Parents

Parents often have these concerns:

• Can we afford it? Does higher price mean better education for our child?
• We don’t want our child to go too far away.
• How can we be sure our child is making the right choice? Does every student need to go to college, or are there more appropriate post-high school programs for our child?
• Does it really matter where they go to school?
• We don’t know enough about this to help our child.
• This sure is different than when I applied to college!

Know Your Opportunities!

To help mentees and their parents complete their journey to post-high school education successfully, we use the approach below. First, here's a simple view of the process:

How We Help - For Free!

STEP 1

Discover

Grades 9-11

• Students: Who am I? What’s important to me? Where am I headed?

• Parents: Who is my teen? Where are they headed? What do we think is important to them? What is important to us?

• Combined: What educational path is best? What schools are best fits? What can we afford?

STEP 2

Prepare

Grades 11-12

High school academic plan
Extracurriculars & leadership
Standardized tests
Financial aid & scholarships
Colleges of interest:
- Reach, Reasonable, Financially Attractive, Safety
Alternate ways to begin college
School visits

STEP 3

Apply

Grade 12

College selections:
- Reach, Reasonable, Financially Attractive, Safety
Deadlines
Applications & essays
Financial aid & scholarships
Letters of recommendation
Interviews
School visits
Options & final decision

Expand

Our process is individualized for each mentee.

First, there's a DISCOVER phase where students and parents explore career and academic interests and needs for post-high school education and then develop a plan for accomplishing them.

Second, during the PREPARE phase, our mentors help students and parents actually take the actions required to find their ideal college(s) and prepare for the application. During this phase:

We suggest the mentee narrow down their college search to 6-8 schools:
• 2 "reach" schools (will be difficult, but not impossible for the student to get accepted)
• 2 "reasonable" schools (student has a high probability of acceptance)
• 1-2 "financially attractive" schools (schools that are one or two academic notches below the "reasonable" schools, and might therefore be generous with scholarship aid)
• 1-2 "safety" schools (student has close to 100% chance of admission)

Students can also explore alternate ways to start college:
• What are dual credit, dual enrollment, or early college programs?
• Would a bridge program be appropriate?
• Is a gap year a good option?
• Does the student have to carve their own path? If so, we help the student find contacts that they can use to develop their own path.

Third, in the APPLY phase, the student, with mentor support, applies to the desired colleges and programs, as well as applies for scholarships and financial aid. It's your application, so we don't help you write it. But, we do provide ideas and suggestions when you get stuck, as well as webinars, essay writing workshops, and interviewing skills practice sessions - and everything is FREE!

Know Your Opportunities!

Become a Mentee

Are You An Aim High STL 2024 Graduate?

IF YES, SIGN UP HERE!

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Contact Us

314.434.3232

mentors@mentors4college.org

12584 Villa Hill, St. Louis, MO 63141