If you have a junior in high school, you are starting to think about which colleges might make their top 10 list and the best place to start collecting information is online through college search sites. College search sites match colleges to your teen’s interests and abilities. Encourage your teen to spend some time on each of the sites changing preferences a bit. They might wind up with an entirely different list of colleges that might introduce them to unique possibilities.
When my daughter was searching for college possibilities, she knew about Boston University but had no knowledge of a much smaller college in the same area: Bentley College. The search process using college search sites unearthed this gem and it turned out to be her final college choice. If she did not spend time searching for colleges in the Boston area, she would never have found the school she now calls her alma mater.
If you’re putting together your college list, check out these online search engines:
Just like any other large consumer purchase, college tuition prices are negotiable. The sticker price you see is very rarely the price you pay. Data collected by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) revealed that colleges discounted tuition for the 2018–19 school year by over 50 percent.This year, because of the pandemic, you can anticipate that many (but not all) colleges will be even more flexible in order to lure students due to low application numbers based on the fact that families are struggling financially.
When you appeal your financial aid award, you are simply asking for more money. Don’t be afraid to do this; the college will not be offended or react by rescinding their offer of admission. They may say no, but it does not hurt to ask. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by appealing your award.
Social media makes it easier than ever to connect with colleges and their representatives. You can follow them on Twitter, friend them on Facebook, connect with them on LinkedIn, and follow their Pinterest and Instagram accounts. Demonstrate genuine interest and contribute to the conversations; but don’t flood their accounts with replies and questions. In this case, less is more.
When application decision time rolls around you should have established yourself as an interested candidate. College admissions officers should be able to look at their records and see that you demonstrated interest. Some will remember your face, look back on your interview and be able to recall any conversations they had with you during the admissions process. You will trump anyone who hasn’t expressed interest and was simply a casual shopper.
Here’s how you can leverage specific social media accounts and use them to communicate with colleges:
It’s that time of year. Students who applied ED and EA have already heard from the colleges regarding their admission decisions. Students who are applying regular decision will be sending off those applications this month and hearing early in the spring. What happens next?
Colleges will provide your student with one of four responses: offered admission, wait-listed, deferred, or not offered admission. Today, students hear as the notices are posted online. The days of waiting for the letter are over. We live in an instant gratification world. You can expect, however, for your student to be hitting that computer refresh button on the day notices are posted!
The 2021-22 Common Application launched yesterday, August 1. Your student can now begin their application for the fall semester of college and part of that application includes a college essay.
According to Chad Hemmelgarn, an English teacher at Bexley High School, in Columbus Ohio, the college essay should be looked at like “a first date”.You’re telling us the stuff that makes you special.” He was speaking as part of a panel at an annual forum in New York sponsored by The College Board.
When you think about it, that’s a great analogy. The college essay is a way for your teen to let the admissions committee get to know them and an opportunity for them to focus on their strengths.
If you watched the Netflix Special “Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal”, you might think that only rich parents cheat to get their kids into college. But according to a new survey from Intelligent.com, a trusted resource for online degree rankings and higher education planning, you would be wrong.
What did the survey find?
According to the survey, cheating was more common among families from high-income households and parents who made less than $49,000 annually. In contrast, only 19% of cheaters are from middle-income homes.
“We’ve heard stories and scandals about college-admissions cheating among celebrity parents, but this survey reveals that it’s not uncommon for average parents to use unethical practices during the college application process,” Intelligent managing editor Kristen Scratton says. “Interestingly, 25% of our survey respondents cheated by listing false achievements, making sizable donations, or getting a test-taker to impersonate their child on the SAT or ACT test.”
When a college receives your application, admission officers look for ways to determine whether you will accept their offer of admission. Since all colleges have quotas to fill and determine their admission offers based on percentages of acceptance, showing interest lets them know you will likely accept their offer. As they see it, why offer admission to someone who isn’t interested when there is someone who is likely to accept?
How do you find the colleges that place a strong interest on this?
Which colleges want your student to show them some love? You don’t have to guess. You can use a tool like Collegedata.com to determine if a college uses demonstrated interest in its admission decision. The colleges are asked to rate 19 admission factors by using these four categories: very important, important, considered, and not considered. Each year, colleges are surveyed and this data is used to compile the information on its website.
To access the data, you simply search for the college, click on the Admissions tab, and scroll down to the Selection of Students heading. Then you can see the importance a college places on a student’s level of interest. Harvard, for example, lists this as “not considered.” In comparison, the United States Naval Academy, lists it as “very important.”
Social media makes it easier than ever to connect with colleges and admissions representatives because you don’t have to be on campus to make a connection.
The Common Application has added an additional, special college essay prompt where students can share their COVID experiences if they feel the pandemic has slammed their world in under 250 words.
The Coalition Application (an alternative to The Common Application) has offered a similar COVID-19 prompt. To me, this implies colleges want students to save their main essay topic for anything but Covid.
Even though this new short COVID prompt is optional, essays experts encourage students to address it, since most students have been impacted by COVID. This is an additional opportunity in the application to share something about themselves.
Since it’s so short, The College Solution blog advises students to be direct in their answer. To give it focus and interest, try to think of one or two qualities or values used or developed in adapting to the new pandemic reality and related challenges. And brainstorm specific examples you can use to illustrate them. Then share a specific challenge faced due to COVID, and explain how the problem was managed or handled, and end with the lesson learned (related to a personal quality, characteristic or value).
A simple outline would look like this:
Share an example of a problem you faced related to COVID
Explain how it affected you
Describe how you dealt with it
Reflect on what you learned from handling it (about yourself, others and the world)
The main college essay
Since this topic is offered as supplemental prompt, many experts don’t think it would serve students to use COVID-19 as the topic of the main essay. COVID-19 is a problem shared by all of us, including all other students writing these essays. It’s simply too common.
When a topic is common or overdone, it is more difficult to make it interesting.
One of the main goals of these college application essays is to help differentiate students from the competition–other students. If your topic is one that many others will be writing about, you are already fading into the crowd.
If, however, your COVID experience has impacted you in a way that is far different than how it has affected almost all other people, this might be the only exception. It would need to be something extreme, or highly unexpected, or unusual. Even better, somehow bizarre, or shocking. (Remember, it probably feels as though it has hit you harder than others, but chances are your experience isn’t as radical as it feels. That’s just the nature of this nightmare–everyone feels as though their life has been turned upside down on some level.)
Tragically, those students hardest hit by this pandemic, with parents and loved ones losing jobs, losing homes or getting evicted, or even worse, falling ill, simply aren’t that unusual.
It’s also important to note the idea that finding the positive in your COVID-19 experience, or that you are actually enjoying this time, would not be enough of a “spin” to justify COVID as a topic.
Admissions officials are trying to discourage students from using this as their main college app essay (aka personal statement) topic as well.
Why college essays are more important during COVID-19
College essays should be more important during the 2021-2022 college admission season than in any other admission cycle in modern times.
Why would the college essay be so critical for this admission cycle?
It’s because most colleges – including the vast majority of the most elite and prestigious institutions – have gone test-optional due to the pandemic. Without standardized test scores, colleges will need to rely more heavily on the remaining admission factors. And the college essay is one of the bigger ones.
Covid-19 has certainly thrown a wrench into every aspect of our lives. If you have a college-bound teen, you know that the college admissions landscape has changed.
Before the pandemic, test scores were at the top of every college’s list—not true any longer. Before the pandemic, students freely visited colleges, meeting students and admissions officers—not true any longer. Before Covid, the financial aid landscape was simply held in information on the FAFSA—not true any longer. Before the pandemic, the college application and it’s components were set in stone for every college—not true any longer.
Since the college admissions landscape has changed, I’m going to spend a few days outlining the changes to help parents and students understand what’s happening in college admissions since the pandemic.
A quick look at several changes
Road 2 College, one of my favorite sites for college admission information, outlined some Covid-19 developments in a video that you should know about:
1. The vast majority of colleges and universities are now test-optional. That includes more than 90% of all highly selective and elite schools.
2. Because two-year-old tax returns are used when completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and the CSS Profile, many a family’s financial information will be inaccurate when the financial aid forms need to be completed. More families will want to appeal their financial aid awards.
3. It’s not just need-based aid awards that can be appealed. At many schools, students can appeal the merit award they receive. In this environment, it’s likely that more students will be successful.
4. At least for high school seniors planning to start college in the fall of 2021, the merit awards that some schools offer will be greater. Institutions that are more likely to offer better deals include private colleges not located in major cities on the coasts and in areas where there is a shrinking pool of teenagers.
5. You don’t want to select a college that could close or experience severe financial issues. In the video, I talk about an easy way to determine if a school could be in trouble.
In addition to these, the college essay options have changed. Choosing a college has become more difficult based on the in-person visits being hindered at many colleges. Grades are being evaluated in a different way by colleges, due to the absence of test scores and the decision to become test-optional.
The majority of students submit their college application for Regular Decision. Students can apply to as many colleges as they choose for Regular Decision, keeping in mind that each application adds to the overall workload and application fees to multiple colleges can be costly. Don’t sacrifice quality for quantity in the application process.
Every school you apply to will have Regular Decision as an option. Students applying RD will generally turn in their applications between mid-December through mid-January and hear back regarding their admissions status by March or April. Although the majority of schools set January 1st as their RD deadline, many other schools will have you turn in your application on January 15th, February 1st, or even at an earlier date, such as December 1. Because of the varying deadlines, it’s important to keep track of each college’s deadline.
One of the greatest detriments to applying Regular Decision is waiting to hear back from the college until March or April. Your friends may have applied ED or EA and you will still be unsure of where you are going to college. Waiting is hard, but if you were undecided when you he , you have had that extra time to make up your mind. This will help since the May 1 decision deadline will be close to the time you hear back from the colleges.
Another downside would be that your student will be part of a large applicant pool and standing out is critical. Be sure he or she is at the top of the applicant pool (you can check applicant stats on College Navigator or College Data) so they will rise to the top.
Why should your student apply Regular Decision?
There are several reasons why a student may opt to apply Regular Decision. Here are just a few:
If your student’s grades need improvement
Grades are a crucial part of your student’s application. A strong GPA junior year will ensure your student is competitive with other applicants. If he struggled during junior year, applying RD gives him the opportunity to show an upward trend in his grades during the fall semester which will bode favorably with admissions. Those extra few months could push him over the top in the applicant pool.
If your student hasn’t had time (or the opportunity) to visit
Applying to a college without visiting could be a waste of time. Although many campuses have squelched actual visits, students should make an effort to at least set foot on campus. If the college is open for visits, it’s a good way to demonstrate interest. In-person visits are a good way to get a “feel” for the campus and students. Many colleges have been crossed off the list simply because they just didn’t “feel” right.
If your student hasn’t started on their application
The college application requires time and effort. Waiting until the week before the ED or EA deadline is a bad idea. Rather than rushing to get the application in, it’s better to wait and dedicate the time to submitting a stellar application that will stand out among applicants.
If your student isn’t 100% sure of their top-choice
Applying RD gives your student time to consider all aspects of each college is they aren’t completely sure of where they want to attend. ED and EA applications are usually reserved for the student who has already made their college choice and wants to get into their top choice school.
If your student needs financial aid
Applying EA and RD allows your student to compare financial aid offers. As the offers of admission come in, so will the financial aid package. You and your student can take the time to evaluate the offers and choose the college that is the best financial fit. Applying ED locks you into a decision and if the financial aid is insufficient, your decision is binding. It may force you into taking on more debt than you are comfortable with.
