The aroma of hot chocolate, the smell of  blue spruce and anticipation of the taste of that first Christmas cookie are all pleasant thoughts of the upcoming holiday season. Another thought for some is the anticipation of college decisions on admission applications filed this fall for next year.

While the outcome of applications is foremost in the minds of seniors, they should also be gearing up for scholarship season if they have not already begun filing scholarship applications for schools to which they have applied. Most colleges award some scholarships based on applications. Additionally, sometimes there is a scholarship application to file as well. Encourage the high school seniors in your life not to miss out on scholarships to help pay for college. In addition to scholarship applications to colleges, students can apply to national and local scholarships. 'Tis the season!

You would not abandon your teenager to choose and purchase a car-right? There are consumer, safety, quality and cost issues to oversee. Imagine what could happen if you turned your teen loose on a car lot with no supervision, direction or guidelines to purchase an item that could cost $30,000 or more?

My question to parents is: If you would not let your child drive a lemon-why would you let your child attend one? For this discussion, a lemon is a car or a college that is not a good fit, over-budget and may not deliver what is needed.

Don't let the student in your family backslide this summer. Any reading comprehension, vocabulary skills, reading speed and writing skills they lose this summer will be an anchor around their academic achievement in the fall. This applies to students at all levels of education.

Students lose skills in the summer if they do not continue to read. Many students who have required summer reading wait until the end of summer to do it. That strategy keeps them from getting the most out of what they read if the have not been reading all summer.

Sometimes the AP policies of colleges are confusing to students who wonder (when they get their AP test scores) if their score will result in college credit? Their parents wonder if their AP test scores will result in saving money and help their child graduate on time or even early.

Kudos to the North Carolina college system for standardizing their accepted score for college credit from AP exams! Now a score of 3 will result in credit at any North Carolina system college. As students decide where to apply this fall, they might take a look at their AP scores to see just how far ahead they will be at the colleges they are considering. There may be a dramatic difference that could save their families thousands.