Seniors, If You Are Headed to College, Wake Up and Smell the Coffee!
I love it when teens attend my workshops with their parents so that I can tell them, to their faces, that if they are headed to college they need to be intentional about planning ahead. After homeschooling my nine children I am now the Homeschool Specialist at Bryan College and I cannot tell you how often I see seniors in high school miss out on great opportunities due to being uninformed, lazy or, worse of all, not caring about the consequences of their lack of action. Don’t be that student. Below I will list areas where you need to be informed and proactive.
- Take college exams seriously. The highest scholarships offered by most colleges are generally the academic scholarships! Preparing to raise your score is like having a full time job in light of the dollars one can earn with a great score. Don’t be afraid to spend a serious amount of time and money preparing for these exams.
- Consider taking all three college exams in order to increase scholarship potential. Find out more about the ACT, SAT and the new CLT here.
- Take your GPA seriously. If you are dual enrolling, make sure your grades are as
high as possible. Scholarships are tied to the GPA as well as to the college exam score. - Take advantage of opportunities in the community to serve and help others. Whether scholarships you are pursuing require that, or not, it will be a great addition to your portfolio.
- Narrow down your top college choices by the senior year. Visit and apply to those colleges. In order to find out what all you qualify for, as well as to find out if there are additional scholarship opportunities available, it is important to be accepted to the colleges you have chosen.
- If you have not taken any dual enrollment classes at a college, do so! Not only will you earn college credits affordably, but these classes will help you learn to improve your study habits and manage your time well.
- Add classes the senior year that will help prepare you for life. Classes such as personal finance, time management, college writing, and speech and debate!
- Research scholarship opportunities and take advantage of as many as possible!
Being intentional and prepared will help you avoid the mistakes made by many homeschooling families. Not only that, depending on how successful you are at earning a great GPA, along with high college exam scores, college can then become affordable!
Bryan College is very homeschool friendly and they have an affordable dual enrollment program, offering out-of-state scholarships to juniors and seniors in high school. Bryan 
also offers a tuition-free Master’s degree to students who come to Bryan after high school and graduate with a 3.5 GPA. And, of importance to seniors, Bryan College hosts two scholarship events per year (one each semester) for qualified seniors who have been accepted to Bryan, allowing them to earn an additional $500 to a full ride for attending and participating.
Download this free e resource to help you plan the high school years! If you would like to receive more information on Bryan College, either via email or snail mail, send a request to: pat.wesolowski@bryan.edu
Homeschooling families are at a disadvantage to parents of children who attend a brick and mortar school because we do not have guidance counselors who are available to help our students plan their high school years! More than a few of us have missed out on many opportunities because of this lack of knowledge. For example, I did not realize that the PSAT score received during a student’s junior year (and only offered once a year) is tied to the National Merit Scholarship. (NMS semi-finalists receive full four years of tuition at Bryan College.) This is not the only “secret” many of us are unaware of and, for that reason, as the Homeschool Specialist at Bryan College, I decided to research and publish as much pertinent information to a homeschooling parent of high school students that I could find and verify!
Homeschooled Students for Bryan College 