College Selection, Admissions, Financial Aid Tips

Well, we ended last time by starting to talk about misconceptions. Let’s talk about a couple more. Another misconception has to do with public vs. private. Now granted there are many differences but don’t make assumptions just base on the name of the school. For instance, can you spot the public schools? In the left column there are the odd numbers. In the right column, there are the first six, the first letter of this spell public. There are so many misconceptions related to SAT’s and ACT’s that I can go on for days but I won’t. I will tell you that this test is serious business both literally and figuratively. How you prepare and when you take them is extremely important. Now students fear not. Your scores will not follow you to your grave but it is extremely important that you understand how important your scores are.

Switching gears now to college fairs. Some are regional and usually include about a hundred or a hundred-fifty schools within about a two or three hundred mile radius. For instance, on the left hand side of the slide, you can see a mid-Atlantic would include about this area schools represented. Some are national college fairs. And you can see on the right hand side, that’s represented by the entire country. And many times there are international schools that show up these. Now the reason why nine is a lot bigger than twelve is because the sooner you’ll go in high school, the better off you will be. And if the first time, someone sees you at the college fair your senior year, I’ll feel a little bit worried about that. Before you go, it’s important to understand who’s going to be there.

Research those schools and prepare specific questions. Then, make sure you’re getting your face-time with those representatives. Get the business cards and do the follow up work, because sometimes, it’s the little things like that can make a huge difference. After you’ve collected the initial data of the potential schools, you should re-order some of these factors on the left base on your preferences. Parents, I bet your focus is on the cost. And students, I bet your focus is more so on size, location, proximity to something or far away it is to something else. And certainly both of you are concern about majors.

Now think of an onion for a minute. We’ve peel back the outer layers it’s now time to get messy. First, I want you to visit the school’s website for detailed information. And while you’re there look for possible virtual college stores. If you can’t get to website or you’re finding difficulty getting there getting the information you need, you can call up the college and request that they can send you a college catalogue or view book. If that school takes the time to come to visit your high school, you should be at that information session. The reason VISIT THE CAMPUS is in all caps is because I cannot stress how important that is and frankly, it really doesn’t matter “when” you go. It matters that you go. Sometimes there are open houses, sometimes you have scheduling conflicts and you might need to make arrangements to the admission’s office. But I would encourage you to visit in the 11th grade.

While you’re there, talk to students attending these schools. They are a valuable asset to you. Some students take the extra steps of scheduling overnight visit and some students wait until they’ve been accepted; and they do this right before they deposit. Meaning, send money back to the school saying, you accepted me, now I’m choosing you as a college I’m going to. So, take a guess as to how most teenagers get their college information: on line, the young lady above or the old fashion way through printed materials like the young man down below? Did you guess on line? Well, so did I which is what makes this next slide so interesting.

Now keep in mind, this is from the students’ perspective and I don’t indorse it as a game plan. But really, when it comes down to this, printed materials are still effective. Websites rank number six. What ranks number one, well I’m glad students buy in to the fact that it’s essential to visit the campus and talk with people while you’re there, followed up by printed materials. Big fish in the small pond, small fish in the big pond, you’ve heard that before right? The school size, meaning, it was too big and impersonal or it was too small and boring is the reasons that most students give when I speak to them about transferring.

So what make college popular vs. what makes the college good? Well either that the column on the left are factors that makes a college popular; for example, selectivity. Selectivity is how many students applied versus how many students were accepted. The column on the right are usually signs of quality. For instance, yield. Yield is how many students were accepted vs. how many of those students said “yes that is the college for me” send their money back and said I will attend your college. Or NSSE results. The national survey of student engagement is kind of a quality feedback survey that students fill out who are attending that school.

Retention and rigor could really go either way. For instance, retention. Let’s say the school have a 100% retention because they’re so easy that everybody passes, not a sign of quality. Maybe they have a lower retention rate. Meaning they are very rigorous school but that maybe because the school was an academic powerhouse that maybe just the type of school that you’re looking for. These are all enhancements. Please do not allow them to sway you either way. For instance, let’s say you arrived on a campus and that campus it hardly ever rains there, but the day that you arrive there for your visit you have to park halfway across campus, you did not bring an umbrella and you get rained on on your walked over to the admissions’ office and the entire time you got on the tour you are wet and cold and miserable.

Well, I’ve had students who come back from schools and tell me that that was their experience and that was the reason they did not pursue anything at that particular school. I’ve also students come back and tell me, “Hey, I was walking around and they showed us a dorm room but then I found out afterwards that that’s not really a student dorm room. That’s just an example dorm room that they set up or maybe that’s a dorm that I don’t have a chance to get into until the sophomore or the junior year. Alright, fill in the blank time. This is the door of?

The admissions office! It is not called the office of denials. You know when it comes down to it they are looking for reasons to accept you. So let’s focus on how to give them what they want and keep in mind with this if you take all colleges’ selectivity and average it together, it’s 70%. So even though you maybe hearing a lot about how competitive it is to get into college you will most likely be accepted somewhere possibly even multiple places. But it’s my purpose to help you get acceptances to the schools that fit you best. That’s the end of part two. Please take the time to watch part three and four. Thank you.