I've always heard the cliche', "penny wise-pound foolish" and never thought much of it until the last few years. I think of it when a parent asks me if I will work "hourly" with their child. I don't do that because it does not serve the student or parents well.

Early in my educational consulting career I did work on an hourly basis. That meant that the client was deciding how many hours to work with a professional on college admissions. The problem with that was that parents did not know the process and would skip important activity with me and leave it up to their student who also did not understand the process.

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.

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.

It is never too early to begin to think about what your child will do after high school. No matter what plan you develop from apprenticeships to college, education will be the key to success. 

The young student in your family needs skills to be successful in school and in life. Those skills include the ability to critically read and evaluate information, quantify their work and resources, think broadly, focus specifically, understand their history and culture, interact successfully, act on their values and have an awareness of how they are uniquely equipped for their mission in life.

Tuition is high and getting higher. The way to save money is to be a smart college shopper. That means college searching and deciding should be a family affair rather than left to high school juniors to figure out.

You would not send a sixteen year old to a car dealership to buy a car on his own -and a car costs much less than college. College costs are more to house prices. Given that fact and the fact that parents would like to retire one day, it is in the best interests of parents to be involved in the search and decision process.