Parents: Is Your Teen College Ready?

Grace Jones: Full Ride to Vanderbilt

Episode Summary

Grace Jones was the first 8th grade student Shellee took into the College Ready Plan. She proved once again that having a plan, stand out strategy and starting early equals success in all three critical areas: Academic fit, Social fit and Financial fit. Grace got into every college she applied to and is enjoying a full ride scholarship at Vanderbilt University! She won the Coca Cola Scholarship and had a perfect application season. She got to choose where she wanted to attend college on her terms. You will not want to miss her story and advice for younger students. In this episode, Shellee and Grace discuss: What college is the best fit? Focus on your passion Choosing a roommate Getting an internship

Episode Notes

Grace Jones was the first 8th grade student Shellee took into the College Ready Plan.  She proved once again that having a plan, stand out strategy and starting early equals success in all three critical areas:  Academic fit, Social fit and Financial fit.  Grace got into every college she applied to and is enjoying a full ride scholarship at Vanderbilt University!  She won the Coca Cola Scholarship and had a perfect application season.  She got to choose where she wanted to attend college on her terms.  You will not want to miss her story and advice for younger students.

In this episode, Shellee and Grace discuss:

• What college is the best fit? 
• Focus on your passion 
• Choosing a roommate 
• Getting an internship 

Key Takeaways:

• When choosing a school for college, do your research. Talk to the people on the campus, write down the pros and cons of enrolling there, and visualize where you’d be in four years if you enroll at this school. 
• Don’t pressure yourself to have a concrete and exact idea of what you want to do after school, instead, focus on what you are passionate about and immerse yourself in opportunities that allow you to experience more of it. 
• Don’t be afraid of getting a roommate, it will really enhance your college experience if you choose the right one. There are many ways to figure out which roommate would be the best for you, it’s always good to get to know a person before choosing them. 
• It’s not normal for you to get a scholarship or internship handed over to you. It takes a lot of hard work, a lot of writing and emailing and following up in order to get what you need. 

"[Getting an internship] I emailed a bunch of professors - there was no set formula, I basically just drafted an email and went through UCI’s directory of professors and tagged everyone that was doing research that looked interesting and then personalized the email to each one. Probably sent at least 70 or 80 emails and ended up hearing back from two or three of them, which I thought was amazing at the time, I was like ‘wow, I’m getting all these opportunities from just emailing’. " —  Grace Jones

About Grace Jones: She is currently a freshman of Vanderbilt University and a part of their Ingram Scholars Program which is a service related program that provides full tuition support. 

Connect with Grace Jones:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grace-a-jones/

Connect with Shellee Howard:

Free copy of Shellee’s best selling book, “How to send your student to college without losing your mind or your money!”  https://freebook.collegereadyplan.com/

Website:  https://collegereadyplan.com/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr_WodPHDfSWEbiPdsRDbyQ

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gocollegeready

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collegereadyplan/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CollegeReadyPlan/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/college-ready/

Email: shellee@collegereadyplan.com