Seniors: Get Ready for FAFSA 2015

If you're a senior, you are probably relieved that college applications are a thing of the past (almost for some of you!). As you settle into the decision waiting game, it's time to really focus on the FAFSA. In just over a week, the FAFSA goes live, on January 1.

It is of high importance that you don't delay completion of the FAFSA. In fact, you can get started before the new year by getting a Federal Student Aid PIN. Visit www.pin.ed.gov. Both you and your parent will need to create a PIN to sign the FAFSA electronically. If you do not have a social security number, you cannot get a PIN. Instead, you will have to print and sign a signature page to be mailed to the US Department of Education Federal Student Aid Office.

4 Ways to Demonstrate Interest After College Application Deadlines

A student recently asked me if there was anything he could do to influence a college admission decision after applying. There has been a decade long debate on this very issue, called "demonstrated interest" and the role it plays in college admissions.

According to a National Association for College Admissions Counseling survey, 50% of colleges consider a student's demonstrated interest in the admissions process. Examples that demonstrate a student's unique, heartfelt and genuine interest in a college includes visiting the school, calling the admissions office to ask meaningful questions, interviewing with a local alumnus, or sending a thank you note to a college representative following a college fair.

Paper or Digital? Start a Filing System to Store Your College Documents

This holiday season you may not get all the clothes, video games, or electronics that you ask for, but one thing you'll get plenty of is stuff from colleges, sent to your house by mail or your inbox by email.

Campus view books, information sheets, college checklists, workshop flyers, ACT/SAT testing literature, and newsletters, as this information arrives, in both hard copy and digital formats, you will want to build places to store documents to reference at a later date. Moreover, buried within the literature is important admissions requirements and deadlines that you'll want to be aware of.

Juniors: When to Visit College Campuses

If you’re a junior, second semester is the time to get serious about creating a college list. Start researching colleges through their websites, college fairs, admissions representatives, books, and college guides. By doing so you will get an idea of what's required and be informed of each college’s process.

While research is a good place to start, you will learn the most about a college’s suitability for you by visiting its campus. The ideal time to visit a college is when you're out of school and the college is in session. Hence President’s Day weekend and spring break are your best options before colleges break for the summer.

Seniors: Start Planning for Financial Aid

If you're a senior, I'm sure you're ready to be done with college applications already. Hold tight, there's a little over one month remaining until the final wave of January deadlines. Revisit your college checklist and make sure to stay focused on getting everything complete with breathing room before the deadline crunch. If you have finished your college applications, good job!

For all seniors, this is the time to start planning for the financial aid process, set to begin when the FAFSA goes live on January 1. Regardless of your family income level you are encouraged to complete the FAFSA (Free Application for Student Aid), found online at www.fafsa.ed.gov. Financial aid is based on need, however with the cost of tuition increasing, many colleges have created policies so that need-based aid can be provided to upper middle-income families in the form of low interest loans that may qualify for forgiveness after graduation from college.

The FAFSA provides colleges with your Expected Family Contribution (EFC), an index that assesses what your family can afford to pay for tuition, room, board, and education-related expenses. As part of the college discovery phase, I look for colleges that try to meet 100% of the family’s need. For example, if upon completing the FAFSA, we learn that your EFC is $15,000, then a competitive financial aid package would show a combination of scholarships, grants, and loans that covers college expenses minus $15,000. In April, we will review more closely how to compare aid packages.

To get started, visit the FAFSA site to create a PIN, one for the student and one for the parent. Keep both PINs in a safe place as you will need for lifetime each time you file a FAFSA for undergraduate, graduate, or professional school education in the United States. Additionally, you will need your 2013 tax information. Contrary to popular belief, there is no need to delay filing your FAFSA until the current year tax forms are completed. Once you have filed 2014 taxes, you can submit a correction to the FAFSA with most updated numbers.

Your EFC will be sent to each college you specify and schools to which you are accepted will use it to calculate your financial aid offer. If you’re curious about either your EFC use this calculator by the College Board. Once you have an EFC, you can visit college’s websites to check their net price, usually found in the financial aid section. This will be good to do so that you can compare costs at different schools.

By starting the financial aid process, you will avoid common pitfalls and get a head start on securing various types of aid available to fund your education before they run out.

Does Community Service Matter in College Admissions?

In any college application, once you get past the demographics, grades, and standardized test scores, comes activities. Extracurricular activities and leadership roles have always been part of admissions; but also colleges want to read about students doing positive work that impacts the community. According to a survey conducted by DoSomething.org, admissions officers reviewing applications are looking to see students have spent time giving back to their communities. Yet before your high schooler starts signing up for volunteer hours, keep in mind that there’s no magical number to achieve. Colleges want to know why your student is doing the service work. Therefore projects that matter are those that –

Show long-term commitment. Spending an hour a week after school over a semester demonstrates more commitment than volunteering broad over spring break.

 Demonstrate leadership, depth, and passion. When choosing a volunteer project, students should select ones that connect to their interests, and demonstrate leadership and passion for a particular cause. Projects that read mandatory or required are frowned upon.

 Make for excellent college essays. Community service projects are a perfect way to capture who your student is as a person, their leadership potential, unique qualities, passions, well-roundedness, and his or her genuine interest in uplifting others.

Help your student find fun ways to give back this holiday season. Stand Out College Prep has put together a list of ideas for your student to make a BIG difference in your community that make an IMPACT on college admissions. All projects listed are ones that can be made into long-term commitments. Encourage your student to start small, get early wins, and build service opportunities from there.

Seniors: Applying to college this year and unsure where to start?

With competing priorities presented by senior year -- more difficult school assignments, extracurricular duties, homecoming, and spending time with friends, there is a common concern among seniors about making time to complete college applications. While juggling a full load of school work and leisure, along with college applications, upwards to 15 for many students, it is important to have a plan to ensure you meet all looming deadlines.

The urge may be strong to get through the application season as quickly as possible, but staggered submissions allows for more individualized attention to every application. Rushed applications are easy to spot, as they are often filled with misspellings, grammatical errors, misinformation, or the embarrassing reference to college x in college y's application.

The best advice is to slow down. The college application season runs from August 1 to January 1 for most schools. Make a plan to submit applications gradually, determining when by answering these questions: Where does the college rank on your list? What type of admissions - early action, early decision, rolling or regular decision? Are there supplemental essays required? There is no exact formula, but by answering these questions, you know where to focus your attention. 

FAQ: Is it okay to send a deposit to two colleges?

The answer is no. In fact colleges ask students to certify a deposit has been rendered to no other school. The consequence of double depositing may be rescinded admission for both schools. 

Also committing to one school frees up space at the other college for waitlisted students. Do the right thing—choose one by May 1^st and let all other schools know your final decision.

Read why wait lists are so long here.

Seniors: When the First Financial Aid Offer Is Not Enough

With National Decision Day, May 1st a month away, it's time for high school seniors to accept a college offer. Before choosing a school and sending a deposit, I recommend families take steps to negotiate with colleges on funding 100% of their financial need.

Back in February when the FAFSA form was completed, the U.S. State Department of Education provided the family with an index called the Expected Family Contribution (EFC). This amount tells colleges how much a family can afford to pay for the cost of attendance--tuition, room, board, and fees. With this information, colleges formulated a financial aid package comprised of scholarships, grants, work-study, and loans, to come as close to meeting this need as possible.

To illustrate, for a family with an EFC of $2,000, the college offers the family a combination of aid resources to meet this need, withstanding $2,000 in the most ideal scenario. Some colleges are able to meet 100% of financial need, while others do a poor job. A competitive financial aid package is one that covers at least 90% of the family's financial need. When college aid offers are below this range, I advise families to begin the negotiation process.

For help comparing aid packages, visit HESC's College Financial Aid Award Letter Comparison Tool . 

Negotiating a better financial aid deal is as simple as drafting a letter to colleges explaining why the student is deserving of more financial aid. This may seem like an outrageous concept to some, but for excellent students with many school offers, colleges will be willing to work out a better package.

The most effective letters are one guided by these strategies -- 

8 Creative Ways to Start Your College Essay (Student examples included!)

For most students, writing the college essay can be stressful. What I tell students is to look at the essay as an opportunity to share their story with college admissions officers, showing how they stand out from other candidates. But getting started is difficult. Often students delay writing the essay until it is assigned by their senior English teachers. This is a big mistake, as it is too close to fall early application deadlines and the final product does not make a compelling case for acceptance. I recommend students start early by choosing a memorable essay topic to write about.

Why College Admissions is Personal

I subscribe to Paper.li newsletter to keep updated on trends in college admissions. In this week's edition, I noticed an article written by someone I attended the University of Chicago with, Phoebe Maltz Bovy. The article was titled, " The False Promise of 'Holistic' College Admissions." 

Bovy argues that college admissions officers unfairly judge students' character based on a few pieces of information -- standardized test scores, transcripts, essays, activity lists, and recommendations. I agree that using "holistic" is probably not the best term since the average admissions officer spends very little time reading a candidate's application before making an initial decision. Less to do with the assertion that colleges make false promises, what resonated with me about Bovy's article is the question it prompted: is college admissions too personal? If there's not enough time to get to know students on a personal level, with college applications reaching record highs,  then why are students being asked to divulge their most secret moments, many that have never been shared with anyone? Why are admissions officers Google searching students? 

Juniors: Reflect and Re-visit

In college admissions, you have 1000 words at most to convince schools you are worthy of an acceptance letter. Half the battle of a successful sell is applying to the right colleges.

Before you get to fit, you have to know yourself. Start by putting your thoughts on paper that answers the important questions that drive your academic priorities and interests: Who am I? What am I about? How do I learn best? In what type of environment do I thrive? What kind of people do I enjoy being with? What do I do well? What challenges me? Who inspires me?

As you answer these questions, use narrative to demonstrate your growth and personal evolution over time. Also, take inventory of defining moments in your life. Piece together your stories and look for common themes: leadership, discovery, overcoming obstacles, or stepping outside of your comfort zone for example.

Time spent on reflection upon and re-visiting yourself serves a dual purpose of getting you closer to your best-fit school and lays the foundation for next year's college applications.

Juniors: No Mid-Winter Break Plans? Visit Colleges From Home.

Before deciding which colleges to apply to, it is recommended that you visit first. However this can be quite costly and time consuming. These days many colleges participate in virtual tour portals for you to learn about them from the comfort of your own home. Here are three resources where you can experience college without leaving the couch:

Dreams of Attending an Ivy? Adopt a Tiger Mom.

In recent news, Amy Chua, author of the controversial child rearing memoir, "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" has returned to the spotlight with a new book that examines characteristics that make particular immigrant groups successful in the United States.

Chua's first book, self-praises her "tiger mom" success-above-all driven parenting style. She's a diehard mom who commingles high levels of expectations and demands of her children with parental investment and involvement. Chua's stark sermon of strict Chinese parenting sucker punches the Western mom's self-esteem building approach.

Since the book's 2011 release, Chua's eldest daughter is attending Harvard; and her youngest daughter is also Ivy-bound. How could admissions officers not reward an accomplished 17 year old musician who's played at Carnegie Hall?

In the college admissions game, is tiger mom parenting a good thing?  Consider what a tiger mom could do for you:

Seniors: Reasons to love the final semester of High School

College applications....done. Financial aid applications....complete.
Anxiously you wait for college decisions and financial aid packages to arrive. This waiting period can be nerve wrecking, and "senioritis" is beginning to settle in. Yet graduation is still months away. The best thing you can do now is love your final semester of high school.

Juniors: What should I be doing now to prepare for the College Admissions process?

It’s the time between Regents exams and spring college fairs, what’s a junior in high school to do to prepare for the upcoming college admissions process? We put together a list of the most important tasks for juniors to tackle before April:

  Researching Colleges. This summer you will begin the college application process. Get started now by doing work to craft a preliminary list. There are nearly 3,000 colleges in the United States. Look into which ones fit you best by taking inventory of yourself and what you’re looking to get out of the college experience. Next make an appointment at your school or local library college and career center to learn about print and on-line resources available to inform your research. Also ask the resource center coordinator for a schedule of upcoming college fairs and open houses to visit.

How Education Is Lived in America

In 2000, The New York Times featured a summer-long series, “How Race Is Lived in America”. Through interviews, this groundbreaking series chronicled race relations in American society. If readers had hoped to find good news, quickly they met disappointment. The newspaper’s bleak findings detail Americans who reflect on experiences growing up apart from friends because of race; others give remarkable accounts of confronting the racial divide in housing, entertainment, law, sports, and medicine.