College is more than a goal that is accomplished once a student gets the admittance email and moves in to the dorm freshman year.  Yet too often the attention shifts at that point to the next set of high school seniors or to a younger sibling.
What the dismal statistics of college graduation rates in 6 years, (The 6-year graduation rate was 59 percent at public institutions, 66 percent at private nonprofit institutions, and 23 percent at private for-profit institutions.) https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=40  points to is a need for help for students in college to stay there and succeed.
I am a college counselor.  I help students in high school find the college that is right for them.  Lately I have been asked to help students when things go wrong – a college that isn’t the right fit, a mental health issue that necessitates fewer classes or a disciplinary issue that results in a suspension.   There are so many things that can go wrong once a student is in college and parents have very few rights to find out that anything is even wrong unless the student tells them.  Colleges are bound by FERPA laws that preclude them from contact with parents unless a student is under 18 (20 U.S. Code § 1232g)
What is a parent to do when things turn South?  I suggest that colleges need to have success coaches that go beyond what mental health counselors or academic advisors do with students.  Colleges that have implemented this have a history of success. http://success.students.gsu.edu/
Georgia State University has had such a program since 2003.  From 2003 to 2015, according to GSU, its graduation rate (finishing a bachelor’s degree within six years of starting) for African-American students rose from 29 to 57 percent. For Hispanic students, it went from 22 to 54 percent. By 2014, for lower-income students (those eligible for a federal Pell grant), it reached 51 percent — nearly the same as for non-Pell students. Its graduation rate for first-generation students went up 32 percent between 2010 and 2014.
We need more such programs to ensure students success.
 
 

The new College Scorecard website https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/, breaks down earnings for college graduates by school.  The parameters are that the students included are those who received federal student loans and the time accessed is ten years after enrollment (so between six and four years after graduation depending on how long the student spent in college).  One can sort by the percentage earned above the earnings of a high school graduate, the average annual cost (after aid is received), graduation rate (after six years), name and size of the school.  This is invaluable because it reveals that some of the most expensive schools do not result in more earnings for graduates and some less expensive schools do.  This is examined in a recent NY Times article, http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/14/upshot/gaps-in-alumni-earnings-stand-out-in-release-of-college-data.html.  The website is easy to understand and use.  I urge every student and parent to examine it.

The National College Advising Corps members do the work of a college counselor but inside the classroom and at no cost to students.  Thanks to a $10 million dollar grant from the Belk Endowment, advisors have been placed in rural North Carolina high schools to help with everything from filling out the FAFSA to scholarship opportunities!  Students that otherwise would not go to college are now attending.

Were you attending UNC Chapel Hill to major in biology?  No longer possible.  What happens if you are a rising senior with a math major at Appalachian State or UNC Greensboro?  Your major is now discontinued.  What exactly does that mean if you are already in the program?  The UNC Board of Governors took this action on Friday.  We will follow this and let students and parents know what to do if it affects them.

So you've decided to change careers around age 50.  You are nervous but excited.  What is the scariest thing you could do?  Invest your retirement money?  Nope.  Change your look to be more professional?  Nope.  The scariest thing I have done is to take a class called "Using the Internet for College Counseling".
I had never used facebook or twitter.  The only podcasts I had heard of were from NPR but I'd never listened to one.  I had certainly never dreamed of making my own podcast or writing this blog every week.
The class has opened my eyes to so many possibilites with social media.  I now tweet and retweet and check twitter daily.  I enjoy facebook and especially the photos on it.  I have made a website and a podcast. 
This brave new world is today's world.  My teenage children have never known another.  It is rewarding and interesting.  It is time to join.  Even if you are scared, jump in, the water is fine.

You are a student athlete who got a scholarship offer to play your sport in college.  Congratulations.  Do you know exactly what you've signed up for?  What if you get hurt?  What if you can't keep your grades up?  What happens to your scholarship money?
Student athletes have the dual responsibility of school work and sports.  A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board recently ruled that the amount of time spent by college athletes (in his ruling football players at schools with large programs) makes them into workers not just students.  The amount of time spent by scholarship athletes practicing and competing can equal 40 hours per week or more.  
If you think it will be easy to find the time to do your best on the field and in the classroom, think again.
So what is the answer?  Read the fine print of your scholarship offer.  Take the offer to a trusted professional person to explain it to you and your parents.  Do this before you accept it.  It will be worth it to understand what your life in college will be like and what could go wrong.

Do you need to pay for SAT/ACT preparation?  That depends on you.  If you can learn from an online website then the answer is no.  There are dozens of free test prep sites with actual full length practice test that can be timed or not and score your answers.  You can even get explanantions for each answer - for free. 
What about videos?  Do you need to listen and not just read the explanations?  Also free.  What if you want to download a test and print it?  Also free.
I could not find one difference between online paid site services and free ones.  If you need in person help then hire a tutor one on one or go to a class.  If you can learn online then do it for free and save hundreds or thousands of dollars!

You may be thinking - I can get all of the loans and grants I need for college.  Yes, you can but should you?  The answer is No.  American students have an average student loan amount of $29,400.  Do you want to owe that much when you graduate from college?  What can you do to avoid this?  Money that is a grant not a loan does not need to be repaid!  Work-study money is payment for services.  Beware of all of loans!

What can I do to get the right money?  There are so many websites that say they can help you find the money for college.  Can they?  I found one that I recommend you check out.  It is a full service website called financialaidtoolkit.ed.gov.  It can help you with every step of the process from understanding the FAFSA, loans and grants to filling out the forms to interpreting the aid offer once you get it.

One thing to keep in mind is that a higher priced school doesn't necessarily cost more.  Some expensive colleges have more grant (not loan) money to give.  You must carefully evaluate your offers of financial aid to get to the bottom of what you get as a grant and what would have to be repaid.  This decision will affect the rest of your life!  Be careful and get help if you need it.

If you are considering a college should you visit one of the multiple virtual sites?  Are the tours realistic or even interesting?