The Insider: Your Expert Guide to College Admissions

Help! My Guidance Counselor Doesn't Know My Child! What Do I Do?

It’s a pretty common scenario, especially at larger high schools: guidance counselors not personally knowing each and every student to whom they are assigned.  This might not worry you much as a parent until you rummage through your child’s set of college applications and realize this same guidance counselor is required to write a letter of recommendation for her.  But don’t panic, it’s not as dire a situation as you might think!

Though it’s true a personal connection between guidance counselor and student might be helpful in multiple respects, the purpose of the guidance letter is not necessarily meant to be personal.  What information do school reports, as guidance recommendations are so often called, usually answer, then?  Colleges are most curious about:

• how rigorous a courseload, within the context of the school’s offerings, the applicant took in relation to his classmates

• GPA and rank (if calculated)

• confirmation of any extended absence or life experiences the student gives the counselor permission to reveal or confirm

• the senior year curriculum

• the number of advanced courses taught at the high school

• and the percentage of graduates from the high school continuing on to 2 or 4 year colleges

So unlike its teacher recommendation counterparts, the counselor recommendation is not expected to show how a student conducts himself in the classroom.  But details about your child’s contributions to the school and how your child might be a match for the colleges to which he’s applying certainly couldn’t hurt.

Here are a few quick helpful tips for how your child’s guidance counselor might get to know your child and write her future letter of recommendation:

1. Review the school report form guidance counselors are required to fill-out. Be prepared to help your child provide the guidance counselor with answers to questions colleges are asking that pertain to your child.

2. Help your child create a list of the activities, clubs, volunteer work, sports, etc. in which he has participated since 9^th grade, and have your child give a copy to the guidance counselor.

3. Fill out the parent “brag” sheet provided by the guidance counselor, or create your own that highlights what you feel might be helpful academic, extracurricular, and personal information to share with the guidance counselor.

4. Set-up an in-person meeting with the counselor at the end of junior year to discuss your child’s college list and what the counselor needs to know about your child.

5. Encourage your child to meet with the guidance counselor on her own if time allows.

Performing any of the above suggestions will help your guidance counselor along, but being on time with paperwork in the senior year, including transcript requests, is the best way to get on a guidance counselor’s good side. The early bird gets the worm!  And a box of chocolates with your guidance counselor’s name on it can’t hurt, either.

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Whom Do I Ask? Seeking Out a Great Letter of Recommendation

When the junior year winds down, it’s hard to focus on anything outside standardized testing, but students should be aware that the last month or two of school is also the perfect time to approach teachers for a letter of recommendation. This soon?  Yes — this soon. Because “this” really isn’t all that “soon.”  College application deadlines start as early as next fall — they’ll be upon you before you know it!

Teachers are busy people who like to plan ahead.  If they know as early as May or June for whom they will be writing a letter of recommendation, they can factor into their schedules ample time to think about and write their letters.  You don’t really want your teacher rushing through your letter of recommendation, do you?  And some of the more popular teachers, who are sure to have many requests for letters of recommendation, might also impose a “cutoff” for the number of letters they will write in a given year.  If the early bird gets the worm, get to it!

How do students decide which teachers to ask?

1. Go for teachers with whom you share a connection.  Logic doesn’t necessarily dictate that a teacher who gave you a high grade will make for the best recommendation.  As a college admissions reader, I hardly ever looked to a recommendation to reiterate a student’s academic credentials.  Instead, I was looking to get a deeper sense of a student’s demeanor, personality, character, and drive.  Think about the teacher who can provide those three-dimensional details to an admissions reader, the teacher who can speak to your motivation and ability. If the teacher who happens to know you best also happens to be a teacher in whose class you’re performing well, consider that a lucky bonus!

2. Seek recommendations from teachers in academic subjects. Think the five academic solids: math, science, English, history, or foreign language.  Remember that colleges are admitting, first and foremost, students.  Admissions officers want to hear from instructors in academic subject areas.  Unless, of course, you intend to major in something like music or art — you’ll then want to think about getting a recommendation from someone who can speak to those particular strengths.

3. Timing matters.  Colleges prefer recent teacher perspectives to those that are older.  Junior-year teachers tend to be the best able at providing that perspective.  If you know you’re going to have a teacher senior year who taught you previously, then go for it.  Such a teacher can provide observations on your academic growth and development over the years.

4.  Stick to the number of letters colleges require.  It might seem like lots of extra recommendations will be impressive, but admissions readers see them as overkill.  Sending additional recommendations is only advisable if the writer is able to share something important about you that will really beef up your application, something your other recommenders weren’t able to address in their letters.

Insightful recommendation letters are essential to an application. They add context and give colleges objective third party opinions of your academic and extracurricular achievements.  Choose wisely!

Applying to college is more competitive than ever.  Get the insider advantage with College Coach.  Contact us now to get our expert help with your college plan:

(Surviving) the College Application Arms Race: Part 2

In an effort to beat back the demographic headwinds now working against them, some colleges and universities are coming up with ever more clever ways to maintain their “uber-selective” titles.  They're using every weapon within their recruitment and selectivity arsenal — from demographics to yield to just plain making it easy to apply — to improve their relative rank.

As colleges and universities conspire against one another for prestige, how do students avoid becoming collateral damage, victims of the college application arms race?  If you want to dodge the proverbial thin envelope, consider these three simple rules of engagement:

1. Narrow down your set of applications.  Yes, it seems counterintuitive.  But in an era when colleges are trying to lower their admit rates relative to everyone else, they’re intentionally trying to raise their yields, their rates of matriculation, too.  Higher yields allow colleges to meet their enrollment goals and admit fewer students.  That means colleges are looking for students who are likely to enroll: students who know them, students who want them, students who visit them.  Convincing a college it’s your first choice school is difficult enough with a tactical set of seven applications, and it’s pretty much impossible with a set of fourteen!  Stay focused, and consider some strategic early applications.

2. Dream within reason.  Make sure the schools you’re considering are within reach.  If you’re trying to score a basket, you might have better luck with two or three shots from near the hoop rather than seven throws from clear across the court.  Just because a set of schools is harder to get into doesn’t mean you’re increasing your odds of admission by applying to more of them.  So if the average GPA of a college’s admitted class is a 4.0 and you have a 3.2, reconsider your application.  Don’t make it easy for a college to boost its prestige at your expense.

3. Don’t get bowled over.  Just because a college you’ve never visited sends you letters, fills out your application for you, and makes applying as easy as pressing a submit button, doesn’t really mean it is planning to admit you. Other than a PSAT score it might have purchased from the College Board, the college barely knows you.  If that college wants to boast about the number of students it denies, it first needs to convince a greater number of students to apply.  That means showering affection on students it has no intention of admitting.  From now on, read every college love letter you get with a discriminating eye.

Here’s the game.  Colleges want to maintain their level of selectivity, and they do that by increasing the size of their applicant pools and then choosing only those students who are a match.  If colleges have this down to a science, shouldn’t you?  Be selective with your college list:  apply with thought; apply with reason; apply with purpose!

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College Coach’s Elizabeth Heaton Gives Her Expert Waitlist Advice in USA Today

College Coach Expert, Elizabeth Heaton, explores the DOs and DON’Ts of getting admitted off the college wait list.  To find out how you might navigate the wait list maze, read her blog post in today’s USA Today.

Applying to college is more competitive than ever.  Get the insider advantage with College Coach.  Contact us now to get our expert help with your college plan:

Beyond the Statistics: Using Student Loans the Right Way

Student loans have been all over the news lately, and most of the news has been pretty frightening.  The Boston Globe recently reported that outstanding student loan debt now totals $870 billion, surpassing both credit card and auto loan debt as a fraction of the economy, with over 14% of borrowers currently delinquent on payments.  And the Washington Post detailed how Americans over age 60 still owe approximately $60 billion in student loans, borrowed either for themselves or to help put children or grandchildren through school, putting the retirement of older borrowers at risk.

While student loan statistics are scary, your family does not have to be a statistic.  The key to using student loans successfully is to consider them a part of your college financing strategy, not the whole.  Want to use them the right way?  Take the following advice:

• Save for college now, to avoid over-borrowing later.  Let interest work for you, not against you.  If you’re prepared to make $500/month loan payments in the future, start putting away $500/month now in savings.  If you’re not able to save that amount, think twice about borrowing so much.

• Look for colleges that are inexpensive.  Or consider colleges that will offer your child scholarship money, to minimize your borrowing.

• Consider using a college's monthly payment plan.  If twice yearly tuition payments are too much to handle, spread them out over the year.  While a college might charge a small service fee to do so, it will still cost less than the interest payments on a ten year loan!

• Total student loan debt should not exceed a graduate’s first year salary.  When determining how much to borrow, consider future salary potential.  According to the National Association for Colleges and Employers, the average 2011 starting salary for engineering majors was $61,872.  For humanities and social science majors, the average starting salary was only $35,502.

• If graduate school is in your child’s future, borrow minimally for the undergraduate years.  Loans may be inevitable when pursuing advanced degrees, as graduate scholarships are limited, so don’t over-borrow now.

• Understand your loan terms.  How are loan amounts translated into monthly payments?  Check out the loan repayment calculators on www.finaid.org.

• Look at government student loans first.  They have deferment and forbearance provisions designed to protect borrowers in financial hardship, protections that may be absent in private loans.

• Consider other loans options. Those offered by your school, your state, or your home equity.  They might have better terms than some federal loans.  Of course, be sure to read the fine print.

• Don’t co-sign excessive loans for your child.  Students can access limited loan amounts on their own.  Without an adult to co-sign, they can’t get themselves into too much debt.

Let’s face it, today’s tuition prices pose a real financial dilemma for a lot of families.  Student loans, while not the magic payment solution for which some have mistaken them, can be used as part of a successful college payment plan.  Consider the advice above, and remember:  student loans are just one piece of the college financing puzzle; they are not the whole picture.

Applying to college is more competitive than ever.  Get the insider advantage with College Coach.  Contact us now to get our expert help with your college plan:

Create a Roadmap for Success! The College Admissions Plan

My oldest child is in the 4^th grade, and it is amazing how many parents at his K-8 school want to have coffee with me to discuss college admissions, even for children who have not yet hit middle school.  But if I’m being honest with myself, even I think about how my son’s decisions today impact who he will be when he applies to college.  But then one of my wise colleagues will set me straight and help me to remember that he’s still too young to be planning for college.

On the flip side, I’ve met plenty of parents of 12^th graders who are still kicking the can down the road, sort of waiting for the process to happen to them.  So when is the right time to “start?”

At College Coach we believe in capitalizing on things you can control in the admissions process.  One of them is creating the best possible roadmap as early as possible.  As a parent you need to think through choices with your child while also managing unexpected challenges that pop up along the way.  It is critical to think about how each decision will impact his college applications and to make sure he follows the path that results in the most opportunities possible.

Here are few areas that should be on your radar as soon as possible:

1. Course Selection.  In the decision making process the transcript is King!  Making sure it represents sufficient challenge and success is the most important thing a student can do to ensure the greatest number of choices and possibilities.

2. Extra-Curricular Activities, Summer Programs, and Part Time Jobs.  Joining clubs, creating clubs or expanding upon interests in unique ways is real work requiring thoughtful planning.  And if your plan includes both “commitment” and “long-term involvement,” you just might find yourself taking on a leadership role.  When it all pays off, it will have been worth the effort!

3. College Visits.  Students don’t really know what “small, large, urban, or rural” mean until they’ve experienced them.  Developing a working vocabulary and campus preferences early in high school can help you make the most of limited time later by targeting schools likely to land on a final list of applications.

4. Standardized Test Preparation Timing.  Test prep is time consuming, so planning out a schedule in the 10th grade, taking into account all your extracurricular and summer commitments, can spare you some headaches and reduce stress in 11th grade when “official” testing usually begins.

5. Scholarship Searches:  It’s never too early to start researching scholarships, especially when the goal is to make note of important eligibility requirements.  Starting early means the difference between making oneself eligible for a scholarship and discovering, too late, you could have been eligible had you only …

6. Goal setting.  Most people do better when they have a clear sense where their work can lead them.  I am a big believer in writing things down — a set of short and long term goals that give me a sense of purpose.  Mark Victor Hansen, “America’s Ambassador of Possibility,” sagely said:  "By recording your dreams and goals on paper, you set in motion the process of becoming the person you most want to be.  Put your future in good hands — your own."

Applying to college is more competitive than ever.  Get the insider advantage with College Coach.  Contact us now to get our expert help with your college plan:

(Navigating) the College Application Arms Race: Part 1

Can students be blamed for thinking they have to apply to 100 colleges just to get admitted somewhere?  Think about it. The population of high school graduates was supposed to have peaked in 2008, but colleges and universities are still finding creative ways to round up new applicants. As a result, admit rates are being driven down to staggering levels.  A few examples:

• After reinstating Early Action, and despite a slight decline in applications, Harvard College lowered its admit rate to 5.9 percent this year:  18 percent for Early Action, and 3.8 percent for Regular Action.

• The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill’s applicant pool increased 23 percent after it joined the Common Application this year.  And last year, the University of Michigan and Columbia University in New York saw similar increases of 25 percent and 32 percent respectively when they joined the Common App.

The increase in the population of high school students over the last two decades not only gave many colleges and universities newfound prestige based upon rising selectivity, it also created a class of uber-selective schools.  And despite a current numerical leveling and eventual decline in the US high school population, colleges are still trying to beef up their numbers in order to either maintain their positions on the selectivity ladder or shoot for a higher rung.  It’s a veritable application arms race!

So what are some of the tools in a college’s recruitment and selectivity arsenal?

1. Demographics.  Depending upon the part of the country in which you live, your high school is either bursting at the seams or experiencing an unusual amount of elbow room.  They just can’t build high schools fast enough in the South and West.  But in the Northeast and Midwest, where the high school aged population is shrinking, colleges are seriously looking outside their traditional recruitment radius to make up for the declining numbers back home.

2. Easy Applications.  What’s the quickest way to get more applications?  Make it easy to apply.  Nowadays, applying to college can be as easy as pressing submit.  Colleges can join one of several application consortiums that make it easy for a student to apply — student essays and data are saved and resubmitted for “new” applications.  So while the student population might have leveled off, students are now applying to more schools because it’s that much easier.  Ingenious!

3. Yield.  How can a college lower its admit rate when applications are down?  Admit greater numbers of students who are likely to enroll.  The more students likely to enroll, the fewer students a college has to admit to reach its enrollment goals, and the more “selective” a college appears.  Here are the prime candidates for admission:  students who visit, students who apply under an early notification program, and students who demonstrate an intimate knowledge of the school.

While students might feel there’s greater competition to get into the school of their choice, they should also be aware that colleges are in greater competition with one another to enroll a shrinking pool of students.  So what’s a student to do?  Join us later this month for Part II in our series, (Surviving) the College Application Arms Race, to find out.

Applying to college is more competitive than ever.  Get the insider advantage with College Coach.  Contact us now to get our expert help with your college plan:

Apples and Oranges: Deciphering the Financial Aid Award Letter

A financial aid award letter can come with a lot of conflicting emotions:  excitement, disappointment, and, more often than not, confusion.  There is little uniformity among award letters, so comparing offers between schools often feels like comparing apples and oranges.  If you want to be a discerning consumer, you need to understand the differences between three main types of aid — grants & scholarships, loans, and work study — and understand which questions to ask about each.  It’s important to compare apples with apples and ascertain which college will provide your family the best value:

• Grants & Scholarships.  Whether a need-based “grant” or a recruitment “scholarship,” an award of this type is free money.  It is a direct discount off the price of enrollment and reduces the bottom-line.  The catch to grants and scholarships, however, is what it takes to maintain them.  Is the funding a one-time award, or is it renewable for all four years?  Are there strings attached, like maintaining a certain GPA?  Make sure you read the fine print when considering any grant or scholarship offer and contact the financial aid office to make sure you understand all scholarship renewal policies.

• Loans.  Unlike grants and scholarships, loans don’t reduce the bottom-line — in fact, they generally increase costs (think interest charges).  Compare your loan terms to those of other loans you can access (through your state or home equity line, for example), and know that you can reduce or decline any loan offered.  And if a college awards an Unsubsidized Direct Loan or Direct PLUS Loan as part of your financial aid package, don’t be fooled into thinking the package is particularly generous.  These government loans are available to nearly all US citizens at most colleges.

• Work Study.  The final piece of aid you might see on an award letter is work study.  The key difference between work study and other types of financial aid is that it does not provide up-front funding to pay the college bill, as do grants and loans.  A student is simply given the opportunity to work on campus and earn a certain amount of money throughout the year.  You still need to find the job, work the hours, and get paid weekly, as with any other job.

Once you understand the difference between gift aid, like grants & scholarships, which reduce your college costs, and self-help aid, like loans and work study, the final step in deciphering your award packages is to subtract the gift aid offered by each institution from the cost of that particular school (include tuition, fees, room & board, travel, etc.).  A pricey school with a generous award package might still end up being more costly than an inexpensive school with a less generous package, but once you’ve ascertained your bottom line cost at each institution, you’ll be better equipped to determine which college will provide the best value for your education dollar.

Applying to college is more competitive than ever.  Get the insider advantage with College Coach. Contact us now to get our expert help with your college plan:

Light House Women Overcome Hurdles to College Success

Recently, my colleague, Marj Southworth, and I met with 25 residents of the Light House, a maternity home in Kansas City providing comprehensive care for young women facing unplanned pregnancies.  Ranging in age from 14 to 30, the women we met were all in different stages of their educational careers.

Our goals for the trip, outside of providing individualized educational counseling sessions for program residents, were to discuss educational goals, present ways to make them work financially, and to talk about avenues for success in college.

We received many inspiring updates from several young women whom we had counseled in past visits.  One past resident, we’ll call her “Joan,” received a full scholarship to a private college for nursing.  She had just completed her sophomore year and was finished with her core classes.  Since then, she has started taking her nursing courses and is doing quite well.

We also caught up with “Stephanie,” a young woman we had met just a few months back.  We had assisted with her applying to the local community college and helped her find financing for a nursing program.  She is now in her second semester and feeling very confident.  I was so glad to see how she had grown from a scared young woman to a true student, one who was able to pass math — a class she swore she would never be able to understand.  She was deservedly proud of how hard she had worked for her grade.  This semester she is taking public speaking, something I could have never seen her do just a few months back.  She was telling me about the 4 different speeches she will have to give and how her first one had gone.  Stephanie is getting her education paid for through the Pell Grant Program, and even has enough money left over for books and supplies!

Joan and Stephanie’s stories are just two of the many we hear every year in the Light House’s ongoing effort to improve the lives of young women and their children.  It’s been inspiring to see women who, despite facing some pretty steep hurdles, are pursuing education as a means to a better life for both themselves and their children.  A round of praise to these women for making educational attainment seem that much more possible through their examples of hard work, and dedication to set goals!

Applying to college is more competitive than ever.  Get the insider advantage with College Coach. Contact us now to get our expert help with your college plan:

Do the Legwork Now: Prep Yourself for the College Scholarship Game!

While most scholarship applications are filed in the senior year, is there a way students can get ready for them any earlier?  Similarly to how an early PSAT can help prep students for the SAT, the scholarship search process also has a route for preparing for those scholarship applications early on.

I always recommend students begin the scholarship search process sophomore and junior years — there’s no need to wait until the senior year to learn something one might have been better off knowing earlier.  Many scholarships have eligibility requirements that need lead time (50 hours of community service, a portfolio, or experience at sea, for example).  Becoming familiar with those scholarship requirements early can maximize one’s options later.  So act early, and give yourself the gift of time:

1. Create a thoughtful list of what makes you unique. Take inventory of your special character traits, skills, and abilities.  By taking stock of your talents and skill sets, you’ll be better able to hone in on scholarships that square with your profile.

2. Get involved in activities that increase scholarship eligibility.  Consider participating, both inside and outside the classroom, in activities related to your anticipated college major, your passion. It isn’t necessary to join every club, just those that really interest you.  And if your dream club doesn’t exist?  Start it.  Sure, it takes time, but that kind of initiative jumps out on an application and makes a strong impression on scholarship selection teams.

3. Supercharge your academic record.  Take time to plan your schedule and enroll in academic classes necessary not just for graduation, but for any scholarships that might catch your eye.  Some scholarships might require specific breadth or depth of subject knowledge, or a higher GPA than you currently have — set your bar to match those newly discovered requirements.

4. Tap into resources at your high school.  Each year, local scholarships are offered through the guidance office at your high school or through the public library. Get to know your guidance counselor and librarian and you could just get some good leads!  Also, talk to graduating seniors to find out what scholarships they’ve received, and mentally bookmark some to revisit when you’re a senior.

5. Check with your network.  Applying for college scholarships is like applying for a job.  You need to network and get the word out that you are looking for opportunities.  Have your relatives check with employers, ask someone at your place of worship, and inquire with local civic organizations like the Rotary or Elks Clubs.

6. Work smarter, not harder.  While no one has time to sift through the thousands of results generated from conducting an online search for “college scholarships,” students can manage the internet to identify scholarships they’re most likely to win.  Put a tool like Google Alerts to work for you.  Create alerts with specific search terms like “women engineer scholarship,” “creative writing scholarship,” or “scholarship winner” and the name of your geographical area.  And make sure you bookmark helpful scholarship repository sites such as Scholarships.com.

The earlier you start searching, the sooner you can identify what you need to do to become the best possible candidate for scholarships.  So what are you waiting for?  Get searching!  By the time senior year rolls around, you’ll be ready to submit applications to the scholarships for which you’ve already made yourself eligible to win.

Applying to college is more competitive than ever.  Get the insider advantage with College Coach. Contact us now to get our expert help with your college plan: