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JanetC

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Everything posted by JanetC

  1. So, in olden days there was a low-level admission staffer who had to summarize the application folder for committee review. Think of your college application resume as a self-checkout option to summarize your student for that staffer. Stuff that might not go on a job resume but which would look great on a college app should go on an application resume. Stuff admissions committees look at but which don't make your student stand out (maybe your test scores are only fair) can be left off in favor of your student's strongest qualifications and experiences. Assume you're summarizing your student on behalf of a staffer that really wants to see this kid admitted. I would not put a link to linkedin and assume it would be clicked - if there is something you really want them to see, put it on the resume and don't assume they'll go see it on linkedin.
  2. Run the net price calculators, and if you're not sure how the WA GET money will affect your financial aid package, be sure to ask on the visit. (Private schools like UChicago use the PROFILE, which means they can ask anything they want on the forms and award money independent of the federal formulas.) Brand-name public universities like UIUC will tend to look at out-of-state students as a "cash cow." In general, don't expect too much aid from places like that, and never expect that aid will cover the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition. The normal strategy for "graduating debt free" is to stay in state public, or to look at a little bit smaller school, a little bit lower rankings where financial aid is more generous. But you are less likely to find a big marching band at smaller schools... and the best places to make connections in film/TV are probably in/near big expensive cities like NYC and LA. Think through your wants/needs carefully: There are lots of affordable places for musicians, broadly speaking, if it doesn't have to be a big marching band, and there are lots of places to go to school and be creative if he is OK with it being a long-shot to get into film/TV industry and can make back-up career plans.
  3. On your college application, you do get to list the courses in progress and the things you are enrolled in for second semester "count" -- he won't have a grade yet, but his application will show that he is taking physics senior year.
  4. Taking apps in May is tough (they're just finishing this year's admissions cycle), but lots of state schools will open in August/September timeframe.
  5. University of Arizona isn't WUE, but offers strong entry-level merit aid to compete with WUE discounts and then adds on more for higher GPA's/scores. It was a bit less than in-state for UDub for my kiddo, and the honors admissions advisors were easy to work with when we had questions about things. If you need even more merit aid than in-state public tuition, you may need to keep looking but I thought I'd mention it. Also, I agree that if you need more financial aid than just getting the price down to in-state public costs, you may really need to focus on need-based aid rather than merit, perhaps even zeroing in on schools that will take your special circumstances into account if your affordability issues are more than what the financial aid formulas consider. Need-based aid at out-of-state-publics like WUE schools is going to be hit-or-miss as many states prioritize in-state for their need-based money.
  6. There are also often state laws or state higher education commission rules that affect how they can spend their budgets.
  7. I wouldn't try to plan out their 4-5 year degree plans while they're still in high school or right after high school graduation: Plans. Change. However, it does make sense to explain to your kids what you can and cannot afford, and to let them know if extra time is or is not an option. My kids went two different directions: A private LAC and a large in-state public. Affording a 5th year at the public U would have been no problem, but it would have been a stretch for us at the LAC. The kid at the state U could handle course overloads and did so on a routine basis. The kid at the LAC got overloaded even with a "standard" schedule. Turns out we didn't pay room and board for the covid-all-remote terms, and the kid at the in-state public actually graduated with money left over in her 529, which we could never have planned for. Turns out the small LAC did not have good mental health support and the kid at the LAC burned out hard and barely made it to graduation, which we could never have planned for. She probably would have had to take a leave of absence without a degree rather than do a 5th year... Both kids changed their minds about majors and what classes to take quite a bit through their first couple years. Course offerings change. Favorite professors leave the college. All sorts of things can happen.
  8. Some resources for him to explore: * https://schoolbuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/22-Qualities-That-Will-Make-a-College-Right-for-You-Fillable.pdf * College Essay Guy podcast (see the list at the bottom of the page, there are several relevant episodes) https://www.collegeessayguy.com/podcast * Dataverse https://www.collegetransitions.com/dataverse/
  9. Yes! https://cssprofile.collegeboard.org/contact-us
  10. I'm not a business owner and so will not provide advice, but the CSS is a paid service, if you have any questions about the right way to fill it out you should call their helpline.
  11. Think of accepting computer classes instead of foreign language as a rethinking of "what kids should be learning these days given limited number of classes in a high school day", not "these two kinds of classes teach the same sort of things and should be considered equivalent." The more traditional the colleges on your list, the more you should stick to traditional course choices.
  12. If there is more than one community college nearby, visit them just like the four-year schools. Different schools have different "vibes" even at the CC level and may have different offerings. (Near me, they all have the basic transfer degree programs, but each school has slightly different sets of career track programs.)
  13. Have you run net price calculators? In addition to admissions matches, you need to be sure you have financial matches. ETA: Those suggesting out of state public universities: those are great schools, but can be very expensive to attend out of state. I don't understand anyone paying out-of-state tuition for a state U when it will cost the family the same as a private university: The private Us will offer more opportunities for personal instruction and less competition for leadership positions, etc.
  14. Students *have* to apply to more than one school -- because they don't know their financial aid until March, when it's too late to apply somewhere else. More selective colleges can be more conservative about accepting more students than they expect to attend because they can find people off their wait list. Less selective colleges are less likely to be better than the college the waitlisted student's other options. It's another way selective colleges can goose their numbers and move up the rankings, which allows them to accept fewer students and still fill their classes... A lot of the way college admissions works is circular logic.
  15. This. Children of those with "good degrees" (not the for-profit diploma mill stuff that is responsible for so much of the student debt crisis) will still go to college. The would be first-gen kids are the ones who are not going to go to college, and that's sad for our society as a whole. College is more than just job training - you learn and grow in other ways while there! There was a study recently showing that mobility out of lower classes is better when low income people have higher income friends. College is one of the few ways that still happens. The financial aid safety net has so many holes... even with financial aid it is very hard on first-gen kids. There is never a guarantee with any college degree plan -- Even if you pick a lucrative major, you can graduate four years later in a great economy or a crashed one and there is no way of knowing in advance. Families and students risk their savings and their financial future paying off debt for this experience when it should be much more affordable.
  16. Yes, the equity in your paid off house counts as an asset on the CSS. If all your child's schools use the CSS, make sure you have admissions and financial safeties on the final list. FAFSA does not consider home equity. Paula Bishop keeps a list of colleges and how much home equity they will consider here https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yeV1c6OPmGj1mggmnwH8dfdbP3OCDzM5/view Running the net price calculators on all the college financial aid websites is a must-do.
  17. What you sign up for at freshman orientation isn't forever. Many kids continue to add/drop after that first class selection meeting.
  18. Do not hide the grade. Anything that looks like lying or leaving an application incomplete, including failure to send transcripts from all schools attended, can be grounds for rescinding admissions later.
  19. Community colleges vary considerably between states and even within the same state. The best way to find out about placement in your situation is to read the website of that particular community college. FWIW: My children had to PASS the English placement test (meet a minimum score) and TAKE the math placement test (no minimum required for admission) for community college. There was no ACT or SAT option.
  20. Never assume you know what's going to be on the test if the prof doesn't tell you. Some humanities exams I had in college emphasized the lectures (maybe to make sure you're going to class, not just reading the textbook). Some the reading material (maybe to make sure you're doing the reading, not just showing up to lectures).
  21. Federal student loans are capped. https://www.edvisors.com/student-loans/federal-student-loans/loan-limits/
  22. The FAFSA controls whether you will get federally subsided loans and/or Pell grants. You generally must be very poor to get either. The FAFSA also makes students eligible for unsubsidized federal student loans which are generally the loans with the best terms, because they have lower fees and interest rates than private loans and do not affect the parent's credit rating at all. FAFSA also controls access to parent PLUS loans, which are horrible. Do not send your kid to a college that expects most of the money to come from parent PLUS loans. PLUS loans have higher fees and higher interest rates than the federal student loans. Parents with a good credit rating and reasonable loan-to-income amount can probably get a private loan at a better rate (if they really want to go into debt to send their kids to college). PLUS loans are made without determining whether the parent has the financial means to pay them back and can leave parents very much in the hole after graduation. The FAFSA is used by many colleges as the only financial aid form. However, many selective colleges popular with wealthy families also ask for the CSS Profile, which asks lots of questions about home equity, retirement funds, business expenses, and other ways that families can be very wealthy while not looking particularly rich on the FAFSA (because there is a lot it doesn't ask about). Your Profile EFC does not affect your access to the federal programs, just to financial aid controlled by the college that uses the Profile. If you are lower middle class or poorer, your Profile EFC (IM) will often be less than your FAFSA (FM) one. If you are upper middle class and above, your Profile EFC will be higher. If you are somewhere truly in the middle, it can be a little more random which form you will do better on. The FAFSA is a public formula, but the Profile is a private, proprietary formula. In fact, it is a lot of different formulas, as each college can customize what percents count. The only way to estimate your Profile EFC is to use the college board calculator https://npc.collegeboard.org/app/efc/start or the college's own Net Price Calculator (which for Profile schools often goes right back to the college board site)
  23. "Window shopping" general admissions tours to determine if a student likes the feel of different types of campuses are one thing, but I agree that you shouldn't do a visit with a professor until you're further down the path and have good questions. Repsect faculty time. On the other hand, feel free to ask your tour guide student anything! Some generic ones are "Why did you choose X-college?" "What's the best class you've ever taken here?"
  24. This. You want to visit schools that are large/small, private/public, religious/secular, etc. Just to get a feel for types of places. Stopping by for a concert or to check out the library can be low-key or less pressure, but taking a tour makes sure that you don't miss the key selling points of a school... NPC's do vary on how well they calculate merit aid. But, a calculator that asks about grades, scores, AP tests, etc. will estimate merit aid. It's to the college's advantage to calculate merit so that families don't cross the school off based on price, but some consider it competitive information they don't want other schools to visit their website and see.
  25. 1. Start saving as much as you can: Money always gives you more options and the formulas weight your income more than your savings anyway. 2. Every college is required to have a net price calculator (NPC) on their website. Run some and get a feel for what your financial aid eligibility looks like. Even though your kid's probably not going to an Ivy, run the NPC on Harvard or Yale -- these colleges give the best need-based aid and can be a proxy for "with need based aid, I'm still going to be asked to pay at least this amount." 3. If need-based aid isn't going to come close, you're looking at "merit aid". At small private colleges, the best merit aid offers generally come in as "a little more than full-pay public university" -- i.e they want middle-class-and-up parents to be tempted to spend a little more for private college (and in exchange the college boosts their USNews rankings with a high test score student). With few exceptions, merit aid at liberal arts colleges is not about giving lots of "free rides". This can still be a good deal if your child is not the sort of person who would do well at a huge public campus. Matrips suggests looking for national merit awards above: For those, you gotta have the kid who can deliver on that PSAT (which takes being a good test-taker under pressure and a little bit of luck as well as being a talented student). There are also public universities that offer guaranteed merit for high SAT scores (or accepted high GPA or class rank during covid, not sure what the testing landscape will be like when today's middle schoolers apply...) -- High SAT scholarships are a bit better to shoot for because you can take the SAT more than once. Look for a merit aid chart on the website. For example, Alabama's been known to recruit students this way for years: https://scholarships.ua.edu/freshman/out-of-state/ The best merit aid schools change a bit over time, too. Merit aid generally isn't increased when tuition/dorm fees are increased each year, so take that into consideration as well. 4. If need-based and merit-based aid don't work out for you, you're looking for low-price-tag options: This can include things like your in-state system, community college then transferring, a college where your student can live at home and commute to avoid paying for a dorm, graduating in less than four years to save overall costs, or graduating in more than four years to be able to work more hours while taking a lighter load of classes (note that your tax credits for education only apply to students going to school half-time or more!). Whoops! Forgot to mention the tax credits for education! Check out the American Opportunity Credit which covers many families who don't qualify for other federal aid: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p970.pdf
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