Listen to this articleHow can you go to college for free?
Jean Burk, homeschooler and author of the award-winning College Prep Genius, shares her tips and secrets for landing scholarships and free tuition!
Full Ride: A How-To Guide
Full Ride—two words that could change your life. This could include full tuition, room and board, graduate school money, and more. For Challenge A-IV students, as life gets busier, it’s time to gear up before heading off into the world. Your journey in CC has been properly preparing you to take the next steps toward higher education and a debt-free degree.
There’s no denying that it’s getting harder and harder to afford to go to college and launch yourself into the career of your dreams. The price of college tuition has increased by 600% in the last twenty-five years, increases by 3–5% every year, and our nation is 2.1 trillion dollars in debt from college loans. 70% of graduates have college debt, and the average student spends twenty years paying off college loans. CC students can be in the 30% by minimizing or completely obliterating a crippled financial future.
Scholarships can still come your way even if you haven’t managed to save enough money in a college fund. Most homeschoolers tend to be one-income. So, allow me to let you in on some information that may open doors and change your life.
ALPHA Secrets to Free College
These are my top five ALPHA secrets to winning scholarships and receiving free college. These little-known tips and secrets will help you stay ahead of the pack. It’s surprising, but I have found that most public and private school students are either not aware of them or don’t take the time to put these guidelines into practice.
1. Aim High
It’s simple. Colleges love students with great test scores. Full scholarships can be for students who receive certain scores on tests such as the SAT, ACT, CLT, or PSAT/NMSQT. Colleges gladly (help) pay the way of students with the best scores. Schools receive their national rankings based on test scores which in turn attracts students who will pay full freight, so aim high and open doors to the best colleges and their best offers.
2. Logic Rules
CC students have a leg up since standardized tests are logic-based and not about content. They do not test exclusive knowledge or curriculum only learned at public or private schools. Many smart kids—from all academic and demographic backgrounds—do poorly on these tests because test-taking is a skill set not taught at most schools. CC students can employ their training in logic to think critically about how to answer every question in 30 seconds or less.
3. Practice, practice, practice!
Succeeding on standardized tests can simply be a matter of finding the numerous recurring patterns, learning shortcuts and strategies, and practicing the correct way with real test problems. Since the questions are purposely misleading and the wrong answer can be appealing, it takes time to internalize the strategies in order to solidify the information so it can be applied appropriately. All questions can be answered quickly, but there is no instant success. i.e., you get good then fast.
4. Habit
Just decoding and knowing that there are repeated patterns within the tests is not enough. Now you have to make your progress undeniable. When you practice often enough, you’ll develop an automatic habit. A small investment of time daily, even weekly, for the lower Challenges keeps students from stressing out or attempting to cram test prep in an already busy schedule. As a bonus, creating a test-taking class can be used as an elective on the transcript.
5. Act!
Big scholarship money starts to be thrown around in the junior year on the PSAT and sophomore year on the CLT10. So, put time on your side. The earlier you start test prep, the more time you have to improve and self-correct any mistakes. Challenge A is not too young, and Challenge IV is not too late. Remember, you can’t get time back!
Are College Entrance Tests Important?
College entrance tests are here to stay since they level the playing field for all students.
Beware of the draw of “test-optional,” as it is generally used for colleges to attract more applicants in order to reject more students. This makes them appear more selective and a better brand—and not to mention the $90 application fees that accompany each applicant. Those who submit scores have a 250% better chance of acceptance and money.
Remember ALPHA, your most important key to helping you fund some of or even your entire time at college, so get the right prep and learn the right way at the right time.
College Prep Genius is the official test prep partner for Classical Conversations.
CC members: Just log on to your CC Connected account to find the link to the special Classical Conversations landing page, which includes a free Roadmap to College, a free 10-part webinar series, and access to the CC family discount.
Non-CC members: Be sure to check out their main website at CollegePrepGenius.com.
Read More: “Why Homeschoolers Should Take Standardized Tests”
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