QUOTES



What I had to face, the very bitter lesson that everyone who wants to write has got to learn, was that a thing may in itself be the finest piece of writing one has ever done, and yet have absolutely no place in the manuscript one hopes to publish.

- Thomas Wolfe




ARTICLES

College Preparation Counseling or College Prep Counseling or College Prep Coaching

College Preparation and the college prep counseling that is so crucial for high school students often does not start soon enough. Parents may want to consider a college prep coach to help guide students who are college bound and need college prep counseling through the admissions process.

For millions of students, college prep counseling does not exist in any substantive way to truly begin their planning for college preparation. For many students, with even the slightest plans to attend college, their preparation consists of realizing at the beginning of their junior year that they should do some sort of volunteer activity because it will soon be time to fill out college applications. But college prep, started in 11th grade, is not soon enough. College prep coaching, especially for a competitive university like the UC system and UCLA in particular needs to start earlier with college prep as the primary focus early.

Many students think that college prep involves volunteering for three or four weeks in their junior year and joining a club in their senior year. But college prep begins before your son or daughter sets foot in high school. It actually begins the year before high school as you and your child discuss college choices and which classes they will be taking to prepare for college. College prep counseling or college preparation counseling is not something that a student advisor does in isolation. The being a college prep coach is more involved than just advising a student on which classes to take as they prepare for college admission. College admission, especially to competitive schools like UCLA and UC Berkeley very much involves the parent’s commitment as well. Students who want to prepare for the SAT and the SAT writing requirement need to plan early if they will be successful in their SAT test taking skills and they need to prepare for some time of SAT prep class for college admissions.

Many parents think that college admissions offices, including UCLA Admissions, will offer college prep counseling for that students are ready for college preparation. But UCLA receives approximately 45,000 college applications a year. It is impossible to offer one-on-one college prep counseling, though the UCLA website and the UC websites offer excellent guidance and suggestions and guidelines on how to go about the admissions process.

But parents and students must work together towards college prep counseling. In a way, they must counsel each other. Davida Siwisa James (also Davida S. James) has worked as a substitute teacher and English teacher and math teacher for Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and also offers college preparation counseling having worked at UCLA Undergraduate Admissions and worked with those who need ESL editing and UCLA counseling on college prep, or who may hired a college prep coach or attended college prep seminars, rather than business writing seminars but who still need college prep counseling.

High school students and their parents should discuss the student’s dreams and goals. Students who want to prepare with a college prep counselor or college prep advisor should be motivated. The dream of college must be the students though.