and use the recent but already ubiquitous phrase, “You feel me?” I’m all down with the kids.  As a mid-career educator, I understand and use the phrase to mean, Do you understand this? Do you really get what I’m saying? Do you feel me? It’s still so totally new in the history of […]

To Parents & Teachers: When the Carrot Beats the Stick

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This post is for the grown-ups, the parents and teachers, and fair warning, I’m going to get personal. The month between Halloween and Thanksgiving marks the peak of college application writing for CPE students—an exciting, nerve-wracking rite of passage for our university-bound teens, who are full of energy, excitement, apprehension, and wonderment about their immediate and long-term futures. It’s a precious time, psychologically speaking, when the window of vulnerability and teachability may open wider than normal. I believe it’s one of the most important times to try extra hard to be encouraging rather than discouraging. I say this from two […]

Why Playing the College Admissions Game to Win is a GREAT Idea…Beyond Getting into College

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At my most recent presentation of “College Admissions Secrets for Parents and Teens,” I tried something brand new. I took off my college coach cap for a few minutes and donned my parenting hat (I have two teens, one at college, one still in high school). I asked the parents in the room to dream with me for a few minutes. Imagine, I said, it’s the twilight of your child’s middle school years and you’re dreaming your most hopeful dream of what his or her high school experience will be like. If you could write the script—sky’s the limit—how would you map […]

College Admissions 101 for Mom & Dad

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Online Education Radio at Blog Talk Radio with CollegePrepExpress on BlogTalkRadio Recorded LIVE, 6:30-7:00PM ET on 2/27/14 …or listen to this or any other PrepTalk with CPE show on… Do you you really want to help your kid but you’re just not sure how?Parents! Is your high schooler going to college? Is this the first time since your own college days that you’ve dealt with the admissions process? Do you have so many questions you don’t know where to start? Then this show is for YOU! Join Dr. Yo, J.D. Rothman (aka, the Neurotic Parent’s Guide to College Admissions), and a panel […]

Parent Tip #23: Take Notes During Info Sessions

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(with thanks to Kim Brunstad, Yale Law) Parents I work with would love nothing more than to help their kids get into top colleges, but they often feel helpless to do anything useful beyond helping their teens organize their time (read: nag; see CPE’s blog post, 3 Dont’s and Do’s for Parents in the College Admissions Game). So if you’re a parent of a 10th-12th grader and planning to spend some or all of your Spring Break visiting schools, here’s a great, practical tip you can use: Take great notes during the info sessions for your child’s later use during […]

3 Don’ts and Do’s for PARENTS in the College Admissions Game

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One of the great pleasures of working with students at CollegePrepExpress is that I also get to work with dedicated parents who consistently demonstrate they want the very best for their kids. Every year I am inspired by the lengths to which CPE parents are willing to go to help ensure the very best future for their children. Sometimes, though, parents’ heartfelt convictions and best of intentions turn awry, get misinterpreted, and cause strife and household tension antithetical to their goals. Here are three common pitfalls I see parents, again with the best of intentions, falling into, and some words […]

Neurotic Parents’ Guide to the College Admissions Game

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Listen to internet radio with CollegePrepExpress on Blog Talk Radio   Admissions rates of 6%? Kids applying to 32 colleges? 16 year olds with more impressive resumes than Fortune 500 CEOs? Has the nation lost its mind?   Why yes, it has!   Join Dr. Yo with special guest, author J.D. Rothman, as they discuss her fabulous new book and all the frustrations, rewards, and humor that come with helping your kids navigate the turbulent waters in the college admissions game. SaveSave