Programs for Education

For many years now the SAT, ACT and PSAT tests have been a “right of passage” on the way to college acceptance. It has spawned a hugh test prep industry with too many options to count.  But a student who finds and applies him or herself to a universally effective test prep program could be offered significant Merit scholarships from some very good colleges!

That is the  GOOD news. But there is BAD news too.
The BAD news is that such a test prep program is very hard to find.  But the real GOOD news is that we have found it for you!

It is EPrep.com. Check it out NOW.  Take the eye-opening ~ “light bulb above the head” FREE tour complete with 30 sample SAT questions. Then give us a call at (978) 582-0273 so we can discuss the best program (at special reduced prices) for you.

Best wishes for college acceptance to the colleges of your choice,
Eric Goodhart 
help@SmartCollegePlanning.org

It seems like yesterday that I was sweating over the impending SAT test in high school. The memory stays with me because I work with bright-eyed high school kids every day.  I feel their pain. 

In late winter and early spring  juniors with college aspirations are intent on preparing for the most important tests in the college planning process. The last half of the junior year is replete with tests; the SAT is not the only one.

SAT II Subject Tests, the ACT test, Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests may also be on a high school junior’s calendar, not to mention mid-terms, ‘POP’ quizzes (my favorite) and final exams. 

To make it more confusing, the College Board last year changed its’ policy as to SAT score reporting. Even with that new change, there will still be many competitive colleges that will want to receive ALL the test scores a student took, not just a self-selected few. (Check each college’s website using the AAA method to find out their policies.)

By the way, here is a graph that  compares the SAT scores in Reading and Math to the ACT. Some students may do better in the ACT if they have an overall higher GPA in all five core academic subjects. In addition, many colleges will except strong ACT composite scores in lieu of SAT II Subject tests.  

Reflecting upon my high schools years, Princeton was just the name of a University, not of a test prep organization. Today there are so many test prep companies, test prep tutors, books, and websites that one can be overwhelmed by the choices.

The question is which one, if any, should you invest your time and money? But the question is not “IF” anymore because high test scores not only enhance admission chances, but could result in thousands of dollars in merit scholarships from some very good colleges.

That used to the big question until I found this one.  Ironically, it was created by two Princeton University graduates, Eric Barnes and Karl Schellscheidt. They have done a brilliant job in putting together a fun easy to follow method to prepare for not just the SAT, but the ACT and the Math II Subject test. 

Here is a summary of their philosophy on Standardized Test Preparation. It will reveal some of the reasons why students are getting 200 to 300 higher scores on their SAT after prepping with EPrep.com.     

If you would like to take advantage of one or more of EPrep’s programs give us a call and ask about the special discounts (up to 25%) we offer.  

If you have a junior or sophomore, call today! Time is on your side today and could mean literally thousands of dollars of toward college tuition costs tomorrow.

As I look at the February calendar, I am reminded of two things. One: This is not a Leap Year and we do not have an extra day to accomplish everything we want. Two: It is time to look at our College Planning Timeline to see what needs to be done now…or by now.

With college costs and student debt continuing to go up, we recommend to all families to complete a “Dry Run” as soon as the freshman year. (Step three in the timeline.) The biggest benefits of doing this early are that it will keep you out of the hospital (sticker shock) and lessen the need to borrow unecessarily for college. College financial aid policies are changing frequently. The middle and upper-middle income families are not helped by these changes.

Look at this announcement made this week at Williams College. Several other competitive colleges will be following suit. You will have more time to explore your options and understand the many different financial aid methodoligies college use, when you do a “Dry Run” long before high school senior year. 

Therefore, one of the steps that is paramount to high school planning is becoming aware of the true costs of college and taking realistic steps to ensure that the colleges on a child’s list are not only academically and socially suitable, but are affordable. If you have not done this yet, then what are you waiting for?  Student debt as shown in this recent study is out of control, college graduates need not graduate with a mountain of debt.

At a recent high school workshop I gave, a parent asked what is the most common mistake a family makes in the college planning process. Good question with an easy answer: Not doing a realistic estimate of the “bottom line” cost of the colleges on their child’s list.

The Dry Run is the first step on the way to a solution.

If you know a family with high school sophomores or juniors this is the best time for the former and a priority for the latter to complete a Dry Run with us now.  

There are 72 colleges in the country that have some sort of “no-loan” policies. But  colleges are making adjustments because money (credit)  is tight for them too. Loan and merit scholarship policies at most colleges in the last few years have changed. How those changes effect a family depends on the college and the profile of the applicant.  To learn how your student will be assessed by the college admissions committees at his or her colleges, call us today.

Williams College Nixes No-Loan Student-Aid Policy After Endowment Falls

By Ashley Marchand

Williams College is eliminating its no-loan student-aid program that began in the fall of 2008, saying that it can no longer afford the policy because of its battered endowment.

The college in Massachusetts, which has a sticker price of $49,880 a year, was one of more than 40 in the United States that have no-loan or limited-loan student-aid programs, which eliminate or cap loans for students with demonstrated financial need and replace them with institutional grants and scholarships.

It is one of a number of selective private colleges—at the time buoyed by swelling endowments—that announced no-loan policies in quick succession in 2007 and 2008. Then the bottom fell out of the financial markets, and colleges’ endowments plummeted. Williams’ dropped from $1.9-billion in June 2008 to $1.4 billion a year later.

Now, in a letter dated Sunday, the college’s interim president announced that its no-loan program will end in the fall of 2011. “Williams is in a strong financial situation by virtually any comparison—except with that of the Williams of three years ago,” William G. Wagner, the interim president, said in the letter.

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Another “Age Old Question” 

If you are a current college student, are you always being asked, “What is your major?” 

If you have one, why did you pick that one?  Does the question annoy you because you feel that you are going to have to explain your decision? Perhaps you are not even sure why, thus making you feel more uncomfortable. 

I completelly understand if you are. But if you have already completed our insightful self-assessment and still are not comfortable with your academic direction, return to that online link now. It is resource to access all during your college years. (Call me if it has been misplaced.) One of things that we help students with while they are still in high school is to identify their innate characteristics. That is, what are their natural strengths and weaknesses that make up their core personality?  

Personalities, (barring some chemical changes in the body) pretty much remain the same throughout our lifetime. Interests, aptitudes and attitudes change. So, why not understand and appreciate who you are and explore the possibilities that stem from there? 

Our educational system is set up to take us from secondary school, where we are supposed to get a solid grounding in the basic academic subjects, and then on to college where we get to pick the courses we want.  Assuming college is necessary, however, are you in college to learn what you want, or are you there to learn what someone else wants? Whether it is a well-intentioned parent or prospective employer in a field that you are told, “pays well”? 

Recent Stanford University graduate, Scott Keys, has shared what I believe to be a very helpful insight relating his observations and recommendations. Hopefully, you are getting the kind of advice from your college advisors as to choosing a major that is personal to you and not “cookie cutter”. 

As he says, choosing a major is an important decision and “students are right to seek outside counsel when figuring out what they want to study”. Give us a call or contact us at the right, if you want to explore the possibilities. It all starts with a FREE “get acquainted” conversation.

Stop Asking Me My Major 

By Scott Keyes 

One of my best friends from high school, Andrew, changed majors during his first semester at college. He and I had been fascinated by politics for years, sharing every news story we could find and participating in the Internet activism that was exploding into a new political force. Even though he was still passionate about politics, that was no longer enough. “I have to get practical,” he messaged me one day, “think about getting a job after graduation. I mean, it’s like my mom keeps asking me: What can you do with a degree in political science anyway?” 

I heard the same question from my friend Jesse when students across campus were agonizing about which major was right for them. He wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to study, but every time a field sparked his interest, his father would pepper him with questions about what jobs were available for people in that discipline. Before long, Jesse’s dad had convinced him that the only way he could get a job and be successful after college was to major in pre-med. 

My friends’ experiences were not atypical. 

Choosing a major is one of the most difficult things students face in college. There are two main factors that most students consider when making this decision. First is their desire to study what interests them. Second is the fear that a particular major will render them penniless after graduation and result in that dreaded postcollege possibility: moving back in with their parents. 

All too often, the concern about a major’s practical prospects are pushed upon students by well-intentioned parents. If our goal is to cultivate students who are happy and successful, both in college as well as in the job market, I have this piece of advice for parents: Stop asking, “What can you do with a degree in (fill in the blank)?” You’re doing your children no favors by asking them to focus on the job prospects of different academic disciplines, rather than studying what interests them. 

It is my experience, both through picking a major myself and witnessing many others endure the process, that there are three reasons why parents (and everyone else) should be encouraging students to focus on what they enjoy studying most, rather than questioning what jobs are supposedly available for different academic concentrations. 

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Contrary to what you may have been told, the purpose of college is not necessarily “to get a good job”. Though that is the most common answer I get from a student I ask this question, it is not often the result. But the odds can be increased if certain steps are taken before the student enrolls in college.

Through a series of conversations and assessments, we try to identify what a “good job” is for the individual. What a “good job” is for one person is an awful job for another.  If college is indeed the next step after high school, then how does one’s future academic concentration (or major) prepare one for that good job?

The statistics seem to show that the average student changes majors more than twice during college years. How does one narrow the myriad of choices down to one…or two?

Many less competitive colleges are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of providing the kind of academic advising that are more matched to the individual student. They realize that with the cost of college not getting any cheaper, if they are to stay in business the curriculum needs to be more relevant than ever before.

Most parents plan for their children to follow a four-year course of study. Changing majors and spending more time in school will quickly drain college savings and contribute to debt. That is why we recommend all students take some time to do some serious self-reflection while they are still in high school.

“Yea, right!” I hear you say. “To get my son to sit down do some “self-reflection” is like telling our Shih Tzu puppy to sit still when someone comes to the door.”

Yes, it is a challenge; but one worth taking on. For more information on how to identify not only appropriate colleges, but academic concentrations as well, give us a call.

Making College ‘Relevant’

By KATE ZERNIKE

Thomas College, a liberal arts school in Maine, advertises itself as Home of the Guaranteed Job! Students who can’t find work in their fields within six months of graduation can come back to take classes free, or have the college pay their student loans for a year.

The University of Louisiana, Lafayette, is eliminating its philosophy major, while Michigan State University is doing away with American studies and classics, after years of declining enrollments in those majors.

And in a class called “The English Major in the Workplace,” at the University of Texas, Austin, students read “Death of a Salesman” but also learn to network, write a résumé and come off well in an interview.

Even before they arrive on campus, students — and their parents — are increasingly focused on what comes after college. What is the return on investment, especially as the cost of that investment keeps rising? How will that major translate into a job?

The pressure on institutions to answer those questions is prompting changes from the admissions office to the career center. But even as they rush to prove their relevance, colleges and universities worry that students are specializing too early, that they are so focused on picking the perfect major that they do not allow time for self-discovery, much less late blooming.

“The phrase drives me crazy — ‘What are you going to do with your degree?’ — but I see increasing concerns about that,” says Katharine Brooks, director of the liberal arts career center at the University of Texas, Austin, and author of “You Majored in What? Mapping Your Path from Chaos to Career.” “Particularly as money gets tighter, people are going to demand more accountability from majors and departments.”

Consider the change captured in the annual survey by the University of California, Los Angeles, of more than 400,000 incoming freshmen. In 1971, 37 percent responded that it was essential or very important to be “very well-off financially,” while 73 percent said the same about “developing a meaningful philosophy of life.” In 2009, the values were nearly reversed: 78 percent identified wealth as a goal, while 48 percent were after a meaningful philosophy.

The shift in attitudes is reflected in a shifting curriculum. Nationally, business has been the most popular major for the last 15 years. Campuses also report a boom in public health fields, and many institutions are building up environmental science and just about anything prefixed with “bio.” Reflecting the new economic and global realities, they are adding or expanding majors in Chinese and Arabic. The University of Michigan has seen a 38 percent increase in students enrolling in Asian language courses since 2002, while French has dropped by 5 percent.

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Here is the reason why one particularly talented student chose Yale. WARNING! If you do not have a sense of humor or appreciate “out of the box” creative thinking by college students,  avoid watching this video. 

Borrowers Beware

Recently I have been asked to help recent college graduates who are faced with enormous student debt. In some instances they have had taken co-signer loans while in college. Those lenders like Sallie Mae were offering them in incredible amounts over the last 10 years. The rules varied as to when (and if) the credit worthy cosigner would be released from the obligation.

In 90% of the cases that will never happen and the lenders know that.  

This article is about the misinformation and complex terms in college lending. Unfortunately, Congress over the years has been heavily influenced by the lending companies (now being bailed out by taxpayer money) and the colleges themselves.

None of them have the student’s long-term best interest as a priority. That is a shame. To get a quick understanding of the problem listen to this.

At Programs for Education, we have options ambitious students can take advantage of to pay off their debt faster. If you know of any student facing enormous debt now or in the future, give us a call.  Many families are paying for college from cash flow alone with this program.

In addition. all current students can learn about the various loan forgiveness and debt relief programs for graduates entering certain fields of employment. In the meantime If a student is considering future college costs, now is the time to do a “Dry Run” to see how much they may have to borrow, if at all.