College Common Sense Review

Do you have a child who is already in high school or quickly approaching it?  Or are you like me, who just realized a few weeks ago, that you have a child who is entering 5th grade next year, and that's only two years away from middle school, which is pretty close to high school??!!

Sounds silly, but I had a slight breakdown the other day when I started thinking about it!! ;)  High school curriculum choices are enough to make my head spin...but what about college?  And what about paying for college?

Thankfully, College Common Sense helps make sense of all this in their Going to College and Paying for it Online Video and Workbook!  And it's just not for students in high school, children in elementary and middle school can benefit from it too!  Actually the earlier you start, I think the easier it will be!  I was excited to dive in!

Denise Ames, a financial aid counselor at a University in Texas, developed the program.

College Common Sense has a ton of FREE information on their website!   Browse around and sign up for their Free Monthly Newsletter and Free Weekly Lesson Plans and check out all of the wonderful information and resources listed under the Info/Links and Services tabs.

After you have spent some time on the site, you can order the Going to College and Paying for it DVD and Workbook or Online Video and Workbook.  These are exactly the same, the first is simply a physical copy for a one time cost and the other is online access for an annual fee.  I received the Online Video and Workbook.

Once logged in, you have access to six videos along with PDFs that correspond with them.

I.  The Big Picture
II.  How Financial Aid Works
III.  All About the Free Money
IV.  The System that Works
V.  You in the Process
VI.  Put It All Together

Below is a sample of one of the PDFs.

Denise's system is very simple and straightforward and I believe that anyone who follows it will have success!

Funny Bunny is in 4th grade, so she obviously isn't going to be doing as much as a student in high school, so here is how I have been using it with her.

First I signed up for the free monthly newsletter and weekly lesson plans.  I then watched each of the videos and read the corresponding PDFs.  An older child would be watching these as well, but at Funny Bunny's age, she doesn't need to.  Never having been through this process before, I thought they were informative.  

The weekly lesson plans are broken down into the following sections {we followed the instructions for the Elementary School Students}.

*  Parents/Teachers
*  Seniors
*  High School Students or Freshmen - Juniors
*  Middle School Students
*  Elementary School Students

One of the tasks is to make an All About Me notebook.  You can see Funny Bunny's above.

Among other things, elementary and middle school students are asked to write on different topics in their notebook whereas high schoolers are given larger tasks like checking out different scholarship and financial aid sites, scheduling important tests, or researching different industries. 

I plan to continue using this with Funny Bunny for the next year.  I'm hoping to get her excited and interested in college and different career choices. 

Find Out More:  You can find out more online at College Common Sense.  The Going to College and Paying for it DVD and Workbook is $50 + $5 s&h and the Online Video and Workbook is $25 for 12 month log-in access. It can really be used for any age child and I was surprised to learn that children as young as 6 years old have won scholarships!

My Crewmates are also talking about College Common Sense and you can check out what they think about it HERE.

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