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Your First "Links to Success"

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Every Friday, Unmaze Me will feature a community post made up of hand picked articles from across the internet that will help you fulfill your dreams of college preparedness and help you accomplish your high school goals. Amanda Sterk, Founder and Director of Unmaze Me, chooses these articles herself and provides a brief summary of what they are and why you should spend your time exploring them. We know you’ll find them useful.

 

1. Checklist Helps Families Spring Into Action During College Tours

With summer being here, it is a great time to visit campuses near and far. It is also a time to start asking the harder questions like:

  • what are your student’s academic goals

  • how they can achieve them

  • what are the next steps to achieve them

I choose this article first because it gives a great introduction to the questions students should start asking as they begin the college tour process. But, perhaps more importantly, the article also links to a FANTASTIC document called A Planning Checklist. I love the questions it poses for students and parents to think about, and gives some great guidelines to follow. After you read the overview article, definitely click through to the Checklist.

 

2. 10 Things College Applicants Need to Understand

I am a fan of the USA Today College section in general. I like their overall clear, easy to follow articles and find that they are well written for their audience. This list they compiled is simply terrific and very true. They make me laugh as they are meant to be funny, but to also stress their importance. My favorite: “If you try flying by the seat of your pants, don’t be surprised if you crash.”

 

3. Focus on 7 Strategies to Get Into College

I picked this article as it continues to give you tried and true tips on going through the application process. Their strategies are great; my favorite is “be true to yourself.” What a great statement that we should all remember. What you are looking for is the student’s “fit,” which is not always about name recognition, but what ends up allowing the student to reach their potential.