College Admission Help

Ask the Biz Brain for College Admission Help: Paying for college
I'm a 19-year-old student who will be transferring to a four-year college from community college in the fall. My parents don't really play a part in paying for college or determining where I go or where to apply. I'm seriously considering a university that costs about $46,000 a year and has offered me $39,200 in financial aid. I have no idea how I'll be able to pay for the $6,800 gap. I was planning to get a summer job, and I'm applying for scholarships, but what if that's not enough?
You're getting a substantial discount on an expensive education. You should investigate whether you can get a better deal at a public school, but the gap between the cost and the aid you're being offered might wind up being about the same.
If that's the case, talk to your parents about whether they can help. If they can't, consider filling at least some of the gap with federal student loans. The loans in your aid package may be need-based, but you probably qualify for additional federal loan money that doesn't require you to demonstrate need.
Those loans, plus your earnings, should allow you to pay for this education.
Winning scholarships may not get you much further ahead, since colleges typically compensate by reducing the grants you're given.
You want to use federal student loans before you turn to the private student-loan market, since private loans are more expensive and less flexible.
Also, don't borrow more for your education than you expect to make in your first year out of school.
If you follow those guidelines, you should be able to comfortably afford your payments once you're out of school.
You can find out more about student loans and paying for college at FinAid.org.


Ask the Biz Brain for College Admission Help: Paying for college

Goal Is College Admission — Hurdle Is Finding Financial Aid.
By JACQUES STEINBERG
LOS ANGELES — Each afternoon this spring, Brennan Jackson, an A-student who ranks near the top of his high school class, has arrived at his guidance counselor’s office to intercept the latest scholarship applications, as if they were a newspaper landing on his front stoop.
Because his father is out of work and his mother works only part time, Brennan has set an ambitious goal for himself: to raise the $25,000 he still needs for his freshman year at the University of California, Berkeley, by stitching together a quilt of merit scholarships.
“We need to spread our resources as far as possible,” he said the other night, over a family dinner of reheated eggplant parmigiana. “I guess I feel a little responsible.”
The stress has taken its toll: Brennan’s guidance counselor blames it for the boy’s thinning hair, and Brennan points to his scholarship search as the cause of a recent outbreak of acne.
While Brennan’s situation, and the remedy he is pursuing, may sound extremely ambitious, guidance counselors across the country say they can recall no prior year in which so many applicants’ families have been squeezed by so many financial pressures.
Not only have families’ incomes been falling as their savings have dwindled, but also tuition has been rising — including proposed increases of nearly 10 percent next year throughout the University of California system. (Brennan would face bills nearly as high as Berkeley’s at the University of California campuses in Los Angeles and Davis, the only other colleges to accept him; Stanford, a private university that typically offers full scholarships to families with incomes under $60,000, rejected him. Berkeley offered him only $212 in scholarship money.)
While private colleges have vowed to protect financial aid in hard times, some of the most reliable independent scholarship programs have been reduced or discontinued this year — including some that lost parts of their endowments to Bernard L. Madoff’s vast Ponzi scheme — further raising the competition for those that remain.
Interest rates on student loans, including on popular federal programs like the unsubsidized Stafford (now nearly 7 percent) and Parent Plus (8.5 percent), are running several percentage points higher than the rates on secured loans, like home equity lines of credit.
“The difference of rates between secured and unsecured loans is higher than I have ever seen,” said Scott White, director of counseling services at Westfield High School in New Jersey. “This is one further impediment to access to post-secondary education for all but the well-to-do.”
Judy Campbell, Brennan’s guidance counselor at Hollywood High School, where three of every four students qualify for a free or reduced-price lunch, suggested that his family was “not poor enough for need-based aid and not rich enough to write a check.”
When asked over dinner whether she felt guilty that Brennan had taken so much upon himself, his mother, Caryn, began to cry. “We didn’t expect to end up in this situation,” she said.
Tuition, board and other expenses at Berkeley are estimated at $27,000 a year. Last year, the family’s income was $58,000, when Ms. Jackson’s wages from teaching were combined with revenue from a part of a rental property. The family cannot sell the property because it does not own it outright, and Ms. Campbell believes that the investment reduced the direct aid Brennan might have received.
Brennan’s father, Aaron, who was laid off as an accountant more than a year ago, acknowledged that his son had few options. He said his lack of steady income prevented the family from refinancing the $500,000 mortgage on its cramped, nearly 90-year-old, two-bedroom home or taking on additional debt.
Mr. Jackson said his job search had been frustrating: he said he had been deemed overqualified for some jobs in recent months, and under qualified for others. His previous job with a real estate company paid about $75,000 annually.
Which is not to say that the family has not been doing its part to offset its expenses.
They have reduced visits to the dentist from twice a year to once; saved $45 a month in groomers’ fees by trimming their two dogs themselves; returned one of their cars, a Honda CRV on a lease, to the dealer; stopped eating in restaurants; and deferred home repairs.
As May 1, the day his $100 deposit was due at Berkeley, was drawing near, Brennan said he had netted about $1,500 in outside scholarships, mostly from the California Scholarship Federation, a statewide organization. He is also a finalist for a scholarship from the Rotary Club of Los Angeles that could be worth $2,000. And he was preparing to submit his application for a $5,000 grant from an organization called D.R.E.A.M.S. (Developing a Responsible, Educated and Moral Society). “Five thousand dollars isn’t a small contribution,” Brennan said. But even with that infusion, he said, his situation “would still be problematic.”
He said he had been filling out two applications a night, most of them requiring original essays, for more than month.
The only part-time jobs he has found are as a baby sitter and as a student poll worker in a statewide special election in mid-May. (His pay for that day’s work — which, a form letter from the county clerk assured, “looks great on college/scholarship applications” — will be $105.)
While many of the scholarship organizations will not send out their decisions until later this spring, or even in the summer, Brennan said he knew he could tap one additional source should he come up short: the $15,000 remaining in a college savings account his father had established for him, which had been worth upward of $30,000 less than a year ago. The problem, he said, was that the account had been intended to last four years.
Then there is the matter of his sister, Elise, 16, a junior who will be applying to college next year, meaning his parents will have two children in college at the same time for three years.
Asked whether she had a preliminary plan of attack, Elise said she did: to gain admission to a wealthy, highly selective private college that, unlike the California system, might pay her tuition in full.



Goal Is College Admission — Hurdle Is Finding Financial Aid.

College Admission News: College-bound students run into financial wall
By Gale Holland
Los Angeles Times

More families request aid, but universities and the government tighten up, jeopardizing enrollment of some students at schools where the cost of a four-year education can reach $200,000.

Krystal Rodriguez and her mother both cried with joy in April when she received her college acceptance letter from USC.

"I was shaking and I felt like throwing up, but in a good way," Krystal Rodriguez recalled.

But her parents said they were shocked during a subsequent campus visit to discover that neither the government nor the university would be offering substantial help with the $53,000 annual cost of attendance.

Although they were very proud of their daughter, the Cerritos couple told her that they didn't think they could swing the $200,000 tab for four years at the private university.

The Rodriguez family's discussion echoed a number of painful conversations this spring as recession-battered parents delivered some variation of the same message: Congratulations, you got in, but we can't afford it.

With the traditional enrollment deadline for many schools today, experts said it was too soon to assess the full scope of the recession's effects on college decision-making for the fall. But there were early signs that more families were seeking help with college costs this year, and weighing enrollment decisions especially carefully.

By April 25, nearly 20% more students than last year, a total of almost 8.5 million, had filed applications for federal student aid, officials said. Filling out the lengthy form, known as FAFSA, is the first step in establishing eligibility for loans or need-based scholarships.

Admissions officers at several public and private universities also said this week that more applicants than usual appeared to be delaying their college decisions until the last minute, perhaps taking extra time to study or negotiate financial aid.

Many colleges, including USC, expanded their financial aid budgets this year, but individual awards were often less generous than in previous years, several experts said.

"There wasn't enough money to go around," said College Board senior analyst Sandy Baum, who teaches at Skidmore College.

At the same time, home equity and stock values that families might have borrowed against have plummeted. Many parents, given the economic uncertainty, are wary of taking on college loans. And some are rethinking the value of a $200,000 private, or even a $100,000 public, education.

"The middle class has been financing the rise in college costs by borrowing," said Patrick M. Callan, president of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. "Now people are starting to question: 'Is it worth it?' "

Families tend to have unrealistic expectations of financial aid, which often consists mainly of eligibility for loans and work study jobs, the experts said. Still, many households had a far rosier financial outlook last fall, when students applied to college, and many were caught flat-footed by the gaps between their aid offers and their resources.

Ruth Rodriguez, a municipal worker, said she and her husband, a computer company employee, have a combined annual income of about $140,000. They had hoped that their daughter, an A student at highly competitive Whitney High School in Cerritos, would receive grant or scholarship aid from the state or USC. Instead, she was told she was eligible for $5,500 in student loans.

"She's so well-rounded, so bright, how can she not be offered a scholarship or grant?" the mother said, citing her daughter's involvement in sports, community service and youth-in-government activities. "We are standard, everyday working people . . . who has that kind of money sitting in their bank account?"

L. Katharine Harrington, USC's dean of admissions and financial aid, said she could not comment on an individual student's situation. But she said the school, which expanded its financial aid budget by 8% for next school year, is doing everything it can to take into account cases of economic hardship.

"What I'm hearing when I talk to families, and what I hear every year, is my kid's a smart kid, why don't you give her a scholarship?" Harrington said. "Only the top 12 to 15% get scholarships."

But to Krystal Rodriguez, it is maddening that the future she worked so hard to realize turns on dollars and cents.

"It's utterly, extremely disappointing to think I won't be able to go there and that money is the deciding factor," she said.

Money, namely the ability of families to pay the cost of their children's college education, was more of a factor in admissions this year as well, some schools acknowledged. Officials at Tufts University in Massachusetts surprised some observers recently by disclosing that the school had dropped its "need-blind" policy for the lowest 5% of applicants. Under such policies, students are admitted without regard to what they can pay.

But most private colleges make no claim to need-blind admission. And even those schools that fill most of their slots with students without consideration of their income, often accept some who are slightly less qualified but can pay full freight in place of poorer ones who need aid.

"For the last 5, 10 or 15% of the pool, schools say, 'We already gave out all our financial aid. Those who can't pay are not going to get in,” Baum said. "From what we're hearing, at some places, if it was 5% before, now it's 10%."

Tony Pals, a spokesman for the National Assn. of Independent Colleges and Universities, said some schools increased the size of their freshman classes this year so they could add more students paying full price.

In response to financial pressures, many parents are asking their children to choose public colleges, including two-year institutions.

Dawn Johnson of Valley Village said her family borrowed to finance her older daughter's private college education.

Saddled with debt, her husband, a Hollywood boom man, has put off retirement, and she will be looking for a job, Johnson said. And because of the economy, they're hoping that their younger daughter, Maddie, a student at Notre Dame High in Sherman Oaks, will choose UC Santa Barbara over several out-of-state colleges.

In recent days, Maddie Johnson was leaning toward the California college. But she said: "It would have been nice to have a more stable economy while I was applying."

Other families spent the weeks between their children's college admission offers in March and April and today's enrollment deadline furiously negotiating for a better deal, largely without success, several admissions officers said.

"I feel like Monty Hall!" said Robert J. Massa, vice president of enrollment and college relations at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, who was inundated with requests to match other colleges' offers. He did not, he said.

At Johns Hopkins University in Maryland, campus open houses were jammed as families pushed enrollment decisions to the wire, said William Conley, dean of enrollment and academic services.

"Jan. 1 [the application deadline] was a lifetime ago," said Conley, who estimated that his office had seen a 10% to 15% increase in requests for reconsideration of financial aid awards. "They were just thinking what's the best place for my kid. Now they have another level of concern. They're looking at every expenditure."

As the deadline approached, Krystal Rodriguez said she had resigned herself to attending Cal State Long Beach.

But her mother said Thursday that she could not bring herself to close the door on her daughter's aspirations and would allow her to accept the USC offer.

"I feel like the whole system failed us. . . . I don't want to be the one who failed her," Ruth Rodriguez said.


College Admission News: College-bound students run into financial wall

Leadership Conferences Don't Assure College Admission
By Gerald M. Bradshaw
Special Writer
Post-trib.com
This will surprise teachers, parents and students who believe students can buy academic honors by attending a paid leadership conference.
It's a come-on, according to New York Times writer Diana Schemo, in a recent expose entitled: "Congratulations! You Are Nominated. It's an Honor. (It's a Sales Pitch)."
Each year, parents contact me about being solicited by companies selling leadership conferences as a way to help their child get into college. They want to know if it is worth spending up to $3,000 to have their son or daughter attend. The invitations arrive in fancy envelopes with impressive gold seals -- some with the seal of the National Association of Secondary School Principals -- which appears as an endorsement, along with the names of members of Congress serving on their boards of advisers. All are printed on heavy stock paper, ready to be framed.
Schemo wrote that these "ticker-tape parades in an envelope -- the Congressional Youth Leadership Council, for example, tells potential students they are 'the nation's most highly acclaimed students' and 'most promising young leaders of tomorrow' -- bewilder many parents and students. On the chat forum College Confidential, the thread begins in 2007: 'I got this thing in the mail which I am not sure about. ... Is it worth it? How does it look for college?' Others wonder: 'Is it overpriced?' Is it 'legit'? The thread continues into 2009."
According to Schemo, solicitations start in middle school. Then, the pump is primed year after year with solicitations until finally, on advice from a teacher, they decide to pay the money and attend.
Critics charge teacher involvement borders on a potential conflict of interest. Some companies offer grants to teachers who participate, or pay for hotel rooms. Companies depend on teachers to nominate students.
But the bottom line should be, does attending a paid leadership conference help students gain admission to college? According to Schemo, companies do not track those statistics.
I do not know of a college or university willing to accept participation as evidence of academic achievement. Apparently, as the report points out, a few do, but it cautions potential conflict of interest if, in order to earn credit, students must take a full-tuition class with the participating university.
Enough complaints have been filed that many companies sponsoring conferences have lost their not-for-profit standing with the Internal Revenue Service.
Even the National Association of Secondary School Principals admits "attending a leadership conference is not likely to enhance college applications any more than attending a soccer camp."
So, parents and students must again do their homework. My advice is to accept these programs as an expensive field trip. Don't expect them to help you get into college.


Leadership Conferences Don't Assure College Admission

College Admission Help: If you haven’t started saving for your child’s college education yet, don’t panic
By DIANNA HUNT
dhunt@star-telegram.com

Don’t panic. Calm down. It’s not too late to pay for college — a good one — even if you didn’t start your child’s college fund within weeks of his or her birth. Even if your college fund is shrinking at the rate of banking stocks. Even if you don’t know a FAFSA from a 529.
Rob Franek, the chief expert on higher-education issues for The Princeton Review, says parents can find ways to pay for college educations with a little knowledge, a little hard work and a persistent attitude. "It can be a truly delightful process — not one that is not going to require work, but one that is going to be enjoyable," he said. "And when you find that perfect fit between student and school, the process pays off."
Franek is the lead writer of The Review’s annual Best Colleges book and oversees the publishing organization’s nearly 200 titles, including test-preparation and career guidebooks. He personally visits more than 50 colleges a year and learns firsthand about admissions trends.
Franek spoke recently with me — a parent with a junior in high school and an economy-hammered college fund — about how parents can find a way to pay for higher education. Here, the highlights of our phone conversation, with tips all parents with college-bound kids can use.
What do you tell parents who haven’t started yet? You’re certainly not alone.
What’s the biggest mistake parents make in planning for college?
The biggest mistake is that they are crossing off schools that have high sticker prices. In my mind, that’s a tragic flaw that lots of college-bound students and their parents are making. [But] many schools that have high sticker prices tend to give out a good bit of financial aid to students.
Is financial aid only available for academic merit? What’s out there for the student who isn’t valedictorian or a football star? . [but] if a student comes from a very . Much is due to academic merit . high-achieving school district, it is the job of the admissions team to understand that a B-plus average at a particular high school might not put students in the top 10 percent of their class. But they should know that it’s a competitive environment.
Aren’t most families somewhere in the middle — not poor enough for need-based assistance and not parents of high-achieving scholars or athletes?
The message for those families in the great middle is that there is still . . funding available for those students. One of the things I tell students is . to remind them that schools are not in the business of making a college education prohibitively expensive. They are in the business of educating students. We understand that some schools are going to have more financial wherewithal to make that happen.
Do you need to pick your school first, then, before you find your funding?
Picking a cross section of schools is important, whether it’s 10 or 12 schools, whatever the magic number is, and for some of those to be public, some of those private, but for all of them to be an excessively good fit for the student. I strongly disagree that students should be unhappy at a school just because of financial aid. There are 3,500 four-year colleges in the country. There are certainly 10 or 12 that are good matches for the student. We understand that financial aid is part of that consideration. But it’s also, are your professors good teachers? Do you want to be engaged in the classroom? Do you want to go to an urban, suburban or rural school? Do you want a school on the right or the left of the political spectrum? Or religious or nonreligious? All of those will factor in to finding the best fit for the student. You should have a good list of schools that you’d be happy to go to.
Then what?
Before you apply, equip yourself with the right financial-aid information, and that is finding out the tough-to-uncover numbers. We have much of this information on our Web site — www.princetonreview.com — numbers like the average indebtedness that a student would graduate with, the amount of merit aid that a first-year student would likely receive, the amount of merit-based aid that the average student will receive. You should also look at how much of the cost is covered. Average indebtedness is important as well. Students are wary of mortgaging out their future to earn an undergraduate degree.
Getting the colleges and universities to defray some of the costs appears to be the first step. What other options are available for financial aid?
Students should know that much of the funding that they will receive based on academic merit will come directly from the universities, but there are certainly other scholarships available. A database of scholarships is available on our Web site.
Can a child’s special interests be a source of funding? Music, for example?
I always encourage students to follow their passions, both academically as well as outside the classroom. Some of those things could yield performance scholarships, but many of them, whether they have a performance scholarship or not, define students in many ways. You don’t have to be pigeonholed into one particular pursuit or career.
In addition to ruling out certain colleges, what other mistakes do parents make?
Simply being afraid of the financial-aid process. It’s totally understandable. [But] you can equip yourself with the right definitions, whether its a 529 plan (a college savings plan), a FAFSA form (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) or the dates around which you have to apply for financial aid. Lots of families, especially first-generation college families, get intimidated by that process. Becoming a smarter consumer around both admissions and financial aid directly impacts the process and makes the process more enjoyable, and frankly, makes everybody more accountable.
It’s a much different process than it was 30 or so years ago.
There are simply more students going to college. There are more high-school students, and many more of them are applying for college compared to 30 years before, and many of them are first-generation college kids. Many of those students are coming from very specific states, Florida, Arizona, California and Texas.
Does that increase the competition in those states, including Texas?
I believe that many of the states are prepared for the numbers of students coming in. Arizona State University is pretty unapologetic about saying they are going to be near 100,000 students. It’s sort of a humbling number, right? The interesting thing is that many schools are gearing up for that for a number of years, knowing that the student population is going to continue to grow. Where we’re seeing some problems this year is that many students are cropping expensive schools off their list and applying to public schools. Public schools are seeing more students than they had intended.
It sounds like you’re saying, "The more information you get, the easier the process is."
That process of gathering information helps you fill in the answer to the question, 'Can I find the best-fit school for me?’ That’s the essence.
Ideally, when should parents start saving for college?
I hate to say, yeah, start at birth. It’s never too early to start. I think that the savings process should be ongoing. Find out what an independent 529 plan is. Do you have another couple of kids coming? You should start as early as possible, but you’re still part of the norm even if you haven’t started when your kid is in high school.
What is your key message for parents beginning this process?
Your student is choosing not only where they are going to be studying but where their home is going to be, as well.


College Admission Help: If you haven’t started saving for your child’s college education yet, don’t panic

College Counselor Advice: It Only Seemed Like the Fourth of July
By Dr. Patrick O’Connor
High school students and parents know how crazy each April can be—it is just absolutely insane. So I hope you can imagine my reaction when I opened my computer and saw a note that I had volunteered to do college counseling for 5 hours at a community block party—ON A SATURDAY! “Dude” I said, looking in the mirror, “what did you do? I mean, rake leaves for 5 hours, babysit your nephew for 5 hours, help your best friend move for 5 hours—cool. But 5 more hours of what’s taking up more than your entire waking day? How about a change of pace?”

Of course, it was too late to change plans, and wouldn’t you know the morning was beautiful--- so off I went. I got directions to the park and drove to a part of town I had never seen in my life; yes, this was a block party, but not on my block, or even my neighborhood. I put a box of flyers and books under my arm (did you know I wrote a book about choosing a college? Take a moment and tell a friend, won’t you?), found an empty table, and set up, battling a strong breeze all the while, wondering if anyone was going to really pick up any of this material, and thinking maybe I wasn’t going to do anyone any good.

And then they came. All ages, all sizes, all background, all languages. What’s the book about? What’s this pamphlet for? Do you have anything in Spanish? Can I have a T-shirt? There were so many questions coming from so many directions, I needed to sit down—except I already was sitting down.

The T-shirts went first, and I saw them the rest of the day, proudly hanging down to the knees of the troupe of 8 year-olds who cleaned me out. Many, many mothers said they had 10th graders who sere starting to look; a 35 year-old said she was heading back to school; several grandparents simply picked the book up slid it in their backpacks, and nodded as they moved on. All this while dancers were on the stage across the path, where loud music was clapped to in rhythm by proud parents, and a cart came by with a man selling ice cream—in this case, singing Spanish songs.

It was one of the quiet grandparents who took my last piece of literature, only three hours after I started. I left my empty box on the pile, passed the face painting booth (that was really doing banner business), and thought maybe I could make one of those plywood stands with a picture of a graduate painted on it. I could cut the face out, and the kids could have their pictures taken with a pretend diploma in hand—when I come back next year.

Some people get tired of hearing about community service, especially when they’re up to their ears in the track team and SATs on Saturdays. I understand—but after watching the eyes of youth light up at the prospect of wearing a shirt that talked about college, and after seeing the glow of the neighborhood elders as they knew exactly who their copy of the book was going to, I felt compelled to tell you again—community service isn’t really about college, and in many ways it isn’t about you. It’s about being a part of something bigger than yourself, and paradoxically understanding more about who you are as a result.

Not bad for three hours worth of college counseling during notification month.



College Counselor Advice: It Only Seemed Like the Fourth of July

Dear Babs: I was rejected on my College Admission: Should I plan on a transfer?
From CampusCompare.com
Dear Babs,
I didn't get into my dream school. I am so in love with the campus at Washington University, and I really hoped I'd get in. The next-best school I got into was Dickinson College, and it's OK, but I still really want to go to Washington University. What are my chances of getting into WashU as a college transfer?
- Disappointed Dan
Dear Disappointed,
I'm sorry you didn't get into your first-choice college. It sucks to be rejected, especially when you want something so bad. However, all is not lost. You did get into a great school - Dickinson College. I can't tell you how many students have to go to their second, third, fourth or fifth choice school and wind up loving it!
If you are hell-bent on transferring, there are some things that you can do to improve your odds. Colleges look for transfer applicants who show significant change since they last applied. If you didn't get in this time around because of your GPA, or because you didn't seem like you had enough focus, or because you weren't well-rounded, than those are the areas you need to improve on. Try to get your school counselor to call the admissions office, and give you a reason for your rejection. It may be hard to hear, but it's the only way you'll be able to improve. Also, showing continuing interest in the school (even after they rejected you) will let them know that they are still your No. 1.
Make next year your test-ground to discover what you like, both in a campus and academically. Take different classes, and work really hard to get A's. Don't just join clubs to join, but really get into student life on campus. Finally, think about why Washington University is your be-all and end-all of all schools. Did they have one program that you loved? Search for college classes at Dickinson that show your dedication to this area study. Washington University is going to look for similar attributes in a transfer that they did in a regular applicant; they don't want to see some mope-y freshman who's still hung up on not getting into their "first choice." And honestly, if you just like Washington University because it has a prettier campus, than that really isn't a good reason to transfer.
Once you've moved into your dorm at Dickinson College, chances are you'll start making friends and having a great time! Dickinson is a good school, whether it's your first or second choice. If you can make a good group of friends, get involved, and enjoy your classes, you've found the right school for you. It could turn out to be your dream school after all.


Dear Babs: I was rejected on my College Admission: Should I plan on a transfer?