Just under one hundred days from now...this year's high school seniors will leave for college. Talking to them now, they often lament that high school went by so fast. I like to tell them that college will be like that too. One day they will be sitting in orientation and- in what seems like a short time later- they will be interviewing for jobs.

If you have a high school sophomore or junior at home, help them see that they are on the diving board to college and that every thing they do or do not do will affect their college admission outcomes as high school seniors. There are more than 86 steps they must take to gain college admission at the schools most attractive to them. Tell them not to wait until senior year to do all that work. If they do, they will experience needless stress and may miss out on scholarship opportunities.