Programs for Education

May 1 is the day by which all college bound seniors must decide where to enroll in the fall of 2013. Making the final decision may not be easy unless you have done certain things in the year or two prior to spring of the senior year. In any case, most students are usually presented with at least two positive options.

So, how does one go about making an effective ‘no regrets’ decision…a decision that allows the entire family to win? The following five steps are a guide. Think about these even if you will not need to make such a decision now because you are not yet a senior or parent of one.

The overall goal is to integrate the admissions decision with financial considerations. That is particularly important when there is more than one college bound child in the household.  

First … Make an objective evaluation of each financial aid award. Determine how much aid the college is awarding in the form of grants, scholarships and loans. Most colleges do not include adequate amounts in the cost of attendance (COA) to include personal expenses. These are books, supplies, personal sundries and transportation. If you have done a    “Dry Run” with us prior to your student’s application you will see that we often add $3500 to $4500 to the COA. The direct expenses are the fixed billable costs, tuition, fees and room and board. You should too.

Keep in mind that college work-study is not a direct credit toward billable costs. Do not include that in your calculations. If there is a loan offer in the award (other than a Stafford or Perkins), do not include that either. Subtract all the other awards from your COA and you will close to knowing what the “real out of pocket cost” is for that college. Do this for each college and make an objective comparison.

Do not expect colleges to “negotiate” with you. That word does not exist in the financial aid lexicon. However, if you have special circumstances that were not fully explained to the financial office in the form of a letter after you filed your FAFSA and Profile, you may appeal or request a review now.  If you are a client of ours we probably have already discussed the merits of an appeal.

You can call and ask the college what their specific guidelines and procedures are in handling such appeals. In any case, prepare to write a letter explaining the change in circumstances. (For steps 2 ~ 5 click here.)

If you are, you may put off reading this. That would be your first mistake. To all you college bound seniors, you will soon be taking a milestone step in your life journey. Hopefully it will be the college of your dreams. Even if it is not, if you have done your research properly, all will work out fine. Thousands of college graduates have learned, in hindsight, that it was meant to be and it wasn’t bad after all.

They quickly learned in the first month of college that a professor’s expectations and assignments given would be nothing like those from teachers in high school, even those AP classes they took that were supposed to prepare them for college level work. Those that got through in four years quickly learned how to get organized and stay focused.

If you were a last minute kind of student in high school, that may have worked. But college will be a different world. If it is not, then you are at the wrong college, because if you are not challenged, you will not grow intellectually, spiritually or socially. But I digress.

The phrase, “I’ll do it later” is probably the biggest killer of college success. Chances are, you will not get it done later. If you do “wing it” later, it will be sloppy and not your best effort. This causes stress and sets you up for the kind of anxiety that leads to dropping out of college because of low grades and/or illness.

The day planner that your grandmother gives you at high school graduation won’t do you any good if you are constantly putting things off. Sometimes students (and adults) put things off because they are intimidated by them. It manifests in the subconscious. You are afraid of failure so you set yourself up for failure. The solution is to simply get started. Break the task into manageable chunks and schedule time for each task.

Maybe it is long blocks of time that you find intimidating or tedious. No problem. You can do anything for 25 minutes. Am I right? Work with NO distractions. Put the electronic gizmos away and out of sight and sound. That includes the ear buds. No, you don’t work better when you listen to “music”.

Buy a timer and set it for 25 minutes. Focus on the task seriously for that period. As you  begin to see something accomplished, whether it is a writing or reading assignment, you will begin to feel better about it. Dare I say, even inspired to do more. You also, will soon realize that by tacking homework when it is assigned is soooo much easier than waiting until the 11^th hour.

Still stuck? Another technique you can apply is to blatantly lie to yourself. Tell yourself that you don’t have to do the entire thing. You are just going to read a couple of paragraphs or just draft an outline. What will happen is that you will get some momentum going and realize that you can do more than you first thought.

Reading a few paragraphs becomes finishing the whole chapter. Outlining the paper becomes drafting the first paragraph and so on.

You are not alone, the majority of humans find a reason to put things off that we either don’t deem important or don’t like even if we know it is important. Even administrators at the most selective colleges like Princeton University realize that procrastination needs to be addressed. Look here to see what they have done to help their undergraduates.

As we enter the second semester of the academic year, millions of high school students are anxiously awaiting college acceptance letters. Some have heard already from those colleges. The students who applied in a college’s ED, EA or rolling admissions program. But the most competitive colleges will not make their final decisions until late March for the RA pool of applications.

Other than those students who were accepted in December in an ED program, all other students will have until May 1 to make their final decisions. Before that deadline it is the colleges that will be nervous. That is, who will say “Yes, I am accepting your acceptance” back to them! In the college ratings game made popular by US News & Reports, the higher the yield the higher the ranking.

Yes, it is an exciting time. But let’s step back a minute and consider this. What is college for anyway? Is it REALLY worth the expense? Colleges will tell you it is an investment. But in financial jargon an “investment” is made in anticipation of an outcome greater than the time or money put into it.  Is that what the outcome is in the majority of cases?

In May of 2011, the Pew Research Center released surveys that indicate that 57% of Americans feel that universities in the US fail to provide good value for the money spent. College has always been expensive but in the last 21 years I have seen an escalation of costs that is way out of proportion with income, with one significant exception. Parents view college price tags with a wary eye, as they should. According to the survey only 35% of the American adult public said colleges were doing a “good” job in terms of providing value to students; 42% said “only fair” and 15% said “poor”.  In the same survey, however, 84% of recent college graduates said college had been a good investment; only 7% said it had not been.

Why the disparity in belief? Is that because young people don’t want to admit the four years plus they spent in college was money (more often a parent’s money) not well spent?  What I sense some of them saying is that the benefits they received are intangible, immeasurable and not connected to what a particular degree ‘got’ them.

Hopefully, as teenagers mature through their twenties they develop a fair amount of critically thinking and social networking skills. They will benefit greatly from learning as much, if not more, outside the classroom as in it. That is why I put a great deal of emphasis on understanding the nature and depth of academic and career advising at each college they are considering. The student who is pro-active in pursuing internships as an undergraduate often has an advantage amongst his peers following graduation.

Call us at Programs for Education for a complimentary ‘get acquainted’ conversation. Learn how you and your children can get the best return on investment from their college experience.

Many of us remember the inspiring words delivered by our 35th President, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” The Peace Corps was just one of JFK’s dreams that is still carried on by not only college graduates but altruistic older adults as well.

Another dream JFK had, woke up many independent thinkers of    his generation. Like President Lincoln before him, he wanted to return our currency system to the control of the US government, not a central bank controlled by international bankers. This would require changing the way the  private Federal Reserve did business or eliminating it altogether. Unfortunately, that did not happen.

Following his tragic death many changes took place.  One may come as a shock to you. It was the scheme by the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations to promote and fund the women’s ‘liberation’ movement. As a strong supporter of women, I thought that was a good thing. But there were ulterior motives behind what appeared to be a noble effort by the financial backers of the women’s lib movement.

The private banks that own the Federal Reserve needed more citizens to pay taxes. More  money they printed (out of thin air) and loaned with interest to Congress needed to be paid back. Watch this. In the 1950′s it was rare that a mother would have a full time job outside the home. One parent’s income would cover most family needs. In time, because of increased government borrowing and the resulting devaluation of the dollar, it  become necessary for both parents to be working to pay the bills for basic goods and services. It was a strategy that has had a subtle negative short and long term effect on many families. As a Rockefeller family member said to Aaron Russo, it was designed to do just that.    

Most college students don’t know that the Internal Revenue Service is a de facto government agency. It is simply the collection agency for the private international bankers that own the Fed. Not a dime of the Federal income tax paid to the IRS goes to the US government. It all goes to the interest on the debt incurred by our Congress that borrowed the fiat currency to pay for various programs; perpetual wars and covert intelligence activities around the globe.

In July, 1944 the world’s leaders met in Bretton Woods, NH  to set the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency backed by gold and silver. In 1971 President Nixon, without consulting with other member nations, severed (“temporarily”) that agreement to link the value of the dollar to gold. The ‘golden age’ and credibility of the US dollar was over. This action was not a temporary measure; the global markets were flooded with fiat money which has increased over the years, leading to massive borrowing to fund the aforementioned questionable activities. For example, just the fraudulent war in Afghanistan costs the US 300 million dollars a day! And do not ignore the even more astronomical other costs of war.

If you have read this far, you may be asking “what can we do?” Most college economics courses are taught by professors who teach the Keynesian economic system and ignore teaching the Austrian theory, the crux of which is common sense. The fractional reserve fiat system on which our banking system is based has created a credit culture of borrowers and spenders (personal and institutions) drowning in debt. Fortunately, there is a solution! But it requires the opening of our hearts and minds and to be aware of our own cognitive dissonance. If that common, albeit limited way of thinking is not recognized, it will be very hard, if not impossible, to “see the big picture” let alone change it for the better.

I want to tell you a story about a current undergrad at Harvard College.  He was not a top scholar, or an outstanding athlete in high school. How did he become one of the selected 7%?

At a competitive high school he was a good student, but not a stellar one.  His SAT’s were lower than Harvard’s 2300 average and his transcript was replete with an equal amount of B’s and A’s. His transcript, however, showed he took the most challenging AP courses offered by his high school. He did not have a strong extra -curricular resume nor was he a legacy applicant.  The highest position he held was that of secretary at his school’s public service organization.  Just a normal white Anglo-Saxon Protestant aka a WASP, don’t you think?

He was not optimistic about his chances of admission to such a competitive college.  He did realize, however, that his chances would be enhanced if he worked really hard on his essays and got excellent teacher evaluations.  A standout quality that he did have was that he always worked to the best of his ability.  He said, “I also spent a lot of time on my essay and must have written and rewritten it a dozen or more times.”

When he received his acceptance letter from Harvard his friends were amazed!  He was amazed!  How did he do it?  These are his words: “It was pretty obvious that is was not my grades, scores, or activities that got me in.  I think I owe it mostly to my essays and evaluations.”

Seniors know why we emphasize the importance of getting started on application essays at the end of junior year.  Plus, it is important to follow a particular method for handling evaluations from teachers.  Please remember this if you are not yet a senior.

In addition, after one year at Harvard his grades are better than those of his fellow students, who had stronger grades in high school. The Admissions team at Harvard obviously recognized the quality of his work ethic, and strong desire to do the best he could, always.

If the reader is a high school student with aspirations of getting into one of the most competitive colleges, take note.  You cannot “rest” on your straight ‘A’ transcript and 2300 SAT’s or 36 ACT’s and consider it a “done deal”.  At the most competitive colleges they are not only looking for diversity in the student body and a decent academic record.  They are also looking for strength of character, work ethic and intellectual curiosity, qualities that no doubt were brought out by teachers in this student’s recommendations.

Even for parents who say “Money is no object, my child has worked hard and we will do whatever it takes to enable her to go to her top choice college if she is accepted” a dry run exercise is always a smart idea. The parent’s cry for help below is not unusual. However, it can be avoided when someone who is familiar with the variable college financial aid practices calculates an accurate snapshot of a family’s future Expected Family Contribution (EFC).

The earlier…the better.

Please read this exchange carefully between a disappointed parent and a US News expert: ….and yes, this is an actual question.  

Question:

   “My son has recently been accepted to his first choice college, Lehigh University. They have offered him loans and grants of approximately $25,000. The COA is $59,750 a year.  My wife and I do not have available funds to make up the difference.  What steps can you suggest to give my son the opportunity to attend this school?  In high school he has maintained a high academic level, ranking 27/499.

Thank you for any suggestions that you can offer.”

Answer:

“I hope you have been successful in exploring your financing options. If you haven’t already considered it, a private (non-federal) student loan is another option. Many lenders offer non-federal student loans, in which the parent acts as the co-signer. Look for features such as a co-signer release once the student establishes a good repayment record, or reduced interest rates for automatic payments from a bank account. Ask Lehigh if they have any recommendations.

     Best wishes to you.

     Verna Hazen, U.S. News Expert

How much is free advice worth? In this case…not much.  Too little, too late is my first thought; what is yours?  Why didn’t he find out that this would be his probable outcome earlier? Could he have? Yes. And could he then have been better prepared? Yes! 

In the past I have discussed the different methods colleges use to award aid. One of the most important facts I stress is that not all students are treated equally even if the parent’s income and assets are identical. This is called financial aid leveraging. The free money (grants and scholarships) goes to the student they want most. You MUST know  where your college bound child fits in the applicant pool of each college.

When we develop a list of colleges for a student based on academic and personal criteria we give the parent a preview of probable aid packages from those schools. We often provide this information one, two or even three years before the application is sent.  After your child is accepted to his or her first choice college is not the time to find out what the financial expectations will be.

Every year we hear of students who are accepted to their top choice colleges but cannot attend because of the cost. Colleges often provide false hopes for prospective applicants because they encourage almost every student to apply, while implying that financial aid will be there for them. (The more that apply…the more they can reject thus appearing more competitive in the now infamous rankings game.)

If you would like a free copy of the “7 Questions to Ask Every FAO’ and/or money- saving dry run exercise call (978) 582-0273 or e-mail help@smartcollegeplanning.org today.

Junior year is your last reprieve before the hectic college admission schedule of senior year begins.  Just ask the seniors what this means and they’ll tell you! But you can avoid some of the stress and frenzy by getting organized today.

As a junior, you can probably see the end of your high school career is near.  It might be tempting then to ease up on your schoolwork.  This would be a huge mistake.  One of the most important factors that colleges take into account is your course selection and grades.  Junior year is the time to hit the books hardest.  Colleges also place more emphasis on your junior and senior grades than those from previous years.

Junior year is also the second best time (sophomore is better) for you to begin participating in meaningful extracurricular activities.  However, as we said to you before, only get involved in the activities that truly interest you.  Try to make a significant contribution to something that you enjoy doing outside of the classroom. It does not have to be school related either. When colleges look at your activities they want to see quality of participation not quantity.  This year may also be a good time to drop some of the activities that you really don’t care for and focus on those that you enjoy.

If you’ve never had a meaningful conversation with any of your teachers, now is the time to do so.  Focus on building your relationship with your teachers.  Next year you will need to ask at least two teachers for recommendations.  Ideally, your teachers will be able to not only write about your academic abilities but also about you as a person.  So help your teachers get to know you.

Finally, you should also take this time to start collecting and organizing information from colleges.  If you have started this process with us, you now have a good list of colleges based on the results of two wonderful self-assessments and your personal criteria.  Plan to visit colleges during your winter and spring breaks later this year.  For now, you can visit colleges on the web using the AAA method to become familiar with what they have to offer…and if they have the qualifications to help you reach your goals.

A college education has long been viewed as a ticket to a better quality of life. Though it is truly a milestone decision in a young person’s life it does not necessarily mean that a particular college decision will have the highest rate of return in achieving life goals. Unfortunately, some students do not think clearly about this decision, buying the brand name college and taking on large amounts of debt.

For students who don’t want to have daunting repayment obligations, without a solid income opportunity consider this:

1. Know the average amount of debt that students carry at each of your potential colleges. Check out college-insight.org for such information.
2. Complete a money-saving “Dry Run” before you even have a final list of colleges in mind.
3. Discuss with counselors and advisors what majors to consider and understand how your natural strengths and innate characteristics fit related careers.
4. Earn and save money during college. Many bright students are earning over $1000/month part-time while in college without sacrificing their academic responsibilities. Call Eric and he will show you how they are doing it. 

“Excessive student debt, often made without an explicit decision on its impact on future life choices, not only restricts traditional career choices but the basic ability of young people to take risks – requiring them to defer their dreams,” says Robert Shireman, executive director for the nonprofit Project on Student Debt.

According to the Project on Student Debt, the average 2010 graduate carried $25,250 in loans. (Not to mention what the parents have borrowed.) The big galoot above says to the young graduate, “Yo! I am your new roommate…for the next thirty years.”

Astrid Neilson, a 23-year-old who graduated from the University of Virginia, assumed a huge financial burden to attend a public university as an out-of-state student. Her life is definitely impacted by the $90,000 college debt from the college. (Some of that were signature loans from a relative.) “I really want to go to law school, but can’t unless I get a scholarship.” Possible, but not likely.

Neilson did not consider future income before assuming her loans, although she anticipated always working in the nonprofit or public sector. Her choices confirm a recent survey by student-loan provider Sallie Mae that post-graduate income was not a factor for an incredible 70 %  of students and parents in determining how much to borrow to finance a college degree. (Can you say “Dry Run”?)

So after the glossy college brochures arrive in the mail and the visits to leafy college campuses are over, students need to ask themselves: Can I afford this school without excessive borrowing? If money saved falls short, consider living at home for two years, get the necessary pre-requisites out of the way at a community college and transfer to your state or private university. Be smart now and financially independent later.

Don’t like that option? Then you should read The Millionaire Next Door.

Anyone who has ever been on a job interview will tell you, one of the first questions an interviewer will ask is; “What kind of experience have you had that has prepared you for the position?”

If you are a recent college graduate and aspire to be employed (for example) as a financial analyst for  a growing international company like this one, will you be able to say …”Yes, thank you for asking. The two summers, while in college, working for Bain & Company in Boston inspired my decision to work for a company that has strong growth potential not only in the North American market but internationally as well.”

Having already done research into the company to which you seek employment, you go on to say…”I earned my BA in International Business with an emphasis on economic policy. I am also fluent in both German and Mandarin Chinese, countries in which you do business. The work I did in a collaborative team environment was to analyze the financial reports of companies to determine the areas of strength and weaknesses. We then would make proposals to make the necessary changes to replace the weaknesses with vital improvements for the short and long term.”

Or will you be saying to a future employer, (because you did not take advantage of any substantive internships during college) “Well, I managed the Trading Post Snack Bar at Camp Tip-A-Canoe in Vermont for two summers. At the end of the summer I  showed a profit of at least $94.25 from the sale of all the cookies and M & M’s sold to the campers.”

Listen up! It is not too late. There is good news for the current undergraduate here. Internships provide short-term practical experience for students and recent graduates. They may be located anywhere in the world. Check with you college career services office. In fact, a college student should know what that office does starting in the freshman year. Though many internships will be done in the summer following the junior year, the ambitious student will research and apply for one before the end of the sophomore year.

Take a look at what one enterprising student did. She saw a need and filled it! She is now known as the Intern Queen. Learn from her. By the way, you can probably guess what her personality arche-type is can’t you?

According to a recent survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, employers reported that, on average, more that 3 out of 5 hires had internship experience. Many employers hire directly from their internship programs.

Career counselors, books, and other resources can be helpful in the application and interviewing process. In fact, if you are an undergraduate or even out of college and still not sure the direction you wish to take, call us at (978) 582-0273. Let’s discuss the options that will save you time and aggravation.

Students are surprised when I say that a perfect 2400 SAT can sometimes be viewed as ho-hum boring. A 2250 or 2300 is good target for the Ancient 8 and their ilk. They show strong reasoning skills but not nerd-like characteristics. Yes, I know, that could be an incorrect assumption, but the most competitive colleges are looking for students that have something to offer a class other than an ability to ace standardized tests. Strong SAT and ACT scores are expected from every applicant. “What else ya’ got?”

Here are the top 10 things admission committees want to see in an applicant. Number five on that list is “Well Written Essays” also called ‘Personal Statements’. Of course, a strong GPA, challenging courses, one or two extracurricular activities in which you have demonstrated serious interest and/or leadership, honors and teacher recommendation letters are very important factors. But only the latter and the essays say (or should say) something about the student’s personality.

The college essay is the only time the admissions folks gets to ‘hear’ from the student directly…in his or her own voice. For most of us, writing is a chore and one of those things that we put off. Particularly in this day and age of twitter, text messaging, 30 second sound bites and other mindless distractions. We look on the task of sitting down and thoughtfully putting ideas on paper as agony and time that could be spent on more important things like Facebook.

I know, because I have been there. It is like a giant ‘Black Hole’ from which there is no escape. But I am also here to tell you that once you gather the strength, clear your head and quiet your mind…you will be very pleased with yourself once the job is done.

So, if you are faced with that task and have not yet started, yesterday would be a good time to start. Follow the tips at the links above and set aside the same time each day to write. Remember, even the most famous authors had to write and rewrite several times before they were finished. Even after they thought their job was done, they needed an editor to read the draft and make suggestions and correct grammatical errors.

In other words, you will need time to do it right. Call us if you want to ‘brainstorm’ some topic ideas or other help. We still have time to help before a black hole sucks us back in.