Three of M's seven schools required us to fill out the CSS / Financial Aid PROFILE from the College Board. All of them required the FAFSA in order to get financial aid. Which schools required the CSS? - the top schools, the most competitive schools. One of them required the CSS with the application, which was due on January 1st. Once we met that deadline, it was no problem to fill out the FAFSA with an estimate of our 2014 taxes (based on our W2s). I will need to re-do the FAFSA once our 2014 taxes are completed.
Because I filled out both, I can compare the two. First of all, the FAFSA is free. The F and A stand for Free Application (for financial student aid.) The FAFSA is less comprehensive, and therefore easier to fill out. Financially, we are fairly uncomplicated, we don't own our businesses or real estate beyond our home. We don't receive (or pay) child support or other forms of untaxed income. We have jobs, we have pensions and 401Ks, we have a house that we are making payments on.
To fill out the FAFSA we needed our social security numbers (student and parent(s)), our last federal taxes (2013), our last paystubs for 2014 (because W-2s aren't available yet), and cash, savings and checking account balances. The questions basically amounted to some demographics, how much did you earn, how much do you pay in income taxes, and how much cash do you have on hand (savings, checking, cash). I was told that the FAFSA takes about 20 - 25 minutes to fill out. That seems about right.
The CSS on the other hand was $9 per submission and $16 per school, so $57 total for the three schools. The CSS also required everything that the FAFSA required PLUS the amounts of our retirement accounts and the value and amount owed on our home. They also required much greater details from last year's taxes. It took us about 3 hours to gather the require information and fill out the on-line forms.
It was so fine grained and complicated I felt like I needed a CPA to fill the thing out. And then I made an error on the CSS. The form asked for "extra Medicare deductions" and wondered what they meant by "extra." I clicked on their "help" feature, but nothing popped up, so I typed in the amounts deducted from our pay for Medicare. After I submitted, I closed out of the browser and found the pop-up window that explained the "extra" amount was for people who earned more that $200,000 annually. I immediately e-mailed the College Board, to ask what to do. I didn't want to re-file and pay another $57. The next business day they sent me a long response that made my eyes glaze over, but it included something about contacting the financial aid offices at the schools. That is what I did. I told them the item that I had entered $2000 for and that the correct number was $0. So far 2 of the 3 schools have told me that they have made the correction on their end, and the 3rd said that the will be out of the office until January 5th. So it seems like the schools are understanding and supportive.
On the topic of complicated forms, a local reporter who has covered issues related to the FAFSA for the last few years, told me that some in Congress are looking to reduce the FAFSA to how much did you earn, and how many kids do you have in college. That would mean people with wealth - but no income - would be eligible for the same aid as homeless and unemployed families. I didn't find the FAFSA difficult enough to be a problem in need of fixing.
Saturday, January 3, 2015
Monday, December 22, 2014
Getting in...
Brief update...
M started to apply to schools in mid November. She met two early action deadlines on 11/15. Both of those small private, liberal arts schools have accepted her. She also has received her acceptance from the one public school to which she has applied.
We have yet to apply for financial aid, but so far every school has awarded her scholarships. You want numbers, here they are...
Liberal Arts School One
Annual Tuition, Room & Board, and Fees: $51,465
Initial Annual Scholarship(s) Offered: $21,000
Pre-Financial Aid, Annual Cost: $30,465
Liberal Arts School Two
Annual Tuition, Room & Board, and Fees: $50,290
Initial Annual Scholarship(s) Offered: $20,000
Pre-Financial Aid, Annual Cost: $30,290
Public School One
Annual Tuition, Room & Board, and Fees: $21,920
Initial Annual Scholarship(s) Offered: $8,000
Pre-Financial Aid, Annual Cost: $13,920
We can't afford $30K per year, but $14K is about what we are spending to feed and educate M now. So the public school option is giving us what we wanted - a financially doable college option. We are hoping that financial aid offers bring the liberal arts schools more in line with the public school option. If they do, M can make her choice based on the merits of the schools - and not the cost to attend.
M started to apply to schools in mid November. She met two early action deadlines on 11/15. Both of those small private, liberal arts schools have accepted her. She also has received her acceptance from the one public school to which she has applied.
We have yet to apply for financial aid, but so far every school has awarded her scholarships. You want numbers, here they are...
Liberal Arts School One
Annual Tuition, Room & Board, and Fees: $51,465
Initial Annual Scholarship(s) Offered: $21,000
Pre-Financial Aid, Annual Cost: $30,465
Liberal Arts School Two
Annual Tuition, Room & Board, and Fees: $50,290
Initial Annual Scholarship(s) Offered: $20,000
Pre-Financial Aid, Annual Cost: $30,290
Public School One
Annual Tuition, Room & Board, and Fees: $21,920
Initial Annual Scholarship(s) Offered: $8,000
Pre-Financial Aid, Annual Cost: $13,920
We can't afford $30K per year, but $14K is about what we are spending to feed and educate M now. So the public school option is giving us what we wanted - a financially doable college option. We are hoping that financial aid offers bring the liberal arts schools more in line with the public school option. If they do, M can make her choice based on the merits of the schools - and not the cost to attend.
Sunday, November 30, 2014
Applying
Over the last 16 months, M has toured 21 schools (19 with me from New Jersey to Missouri and 2 local schools with her high school.) Application season is finally here. There are three ways of applying to a college; "Regular Admission," "Early Action," and "Early Decision." Early decision is binding. This means that if they accept you, you have to attend. Therefore you can only apply to one school Early Decision (ED). Early Action and Regular Decision are non-binding. So why would you apply ED, why not wait to compare financial aid offers? Schools accept a higher percentage of their ED applicants. If you fit their student profile, the school is hard to get into, and it is your clear first choice - it may make sense to apply ED. The downside is that you are bound to the school and loose all negotiating ability when it comes to financial aid.
In the very beginning I gave our stated goal of applying to 7 schools; 2 "reaches", 3 "matches" and 2 "safety schools," but that isn't exactly how it worked out. M is applying to 8 schools, only one of them is a reach and none of them are true safety schools, but many of them are almost guaranteed to accept her.
Let me define those terms again; "reach schools" are schools the student would love to get into but they fall short of that school's typical student profile when it comes to test scores or grade point average, "safety schools" are those where the student exceeds the school's average student. From there I bet you can figure out what makes a "match school."
So here is some data about each school, its students and its rates of acceptance and retention - in the order of M's preference.
Looking at the 25th percentile of ACT scores, you can see that her second favorite school - (a top 15 national university according to US News & World Reports) - is her reach school. And now let's look at school #1; (a top 20 Liberal Arts school). It is a match and it is hard to get into (36% acceptance rate). It could be a candidate for an Early Decision application. So now let's look at the financial side of the equation, one of my sources calculated that with our situation, school #1 should be the second cheapest school on the list - with an annual cost of less than $19,000. The only school cheaper is the only public school and the one ranked last on her list. Also when we toured school #1, they said that they don't negotiate on aid packages, their offers cover 100% of need, and they cap loans at $3,500 per year.
I didn't expect her to apply ED anywhere - as you can see, I didn't even include ED deadlines in my table - but all of the stars lined up and M asked to apply ED to school #1, so I agreed. And we do all need to agree. Applying ED requires the signature of the student, a parent, and a school counselor. We have until the end of the year to send in that additional form.
Notice also that M has a four-way tie for 4th. That is OK. Making artificial fine distinctions in your fall rankings doesn't make much sense. She may very well feel differently in the spring when things really matter - and you don't want the somewhat arbitrary fall rankings to influence her final decision.
The second-last of her 4th ranked schools (when listed alphabetically) is one of the more difficult to get in to (34% acceptance rate) and more like the top 2 in terms of rankings, retention and graduation rates. It is also projected to be among the least expensive. It is a rare liberal arts school in that it offers engineering as a major. You will also note that it is the furthest from home. M & I visited this one on our first trip 16 months ago. In fact it was so long ago that M couldn't remember our visit and wanted to drop it from her list, but I asked her to first meet with their admissions representative when he came through town doing interviews. She liked what he had to say, and I agreed to pay for an 8th application.
The rest of her 4th ranked schools and her 3rd ranked schools are small Midwestern liberal arts schools with similar numbers all up and down the line - I can see why they rank near each other for M.
M still has two applications to complete. She plans to meet an Early Action deadline tomorrow, and a Regular Decision deadline in mid-January. She met a few mid-November Early Action deadlines, so we should get a few decisions before Christmas...
Next Up: Financial Aid (and scholarships?)
In the very beginning I gave our stated goal of applying to 7 schools; 2 "reaches", 3 "matches" and 2 "safety schools," but that isn't exactly how it worked out. M is applying to 8 schools, only one of them is a reach and none of them are true safety schools, but many of them are almost guaranteed to accept her.
Let me define those terms again; "reach schools" are schools the student would love to get into but they fall short of that school's typical student profile when it comes to test scores or grade point average, "safety schools" are those where the student exceeds the school's average student. From there I bet you can figure out what makes a "match school."
So here is some data about each school, its students and its rates of acceptance and retention - in the order of M's preference.
Looking at the 25th percentile of ACT scores, you can see that her second favorite school - (a top 15 national university according to US News & World Reports) - is her reach school. And now let's look at school #1; (a top 20 Liberal Arts school). It is a match and it is hard to get into (36% acceptance rate). It could be a candidate for an Early Decision application. So now let's look at the financial side of the equation, one of my sources calculated that with our situation, school #1 should be the second cheapest school on the list - with an annual cost of less than $19,000. The only school cheaper is the only public school and the one ranked last on her list. Also when we toured school #1, they said that they don't negotiate on aid packages, their offers cover 100% of need, and they cap loans at $3,500 per year.
I didn't expect her to apply ED anywhere - as you can see, I didn't even include ED deadlines in my table - but all of the stars lined up and M asked to apply ED to school #1, so I agreed. And we do all need to agree. Applying ED requires the signature of the student, a parent, and a school counselor. We have until the end of the year to send in that additional form.
Notice also that M has a four-way tie for 4th. That is OK. Making artificial fine distinctions in your fall rankings doesn't make much sense. She may very well feel differently in the spring when things really matter - and you don't want the somewhat arbitrary fall rankings to influence her final decision.
The second-last of her 4th ranked schools (when listed alphabetically) is one of the more difficult to get in to (34% acceptance rate) and more like the top 2 in terms of rankings, retention and graduation rates. It is also projected to be among the least expensive. It is a rare liberal arts school in that it offers engineering as a major. You will also note that it is the furthest from home. M & I visited this one on our first trip 16 months ago. In fact it was so long ago that M couldn't remember our visit and wanted to drop it from her list, but I asked her to first meet with their admissions representative when he came through town doing interviews. She liked what he had to say, and I agreed to pay for an 8th application.
The rest of her 4th ranked schools and her 3rd ranked schools are small Midwestern liberal arts schools with similar numbers all up and down the line - I can see why they rank near each other for M.
M still has two applications to complete. She plans to meet an Early Action deadline tomorrow, and a Regular Decision deadline in mid-January. She met a few mid-November Early Action deadlines, so we should get a few decisions before Christmas...
Next Up: Financial Aid (and scholarships?)
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
The List
And then there were 12.
Using M’s criteria (and expanding on it) my original list of schools to consider contained 45 schools. We eliminated some schools because the Princeton Review surveys indicated they wouldn’t be a good fit socially. We eliminated some schools because when we visited, they didn’t feel right. We eliminated some schools because M’s ACT scores were higher or lower than their typically admitted student.
You should consider many schools and then trim your list. Remember our goal is to find 7 schools to which M would like to apply (8/1/13). And now, just before application season, we are down to 12. We have visited 8 of these 12 and we will visit the remaining 4 this month. So we will have a list of between 8 and 12 schools that M has visited and liked. She has her favorites and I have mine. One similarity between our lists is that the harder it is to get into, the more we like the school – but that is not why they are our favorites. Here are the key stats for me…
^- Average or 25% and 75% ACT Score.
*- Expected annual costs, according to collegedata.com using M’s real data (grades, gpa, parental income)
@-US News has separate rankings for “national universities,” “national liberal arts schools,” and “regional (midwest) schools.”
So the top schools (by rankings) get better students (by ACT scores) and have higher percentages of their freshman returning for their sophomore years – and higher graduation rates. They also tend to have better financial aid, so they actually cost less. The down side is that they are popular schools to apply to, so they have the lowest acceptance rates.
M’s high school career has been very good. Her numbers; GPA, ACT, class rank are better than mine ever were, as is her extra-curricular resume (plays, sports, clubs, leadership positions.) That said, I consider the national universities to be a “reach” for her, and the last liberal arts school listed above to be a “safety school.” Collegedata.com calls that safety school a “good bet” and lists all of the other schools as “maybes.”
In a month we should have the list down to the 7 or 8 schools to which she will apply.
Using M’s criteria (and expanding on it) my original list of schools to consider contained 45 schools. We eliminated some schools because the Princeton Review surveys indicated they wouldn’t be a good fit socially. We eliminated some schools because when we visited, they didn’t feel right. We eliminated some schools because M’s ACT scores were higher or lower than their typically admitted student.
You should consider many schools and then trim your list. Remember our goal is to find 7 schools to which M would like to apply (8/1/13). And now, just before application season, we are down to 12. We have visited 8 of these 12 and we will visit the remaining 4 this month. So we will have a list of between 8 and 12 schools that M has visited and liked. She has her favorites and I have mine. One similarity between our lists is that the harder it is to get into, the more we like the school – but that is not why they are our favorites. Here are the key stats for me…
| Schools | Acceptance | ACT^ | Cost* | Return | 6yr Grad Rate | US News@ | Forbes |
| 2 Univ. | 8 – 15% | 33 | 14K – 21K | 96% - 98% | 93% - 96% | 1, 14 | 3, 57 |
| 4 Lib Arts | 34% - 37% | 30 | 18K – 20K | 91% - 95% | 87% - 88% | 17 - 36 | 48 - 82 |
| 4 Lib Arts | 60% - 78% | 28 | 21K – 25K | 88% - 91% | 76% - 82% | 59- 82 | 167-296 |
| 1 Public L.A. | 74% | 27 | 16K | 89% | 70% | Region 10 | 359 |
| 1 Lib Arts | 70% | 24 | 23K | 81% | 63% | Region 11 | 358 |
*- Expected annual costs, according to collegedata.com using M’s real data (grades, gpa, parental income)
@-US News has separate rankings for “national universities,” “national liberal arts schools,” and “regional (midwest) schools.”
So the top schools (by rankings) get better students (by ACT scores) and have higher percentages of their freshman returning for their sophomore years – and higher graduation rates. They also tend to have better financial aid, so they actually cost less. The down side is that they are popular schools to apply to, so they have the lowest acceptance rates.
M’s high school career has been very good. Her numbers; GPA, ACT, class rank are better than mine ever were, as is her extra-curricular resume (plays, sports, clubs, leadership positions.) That said, I consider the national universities to be a “reach” for her, and the last liberal arts school listed above to be a “safety school.” Collegedata.com calls that safety school a “good bet” and lists all of the other schools as “maybes.”
In a month we should have the list down to the 7 or 8 schools to which she will apply.
Saturday, January 18, 2014
Happy New Year!
So 5 posts in August and then… nothing. It is hard making progress on the college search when school is in session, but we did manage to attend two college fairs. The first was for “colleges that change lives” (some small liberal arts schools that are below many people’s radar) and the second fair was a more general college fair. Both were in September. So what have we been doing since then? Not too much. M took the ACT in December and has been ignoring, reading and/or filing her incoming mail. And I, of course, have been tweaking “the list.”
I learned in August that M was interested in medium sized universities, and she liked being within a day’s car trip from home. So I went back to Princeton Review and to College Data and searched for schools using the new criteria. I found a few more schools worth checking out, and added 4 to her list.
Let me talk about CollegeData.com for a moment. This site has a great search tool, called “college match” that allows you to create a list based on geography, majors, size of school, difficulty getting in, average student debt, and more. It then compiles a list that looks like this…
I think I told you that I love spreadsheets. And with a little input regarding your student’s grades, classes, and test scores, it can tell you which of these schools are a “Good Bet”, “Maybe” or a “Reach” for your student. And if you answer a few financial questions, it can calculate an estimate of how much a particular school will cost you.
You can see for yourself that ticket price and your cost are not related to each other. For example, Princeton has a sticker price of $57,495 per year, but is estimated to set me back just $14,492. While Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas has a much lower sticker price ($26,788) but is likely to cost me just $1 less than Princeton. Nothing against PSU, but I think Princeton is probably worth the extra buck. This is actionable information; useful in deciding where to apply.
You can sort by a wide variety of data including freshman satisfaction and (4 year) graduation rates – and then save schools into your “data locker” for future use.
My next adventure, nailing down the spring break road trip (across Indiana & Illinois) and planning the summer trip(s) (Iowa & Minnesota).
So 5 posts in August and then… nothing. It is hard making progress on the college search when school is in session, but we did manage to attend two college fairs. The first was for “colleges that change lives” (some small liberal arts schools that are below many people’s radar) and the second fair was a more general college fair. Both were in September. So what have we been doing since then? Not too much. M took the ACT in December and has been ignoring, reading and/or filing her incoming mail. And I, of course, have been tweaking “the list.”
I learned in August that M was interested in medium sized universities, and she liked being within a day’s car trip from home. So I went back to Princeton Review and to College Data and searched for schools using the new criteria. I found a few more schools worth checking out, and added 4 to her list.
Let me talk about CollegeData.com for a moment. This site has a great search tool, called “college match” that allows you to create a list based on geography, majors, size of school, difficulty getting in, average student debt, and more. It then compiles a list that looks like this…
I think I told you that I love spreadsheets. And with a little input regarding your student’s grades, classes, and test scores, it can tell you which of these schools are a “Good Bet”, “Maybe” or a “Reach” for your student. And if you answer a few financial questions, it can calculate an estimate of how much a particular school will cost you.
You can see for yourself that ticket price and your cost are not related to each other. For example, Princeton has a sticker price of $57,495 per year, but is estimated to set me back just $14,492. While Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas has a much lower sticker price ($26,788) but is likely to cost me just $1 less than Princeton. Nothing against PSU, but I think Princeton is probably worth the extra buck. This is actionable information; useful in deciding where to apply.
You can sort by a wide variety of data including freshman satisfaction and (4 year) graduation rates – and then save schools into your “data locker” for future use.
My next adventure, nailing down the spring break road trip (across Indiana & Illinois) and planning the summer trip(s) (Iowa & Minnesota).
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Our first college tour trip.
College visits are good because they are invaluable research and – because they demonstrate interest in the school - they can actually help you gain admission.
Remember, in the fall of her senior year, we want to have seven schools that M would like to attend. Ideally, I want her to visit every school she might want to attend. To get to seven schools your student would be happy to attend, you need to start off with a larger list of possibilities, research those schools and refine your list.
Also remember those questions that we started off with… size of school, size of town, distance from home, etc.? The answers you received when you asked these questions of yourself (or your student) in your home may not align with the way you feel when you are actually there on campus. Can I see myself attending school here? Is X hours by car too far or not far enough? What feels too big or too small? Are the students like me in important ways; how seriously do they take school, what do they do for fun?
We made 10 college visits in the month before M’s junior year of high school. Is this too many? Is this too early? When we were on campus, admissions people often asked auditoriums full of potential students 1) how many schools they had visited and 2) what year of school they would start in the fall. By my observation, most had visited a handful of schools and most were “rising” seniors. About 30% were “rising” juniors.
So here was our first tour…
o Lafayette is about two hours north of Philly.
Why these schools? I chose these schools in part because they were far away, and therefore would be difficult to visit when M’s high school would be in session. They were seen as “test visits” where we could find out about tours and information sessions, and learn the similarities and differences among school in a low risk environment. None of these schools were very high on M’s list.
Our trip started at what could possibly be the end of M’s college journey - in St. Louis, at Washington U. If you want to attend a liberal arts college and get a bachelor’s in engineering, you can attend a liberal arts college with a 3+2 program. These programs say that if you take their math and physics courses, and maintain a high enough GPA, you are guaranteed a spot one of the engineering schools with which they partner. They all seem to partner with Wash. U. and they were having a “college search kick-off” presentation on Thursday morning. We arrived Wednesday night and looked around.
It took about 10 minutes of exploring the campus for M to declare “I could go here.” So maybe she didn’t want as small a school as she thought she did. It then struck her that by starting at an engineering school, she could graduate in 4 years instead of 5. The tour the next day only confirmed her excitement for the school. Besides having an engineering school, they have a business school, and they allow students to double major and minor across schools. M imagined double majoring in engineering and business.
This is the reason to tour campuses; it helps the student envision their future – and not just their college years.
Without getting into too many details, M was able to remove Denison and Bryn Mawr off her list. M didn’t like how the campus was laid out at Denison and Bryn Mawr couldn’t persuade her to try an all- women’s college. But the biggest surprise is that it was the two medium-sized universities that were her favorites. Unfortunately, these are the two hardest schools to get in to. While both Washington U. and Princeton have a freshman class bigger than the entire enrollment of some of the liberal arts schools we visited; they get so many more applicants that they still end up accepting less than 20% of those that apply. And in Princeton’s case it is less than 10%.
This is why you need to find 7 schools that you’d like to attend.
The other take-away is that I need to revise my list and add some more medium-sized universities.
Remember, in the fall of her senior year, we want to have seven schools that M would like to attend. Ideally, I want her to visit every school she might want to attend. To get to seven schools your student would be happy to attend, you need to start off with a larger list of possibilities, research those schools and refine your list.
Also remember those questions that we started off with… size of school, size of town, distance from home, etc.? The answers you received when you asked these questions of yourself (or your student) in your home may not align with the way you feel when you are actually there on campus. Can I see myself attending school here? Is X hours by car too far or not far enough? What feels too big or too small? Are the students like me in important ways; how seriously do they take school, what do they do for fun?
We made 10 college visits in the month before M’s junior year of high school. Is this too many? Is this too early? When we were on campus, admissions people often asked auditoriums full of potential students 1) how many schools they had visited and 2) what year of school they would start in the fall. By my observation, most had visited a handful of schools and most were “rising” seniors. About 30% were “rising” juniors.
So here was our first tour…
- Thursday - Washington University in St. Louis (MO)
- Friday - Denison and Kenyon (OH)
- Monday - Haverford and Swarthmore (PA)
- Tuesday - Bryn Mawr (PA)
- Wednesday - Princeton (NJ)
- Thursday - Lafayette (PA)
- Friday - Oberlin (OH)
- Three schools met that description*;
- Four of them were liberal arts schools in Pennsylvania;
o Lafayette is about two hours north of Philly.
- Two of them were medium-sized (5,000 to 10,000 undergrads) universities; Washington and Princeton.
Why these schools? I chose these schools in part because they were far away, and therefore would be difficult to visit when M’s high school would be in session. They were seen as “test visits” where we could find out about tours and information sessions, and learn the similarities and differences among school in a low risk environment. None of these schools were very high on M’s list.
Our trip started at what could possibly be the end of M’s college journey - in St. Louis, at Washington U. If you want to attend a liberal arts college and get a bachelor’s in engineering, you can attend a liberal arts college with a 3+2 program. These programs say that if you take their math and physics courses, and maintain a high enough GPA, you are guaranteed a spot one of the engineering schools with which they partner. They all seem to partner with Wash. U. and they were having a “college search kick-off” presentation on Thursday morning. We arrived Wednesday night and looked around.
It took about 10 minutes of exploring the campus for M to declare “I could go here.” So maybe she didn’t want as small a school as she thought she did. It then struck her that by starting at an engineering school, she could graduate in 4 years instead of 5. The tour the next day only confirmed her excitement for the school. Besides having an engineering school, they have a business school, and they allow students to double major and minor across schools. M imagined double majoring in engineering and business.
This is the reason to tour campuses; it helps the student envision their future – and not just their college years.
Without getting into too many details, M was able to remove Denison and Bryn Mawr off her list. M didn’t like how the campus was laid out at Denison and Bryn Mawr couldn’t persuade her to try an all- women’s college. But the biggest surprise is that it was the two medium-sized universities that were her favorites. Unfortunately, these are the two hardest schools to get in to. While both Washington U. and Princeton have a freshman class bigger than the entire enrollment of some of the liberal arts schools we visited; they get so many more applicants that they still end up accepting less than 20% of those that apply. And in Princeton’s case it is less than 10%.
This is why you need to find 7 schools that you’d like to attend.
The other take-away is that I need to revise my list and add some more medium-sized universities.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Three Steps in this Dance
What college you (or your student) attend is the result of three individual steps; 1) Deciding where to apply/applying, 2) Schools deciding who to accept/determining aid, and 3) Deciding which school’s offer to accept. This higher level view of the process might help us understand what is going on.
Let’s start by noting who the actors are in the three steps of this dance; only in the 2nd step are the colleges in control. The students have control in the 1st and 3rd steps. We spend most of our time in the first step, and I spent some time discussing pieces of this step; creating a list, refining your list, etc. with the goal of determining the 7 schools to which we apply. But now let’s think about the colleges’ side of step one; they are marketing their hearts out to get the best and brightest students to apply to their school. If no one applies to their school this year, the school will have new admissions people very soon. If they fail to convince enough good students to come to campus for a couple years in a row, the school will be in trouble. Those schools and their admissions people need you. They are sales people and they have a product to sell.
How can they get you to consider their brand? Tours, colorful brochures, college fairs, postcards, pens, t-shirts, websites, emails, visits to your school. They are marketing 24/7. More schools make contact with the student than you can reasonably consider. If you have your list of 20-30 schools, or at least know what types of schools you are pursuing, feel free to recycle materials from the schools that are not of interest. If they have a way to remove yourself from their mailing list, do it. They will save money and the planet will thank you.
Enjoy being the belle of the ball in the first step of the dance, because the second step – the one where you are powerless – is coming. But what they use to make their decision in step two, is information they will gladly give you in step one. Listen to what they say. Not all schools are alike. Some schools are test optional. They may differ on who they want (or don’t want) your letters of recommendation from; guidance counselor, core subject teacher, coach, other. What I heard repeatedly during campus visits (we’ve logged 10 now), is that 1) they want to feel like they know the student through their essay (possibly other contact) and 2) they take demonstrated interest into account. Showing up on campus for a tour, communication with their admissions officer (admissions officers have regions, so one is assigned to each student), contacting the professors or tour guides you meet with follow up questions or even a simple thank you - are all ways you can demonstrate interest in their school.
They want to feel that you know - and want - what they are all about. They want students who will 1) accept their offer if they make one and 2) not transfer out after their freshman year. One of the reasons for these preferences is that it makes their school look better. The "best" schools have low acceptance rates. The more likely that the students they make offers to agree to come to the school, the fewer students they need to admit to reach their desired number of students, so the lower their acceptance rates will be. The "best" schools also have high rates of graduation - that is the percentage of students who start at a school, graduate from there (usually measured after 6 years). Students who transfer out lower their graduation numbers. And lets face it, our students want to go to a school they feel comfortable with, and they want to graduate from that school too.
When we get to step three (April of the student's senior year) we will want to schedule one last visit to the schools we are considering.
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