Evaluating financial aid letters

A web site called FinancialAidLetter and belonging to U.S. News and World Report was recently launched. What makes the site interesting is that they post some actual financial aid award letters and evaluate them on the clarity of the information provided.

The web site currently has 5 letters written to actual financial aid recipients which are given a grade depending on the information provided in the letter. It may be helpful for students and their parents to see some actual financial aid award letters to see what they look like and to see some of the possible information included (or not included). The site indicates that they will be including more financial aid award letters which would provide even more help for students.

The web site also offers a glossary of financial aid terms as well as some financial aid tips. This portion of the web site is less helpful as the financial aid definitions include so many terms and often in such detail that people not familiar with the financial aid process may get confused. Also the tips are not as well organized as they could be to help people understand the financial aid process.

The Future of College Admissions

With all of the recent news about the record low admission rates at some of the countries best known colleges I thought it might be a good time to discuss the future of college admissions. The National Association for College Admission Counseling recently issued their 2006 report on the state of college admissions which discusses many factors surrounding college admissions.

One of the more discouraging facts is that college enrollments are expected to continue to increase until 2014. That means for at least the next 7 years the number of students applying to college will increase and the acceptance rates at many of the well known colleges will continue at levels that make acceptance extremely difficult even for the best qualified students.

Several other facts may be important to students applying to college in the future. The number of women applying to college again greatly exceeded the number of men applying. For the most recent year reported, women submitted 58% of the applications nationally while men only submitted 42%. Many colleges seek to have a fairly balanced ration of women and men which means that men may find acceptance somewhat easier at many colleges.

Almost 50% of the applications were submitted online and the trend is for that number to continue to increase in the future. This should ease the concern of those people who have been hesitant in the past to file their applications online.

Finally, my favorite statistic is that despite the increase in the number of students applying to college, the average four year college acceptance rate is still at 70%. While the colleges that accept fewer than 30% of their applicants make all of the headlines on the dire nature of college admissions, there are thousands of colleges where admission is not such a difficult proposition.

If you are applying to one of the highly selective colleges, good luck. Just make sure that you have a safety college chosen from among those colleges with higher acceptance rates.

Financial Aid at Top Colleges

The New York Times has published a helpful financial aid chart for those students looking at some of the top colleges in the country. For each college the chart lists the cost of the college, the average need based grant, the average self help aid and the average non-need grant.

This is a helpful way to compare the average financial aid packages for a variety of colleges. Most helpful may be the comparison of the self help portion at each college. Self help includes loan as well as work study. The Ivy League schools range from $1,700 average self help at Princeton up to $7,900 at Cornell University. It is interesting to note that Cornell College in Iowa, a small liberal arts college, had an average self help aid of $3,900.

Of course we will again warn about relying only on such information because it does involve averages which can be misleading without further information. But this provides one more piece of information that students can use to evaluate likely financial aid packages before applying to college.

College Student Blogs

Wondering what that college you are looking at is really like? Many colleges have started putting blogs on their websites with comments from admission officers, students or sometimes both. Although some colleges monitor student blogs, some colleges are more hands off and allow totally honest comments from their students to be seen.

A recent article in bostonworks.com has a good article about some of the blogs used by colleges. The article lists several colleges blog sites but many more colleges have blogs. If you are considering a college and want more information check to see if it has a blog. They can usually be found on the admissions web page. Of course, like everything else coming directly from the college, remember that it is just one person's view of that college and generally a pretty optimistic one. Still a blog from the college or its students give you one more bit of information to see if the college would be a good fit for you.

Campus Safety

With the tragedy at Virginia Tech still fresh, a discussion of campus safety seems appropriate. Although nothing can totally prevent the type of tragedy that occurred, students should consider the issue of safety when examining the colleges where they may be spending the next 4 years.

All colleges are required by law to report certain standard information about crime on and near their campuses. Here are some websites to review how safe your college choices are.

The US Department of Educations publishes campus security statistics which can be accessed by different criteria.

Security on Campus is a non profit organization that also tracks crimes on college campuses.

Although these web sites provide information about safety on and near campuses, there are some things to keep in mind. First, not all colleges report data in the same way particularly for less serious crimes such as underage drinking. At some colleges, this is considered an internal issue and not reported as a crime. Second, the fact that a campus is reporting crimes is not necessarily a bad thing. It may be that the campus is strict in its enforcement of criminal activity and as a result reports a higher crime rate than another campus that is less strict. If you see reported criminal activity that is a concern, you should talk to safety personal at the college in question as well as students and others on that campus to get their input on the perceived safety of the campus. On the other hand, if the campus reports virtually no criminal activity, you will also want to ask questions. No place is free of all crime and any college that so indicates may be covering up serious issues. Again, asking lots of questions is the best thing you can do to get the information needed to make the choice of which college to attend.

Behind the scenes look at financial aid

US News recently had the opportunity to sit in one some financial aid decisions at Pomona College.

For people not familiar with the process this is an interesting look behind the scenes. The most interesting note to me in the article was the comment that in person appeals are particularly persuasive.

A note of caution, however, lest you believe that financial aid is this accommodating at all colleges. As noted in the article Pomona has a very large endowment per student and can afford to be generous with their financial aid packages. Most schools outside of the highly selective colleges will not meet the full need of each of their students. Moreover, I doubt that most colleges would adjust down a parents stated assets even if the parent were too optimistic in valuing property.

On a wait list? Here are some options.

It is that time of year that students who are on a wait list must decide what they are going to do. Do you accept the wait list? If you do, how do you increase your chances of getting off the wait list?

First, before deciding what to do with the wait list, review the colleges that have accepted you and decide which would be the best choice for you. Even if you decide to have your name put on the wait list there are no guarantees and you need to make sure you have confirmed attendance at one of the colleges that have accepted you.

Second, review your options before deciding on whether to put you name on a wait list. It may be that your best choice is one of the colleges that accepted you. In that case, don't worry about getting on a wait list. If you decide that you would like to consider the option of attending the college that put you on the wait list, then go ahead and notify the college that you wish to be on the wait list.

Third, if you put your name on the wait list, how do you improve your chances of acceptance? If there have been any improvements in your grades or any new honors be sure to inform the wait list college of this new information. If the wait list college is your first choice college if accepted, let the college know that fact. If a college accepts students off the wait list, they prefer to accept students who are likely to accept their offers. Students will sometimes want to visit the college again to show their interest in attending the college. Usually, this is a waste of time unless the college requests to interview you or has some other reason to come to campus.

What do you do if placed on multiple wait lists? You certainly can put your name on multiple wait lists. The problem with accepting multiple wait lists is the issue of telling a college that they are your first choice if accepted off the wait list. While many students will tell multiple colleges that they are the first choice if accepted, this really is not ethical. It is better to decide what your first choice college is and accept the wait list for that college. If you want to accept another college's wait list, do so but don't tell them they are also your first choice if accepted.

The bottom line to wait lists is to accept the reality that most colleges have many more students offered a wait list position than they would ever have the opportunity to accept. For example, last year Amherst College offered wait list spots to 1261 students of which 565 accepted a spot on the wait list. Only 2 of those students were admitted off the wait list. Some colleges have more students accepted off the wait list and some colleges don't accept any off the wait list. If you want to know about the college you are considering, ask the college how many people were offered a position on the wait list and how many were accepted off last year's wait list. That should give you some estimate of how competitive the wait list is at that college.

If you decide to accept a wait list position, good luck. You may be one of the chosen.

Are Elite Colleges Open to Everyone?

A new book entitled "The Power of Privilege: Yale and America's Elite Colleges" has just been released. This book argues that the meritocracy that Yale and other elite colleges have been pushing as the new reality is not as available as the colleges would suggest. Here is the description of the book from its publisher, Stanford University Press.

"It is widely assumed that admission to elite U.S. universities is based solely on academic merit—the best and brightest are admitted to Harvard, Yale, and their peer institutions as determined by test scores and GPA, and not by lineage or family income. But does reality support those expectations? Or are admissions governed by a logic that rewards socioeconomic status while disguising it as personal merit?

The Power of Privilege examines the nexus between social class and admissions at America’s top colleges from the vantage point of Yale University, a key actor in the history of higher education. It is a documented history of the institutional gatekeepers, confident of the validity of socially biased measures of merit, seeking to select tomorrow’s leadership class from among their economically privileged clientele. Acceptance in prestigious colleges still remains beyond the reach of most students except those from high-income professional families. Ultimately, the author suggests reforms that would move America’s top schools toward becoming genuine academic meritocracies."

I have not yet had a chance to read this book but it looks like an interesting read.

Inside Higher Ed reported on this book and also addressed the argument that some make that this book paints too bleak a picture of how elite colleges have changed in the recent past.

Another recent study about who attends college was issued by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. This study was reported on by boston. com.

Issues of how much a college have changed are always subject to subjective arguments. However, for students considering admission to an elite college, the issue of who may be admitted is a very real issue. For such students the more information available the better.

Beware lying on your application

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that colleges are getting more aggressive in making sure that the information they receive from applicants is accurate. For years colleges have relied on students to be honest in the information provided in applications. Now, because of some identified problems, and because more information is available, colleges are in part able to try to verify information submitted by students.

The University of California system now conducts random spot checks asking about 10% of applicants to verify their activities, grades and facts from personal essays. Harvard has added a professional background checker to their undergraduate admissions staff.

The bottom line is don't lie or exaggerate the information you provide on your college applications. Yes, you should present yourself in the best possible light. But communicate who you really are, not some person you created to get admitted.

The National Association for College Admission Counseling has reprinted the whole article.

Estimating your FAFSA result just became easier

The federal government unveiled a new website this week called FAFSA4caster. This web site allows families to enter their financial information to get an estimate of what their families expected financial contribution would be. Before this there were several websites that would allow families to enter their financial information to get an estimate of what they might owe. This web site, however, should be a more accurate estimate since it uses the same information as the actual FAFSA.

The results of the FAFSA4caster is not official and has some minor differences from the FAFSA. For instance, the FAFSA4caster does not ask about drug convictions or require electronic signatures. However, for most people, this should provide the most accurate estimate of what their actual FAFSA results will be.

You're admitted; just not right now

It used to be simple when colleges sent out their admission letters. Either you were accepted or you weren't. But more colleges are now offering delayed admission where you are admitted but not until the second term. This is often confusing for students who aren't sure what the college is telling them. Is the college saying you aren't really good enough but we will let you in anyway after everyone else? Is the college saying we want you as a student but just don't have enough room?

Don't worry about why you received a late admission letter. The bottom line is you have been admitted and you need to make your decision on what to do based on that fact. If you are considering a late admission option, however, there are several things to consider.

First, what are you going to do for the first term if not attend the college? Many colleges that admit students by late admissions have programs available that they offer to these students often overseas. You also have the option of attending another college, typically a community college, to gain extra credits before starting your desired college. Some students use this opportunity to volunteer their time somewhere they can be useful or travel to expand their horizons.

Second, if you are not joining your classmates until the second term, you will want to know how many other students are going to be in the same position and what programs does the college offer to orient late admission students to the campus. One of the concerns of a late start is the lack of socialization that can occur with students that don't begin their college experience with all of the other freshman. Most colleges offering late admissions are aware of this concern and provide some orientation to late admission freshman but it is best to ask.

Third, you may wish to know whether you will be able to earn sufficient credits during your time at the college to graduate with the class that started in the fall or whether your graduation will be delayed. Most students who have a late admission still prefer to graduate with the students that began in the fall if possible.

If the college offering the late admission is your first choice college, don't let a different type of admission turn you off. Simply consider your options and the answers to these questions to make the best decision for you.

Being denied admission isn't the end of the world

I have often said that for every student there are a number of great colleges available. A person does not need to go to an Ivy League University or other highly selective college to make their life worthwhile. What a student does once they go to college is much more important in the long run than the college that the student attends. If you received a thick envelope the past few weeks to the college of your dreams, congratulations. But if you didn't and you are looking at attending one of your match colleges or even your safety college, remember that this country is fortunate in having thousands of great educational choices available to students. If you did your research well before choosing the colleges to which you applied, you should do well regardless of where you attend.

Richard Shaw, the dean of admissions at Stanford, wrote this week in the Los Angeles Times about this very issue. I recommend reading what Mr. Shaw has to say about keeping the big picture in mind when reviewing your college acceptances.

Financial aid made even more confusing

This week we have several reports out that financial aid officers at some leading colleges have personal investments in their colleges preferred lender program. These reports are coming out after the New York Attorney General began an investigation into some of the financial aid practices of some colleges in this country. The New York Times is reporting this week that the financial aid directors at Columbia University, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California held shares in Student Loan Xpress which is a preferred lender at all three colleges. Even if we assume that the investments by these financial aid directors is simply an investment the appearance of improper dealings is hard to argue against. On the other end of the spectrum, to what extent did these directors take advantage of their students by recommending a lender that they had an interest in?

The world of financial aid is complex enough without students having to worry about whether they are being ripped off by the very people who are deciding how much loan burden they will have to carry.

Record number of students apply to some colleges

Many of the most selective colleges have now reported their admission numbers for the class of 2011. As expected, for many of these colleges it was more difficult to get admitted this year than ever before.

The New York Times published an article today providing admission numbers at many of the most selective colleges. Some highlights include Stanford accepting 10.3%, Harvard accepting 9% and Columbia accepting 8.9%. Amherst, Williams and Bowdoin all reported record numbers of applications. The National Association of College Admissions Counselors noted on their web site a Wall Street Journal report on numbers from more schools including the University of Pennsylvania which accepted 15%, Dartmouth which also accepted 15%, Kenyon which accepted 29% and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill whose acceptance rate was down to 33%. On the other hand Yale's applications fell almost 2,000 this year which will result in a slightly higher acceptance rate although still extremely low.

So is there any good news?

The good news is that is is much easier to gain acceptance to most colleges. The average acceptance rate of all of the 2,500 four year colleges and universities in this country i 70% and many great colleges have acceptance rates even higher. The quality of a college does not necessarily equal the acceptance rate.

Free SAT and ACT testing offered by Princeton Review

Princeton review has announced that they will be offering free SAT and ACT exams on April 28, 2007 in various locations around the country. They are also offering students the opportunity to take the Princeton Review Assessment which they say is a test to "expose you to both the SAT and ACT. It’s a measurement tool that can help you determine if you would score higher on the SAT or ACT." I have not seen this review assessment before but I assume it has portions of standardized tests similar to both the ACT and the SAT to see on which you perform better.

Presumably there will be a discussion at each site on why you should register to take a review course with Princeton Review. Despite that, it may be helpful for some students to consider taking a free exam under standard testing conditions to see how they perform without having to worry about reporting a score. After you get your score, if you don't do as well as desired, take several weeks to consider your options. Some people can prepare for standardized tests by themselves using resources available on the web and in any major bookstore. If you decide you wish to use a test preparation company then you can investigate the various options without the pressure from any particular company.

The web site describing the free tests and allowing you to search for the locations nearest you can be found at Princeton Review.