What to Know Before They Go : College Edition

The college-preparation experience can be fraught with questions and uncertainties. But Pamela Ellis, MBA, PhD is here to offer advice, insight, and counseling that will ease rather than raise your anxiety levels.

What to Know Before They Go is an effective tool to help parents guide their teens toward preparing for college before high school even starts. From choosing a high school to understanding how academic skills and activities will influence future college opportunities, Dr. Pamela encourages parents to develop a forward-thinking plan as early as possible.

Dr. Pamela then breaks down the high-school years, offering achievable goals to focus on throughout each year. These goals include developing self-awareness during freshman year, exploring and discovering personal interests during sophomore year, connecting with and visiting colleges during junior year, and applying to colleges during senior year. Then, once college is on the immediate horizon, Dr. Pamela walks readers through what to expect when paying for college and gives parents resources and helpful hints for understanding, applying for, and accepting scholarships and financial aid.

With anecdotes about her own experience sending her child to college, Dr. Pamela offers reassurance and encouragement for parents as they shepherd their teens into their next stage of life.

Author Pamela Ellis, MBA, PhD—also known as The Education Doctor®—has helped hundreds of young people successfully navigate the college-admissions process.

Dr. Pamela graduated from Stanford University and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, and she earned a doctorate from the Stanford University School of Education. As CEO of Compass Education Strategies and a leader of operations at Compass College Advisory, her experience with the education system includes advising school districts, community organizations, and institutes of higher education.

As a result of her research into student transitions from high school to college—and evaluating the ways colleges successfully retain their student populations once admitted—she produced The Education Doctor® curriculum. She has visited more than four hundred colleges and universities internationally to gain insight into their varying cultures and to explore the range of academic and social opportunities available to students on campus. Her research areas include high school to college transition, parent engagement, African-American males in education, and college completion. She lives in Dayton, Ohio.