The Happy Homeschooler Podcast

College is an exciting time for students and parents, but if your student isn’t careful, they can end up in college for longer than 4 years! At first thought, this may seem fun, but when it takes longer to graduate from college, this will cost you more and delay the next steps for your student, whether that’s into the workforce or another degree of study. Founder of Transcript Maker, Matt Bass, is covering tips to graduate from college in 4 years (or less!)
Can you graduate in 4 years?
Though it seems that many students end up taking longer, you can still get a degree in 4 years, or less. However, this won’t just happen on its own because it’s very easy for students to get off track with the classes they need or the timing of those classes. These tips will help your student graduate from college on-time, or possibly early, saving money and time.
7 Tips to Graduate On Time (Or Early!)
Create a plan: Students need to know what courses you’ll take and when. Plans can change, but be aware of what the degree requires, talking with the college counselor if needed: that’s what they’re there for!
Consider your major: Choosing a major you already have interest in will help you be happy with that choice- changing majors can mean that you need additional courses which can slow you down. If students do want or need to change majors, try to do it within the same broader area of study.
Be wise with your selection of courses: Hopefully you follow tip number one and have a plan. But then, you need to stick with it. Make sure that the courses you select fulfill requirements. Electives are fun, but don’t take too many; be aware of how demanding the classes are when you plan your semester or quarterly schedule- you don’t want to have to drop classes or change plans mid-way through the term.
Don’t change schools midstream: If you change schools, chances are some credits will transfer, but not all, so you end up needing more time to make-up classes. It can also take time to get used to a new school, people, and living arrangements. Try your best not to change schools, unless it’s a part of your plan, like starting at a junior college and then going to a 4-year University.
Don’t work too much: We’re very supportive of having a job to help make college more affordable, but if you work too much and this gets in the way of taking classes or studying for them, then you’ll end up taking more time to get your degree.
Earn college credit while still in high school: Dual-enrollment is a great option, as well as AP classes when you’re in high school, so take a look at what courses might count for college credit.
Get credit for previous work experience: Depending on the work you do before high school (or even those summer jobs while you’re in college), you may be able to get credit for college. Talk with your counselor to see if any past or current work experience can get you college credit.
With all of these tips, it becomes much more realistic to graduate from college in 4 years (or less!).
Resources Mentioned:
How to Make College More Affordable
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Achieving goals is exciting, but there is more to setting and accomplishing goals than you might think. On this episode of Beyond Transcripts, Matt Bass, founder of Transcript Maker, is back to talk about goals and share information to help you improve your ability to set and accomplish goals!
Why set goals?
Setting goals is important because once you set the goal, you know what you’re working on- you have direction and an aim, and there’s something exciting about seeing your progress! For students and parents, goals can be set in areas of school like getting assignments done, at home, such as doing chores, or even in life like getting healthier. But, as we talk about, not all goals are created equal!
And, with the New Year comes lots of talk about resolutions so we share our thoughts about resolutions, how those compare to goals, and how you can toss out the idea of goals if you’re put off by the word.
How can you accomplish your goals?
There are a few different ideas that can help you set goals in a way that you’re more likely to accomplish. Think of goals like a staircase- where you’re at now is at the bottom and where you want to go is at the top. The top of your staircase is the long-term goal: a goal for the future. The steps in between are the short-term goals that are going to help you get there.
When you set these goals, you want to make them SMART: Specific, Measurable, Adjustable, Realistic, and Timed. By following the SMART acronym when you set your goals, you give yourself a much better chance of accomplishing the goal. You also want to come up with strategies to help you get there. Getting support and accountability for your goal can also be useful, along with writing it down and putting that goal somewhere where you can see it.
For homeschooling families, you can set goals around academic areas, life skills, and even organization, like getting your transcripts organized before you need them ready for college applications. Remember that these tips are applicable to all areas of life!
Resources Mentioned:Sign up for a free trial of Transcript MakerJoin our newsletter for blog posts, tips, and more

As a homeschooling family, being organized is critical. Organization has to do not only with your space in your home: where you do your homeschooling and studying and where your materials are kept, but you also need to think about your records. Are you as organized as you want to be? Most people aren’t, so we’re covering tips and tricks for homeschool record keeping and organization.
Why organization is so important
You probably already know the answer to this, but if you’re not organized as a homeschooling family, you run the risk of losing information, being stressed, and scrambling when it comes time to compile all of your official records for college. Being organized saves you time and mental energy and probably creates a better environment to homeschool in.
Our tips to keep more organized as a homeschooling family
Have dedicated spaces: For where the schooling happens, for where your students keep their materials and work and for where you, as a parent keep your information.
Keep your materials and records together: Your student probably has binders or folders for each class (or if they don’t, they should!) so keep your information together too. Put materials for each course together and have something like a filing cabinet where you’re keeping records like grades for coursework.
New to homeschooling and not sure how to set up your spaces or get your materials and records organized? Pinterest is a great resource and will give you lots of visual ideas and links to articles for how to create your space and get organized.
Start how you want to end: you don’t want to scramble as your kids complete their college applications, so make sure you’re keeping track of things like grades and course titles from the beginning.
As your kids get older, they can take more responsibility over organization and record keeping, but even from early on, if your kids are involved in deciding how organization happens, they’re taking more ownership over the process and are more likely to follow through with it.
Use technology to your advantage: online spreadsheets and software programs like Transcript Maker can make your record keeping much easier, especially when it comes time to finishing up your transcripts to send to colleges.
Organization of your space and your records is important as a homeschooling family. Use these ideas to help you get more organized and check out the blog for more of our favorite tips for organization.
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