College Mentors

Those of you who applied Early Decision or Early Action may soon be hearing from your first choice schools. Good luck! I hope each of you gains admission to your first choice college.... Meanwhile, the next major set of application due dates is coming up on December 31st. By now you have completed your Common Application essay and any supplement essays (and have turned them over to a trusted reader for comments/editing review).  I expect that you arranged for all letters of recommendation to be sent to the colleges at the same time--back when your first wave of applications was due; however, if you have added a college or two to your list since that time, make sure to let your teachers know immediately (and give them stamped, addressed envelopes for the new schools), before you leave for winter break. Finally, I wish you all a very Happy Holiday and Happy New Year. 

If you are in the Los Angeles area, please join me for a free workshop on November 2nd at the Fairview Library in Santa Monica at 7pm.  We'll be reviewing the UC, Common Application, and CSU Applications.  We'll also talk about what makes a great personal statement! Join my Facebook page (just click on College Mentors link in the lower right column on this page) and keep abreast of upcoming events!

Tomorrow, the National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC) is holding their annual Performing and Visual Arts College Fair at UCLA. Here's a link to the details: http://www.nacacnet.org/EventsTraining/CollegeFairs/pva/Pages/09PLA.aspx

Score Choice from College Board, the much anticipated ability to cherry pick your best scores to be sent to Colleges rather than having to send all scores, is turning out to be a hotbed of confusion. The two main points of confusion pertain to differing college requirements and how to handle the Common Application. Here are a few points that may help you in the process: What is Score Choice? Before score choice, all SAT results would be sent to all of the colleges to which you apply. Most colleges have a policy of taking the highest scores (some even take the highest section from among them all, so if you got a 600 Math and 650 CR in one sitting and a 650 Math and 580 CR in another, they'd take the 650 Math and 650 CR). Score Choice instituted the ability to pick and choose WHICH sittings of the test you send to colleges to which you apply. However, you must send the entire sitting, so Score Choice won't necessarily hide a poor performance on a particular section of the test

Kiplinger recently published an interesting visual comparing the amount of college debt and average incomes for each state. They also provide information about the least and most expensive colleges based on outstanding debt: http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/studentdebt/map.html Of course, these are averages, and families must evaluate many factors when determining how expensive a particular college is for their family—family income and student academics can lead to scholarships and grants, etc.—even a very expensive college can be within reach, so don't restrict your college choices purely by cost.

As most of you know, the US News & World Report rankings have been released, and the push is on for students and families who believe that getting into one of the US News top tier colleges will make or break their future. It's simply not true for US News or any other ranking tool. There are several ranking tools--each with its own criteria. Make sure you know what attributes the particular tool is using, so that you can judge how important those attributes are to you. One tool that I think bears looking at is the Forbes list, which also just came out and which puts more of an emphasis on students' perspectives: http://www.forbes.com/2009/08/02/colleges-university-ratings-opinions-colleges-09-intro.html While any ranking list can be a useful tool to compare colleges on a given list of criteria, none should be used as a final authority as you construct your own college list. I know just how tough it is to listen to the hype, the peer pressure, the family pressure and so

The Common Application for 2009-2010 has been released, so you seniors can get started early at www.commonapp.org. The personal statement prompts have not changed, so if you've been working on your essay this summer, full speed ahead! Here's a run down of what's different: Demographics: Student-- There are a lot more demographic questions about the student, most related to race and ethnicity, all of which are optional, except for a question about first language and language spoken at home. Family-- There are a few more questions about families, including a designation of "other" for person with whom the student makes his/her home. Other-- They ask whether the student has had college counseling or assistance with their application process "from a community-based organization" such as Upward Bound or Questbridge. Other Sections: In the disciplinary statement, if you answer 'yes' to either question, they now want you to write about the incident and

The White House has announced changes to the FAFSA form/process, changes to other financial aid programs, as well as new government based financial aid sources. Here's a highlight, followed by a link to the announcement from Ed.gov: FAFSA Form : A shorter, easier to fill out FAFSA form, especially online, where interactive "skip" technology will be used to help students navigate the form, making sure they see only the questions to which they need to respon d. This new version should be available this summer. Expanding Pell Grants and College Tax Credits: The Recovery Act increased Pell Grants by $500 to $5,350 for 2009-2010 and created the American Opportunity Tax Credit, a new $2,500 tax credit for four years of college tuition. In addition to those enacted changes, others have been proposed in the budget: Expanding the Perkins Loan Program: There is a budget proposal to allocate 5 billion to make Perkins loans available to over 2,600 additional schools and an estimat

Of course, the answer to this question depends on what grade you are in, so here are a few pointers for each grade level: Going to be a high school Senior in the fall? These items should be on your to do list this summer: Prepare for taking or re-taking the SAT/ACT and/or Subject tests Work on your personal statement (the prompts don't change a lot from year to year) Work part time and/or enhance your extra-curriculars through volunteer work, community service, athletic and/or arts participation, leadership participation Start or continue researching possible colleges for you; think outside the box of your experience (i.e. consider different geography--such as small town if you're a city dweller or a city if you live in a rural area, size--such as small college if you went to a big high school, activities available, sports, campus life, etc.) Consider taking a class of interest at the local community college to enhance your resume Make some college visits, at least to nearby

Those of you who are completing your junior year in high school are probably planning to take or retake the SAT/ACT tests very soon. Which tests should you take? Is one type better than the other? When are the next test dates? Both the SAT and the ACT with writing are accepted by most colleges & universities. If you can, I recommend taking both and then using the scores from the exam on which you do best. The SAT and ACT test differently, and depending on your learning and testing style, you may do much better on one than the other. In a nutshell, the SAT tests abstract reasoning skills more than the ACT, which tests you on the body of knowledge you learn in high school. Both tests include a writing component. (We'll talk about SAT Subject tests in the next post.) SAT TEST DATES June 6th, 2009 Registration deadline is May 5th for regular registration and May 15th (mail) or May 19th (phone). There is an additional cost for late registration. They have not

Today I learned that Evergreen State College in Washington is still accepting applications for their fall class. Evergreen is a unique college, offering an interdisciplinary approach to learning. Their program would be of interest to students looking for a "progressive liberal arts and sciences college." If this kind of college sounds interesting to you and you have a 3.0 or above GPA, check out their website at: http://www.evergreen.edu/admissions/apply.htm

In many cases, your financial aid package will contain grants, scholarships, and loans. As we've talked about before, grants and scholarships are free money--money that does not have to be paid back. Loans, however, do have to be paid back. What types of loans might you see on your offer letter? Let's start with the Federal Loans. The main loan types are: Perkins--based on need, these loans are provided at a fixed rate of 5% Stafford Subsidized--based on need, these loans are currently at 6%, fixed, and interest is paid by the government while the student is in school. Stafford Unsubsidized--not based on need, these loans are currently at 6%, fixed, but interest accrues while the student is in college (you can pay the interest monthly or it will be capitalized and added to the principal at graduation). Federal Direct Loans--these are the same as the Stafford, but come directly from the government instead of through a lender. PLUS loans--not based on need, parents can borrow

March 2nd fast approaches--that's the deadline for your FAFSA and for Cal Grant applications here in California. Most of you have probably already gotten your Student Aid Report (SAR) from the FAFSA. The SAR is where you will find the EFC (Estimated Family Contribution)--this is the amount of money your family (you and your parents) will be expected to contribute toward your college education for the year. Make sure you look at the SAR to see whether you are among the families selected to "verify" their FAFSA. If there is an asterisk after the EFC figure, then you will have to submit tax returns and other documentation to the financial aid office of the college that you're going to attend. Even if you're not selected for verification, individual colleges may still ask you to submit tax forms W-2s, etc.

I've missed you all and apologize for my absence the past several months--I had to deal with some health issues--but all is now well, and I am back in time for Financial Aid. Now is the time to fill out your FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)--this is the form that is required for all forms of financial aid that you may seek. Make sure that you go directly to the government site: http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/ Do not use a 3rd party FAFSA site, as they will charge you! Your first step should be to request a PIN for yourself and your parents--the PIN is required so that you can electronically sign the form. If you are applying to private universities, then you'll need to fill out the CSS Profile as well. You can access that at www.collegeboard.com Please leave comments with any questions you might have; I'll be checking for questions daily.