The Cost of College
It all begins with an idea.
For financial aid purposes, there are five types of colleges:
Public In-State Universities
Public Out-of-State Universities
Private Colleges/Universities
Two-year Colleges
International Universities
What is the difference between public and private universities?
Public universities are partially funded by the government of the state in which they operate.
You pay taxes. Those taxes flow to the state government, which then spends them on the universities funded and operated by the state. In contrast, private colleges mostly operate independently of state influence and funding. As a result, public universities typically have much lower sticker prices than private colleges. That said, this lower sticker price only applies to students who qualify for in-state tuition.
Private colleges are far more likely than public universities to make their net prices flexible through discounts, particularly scholarships.
A private college with a higher tuition could easily drop to the cost of a public university for a student with great academic achievement. Conversely, because public universities already have comparatively low sticker prices for their residents as well as (usually) much bigger applicant pools, earning a scholarship at a public university is far tougher to do unless your state has a built in merit-based program.
Based on these differences, you may already have a good idea of which types of colleges are more likely to offer you an affordable price. And you’re probably right.
Next up…FAFSA 101.
The SAT is changing. What do you need to know?
The SAT is changing
The SAT was scored out of 1600, changed to 2400, back to 1600 and now…No more filling in bubbles or waiting for proctors to collect the exam sheets: The SAT is going digital! (This will not impact the ACT.)
Don’t stress just yet. International students are going to be the first recipients of this change starting this year, but it won’t impact the United States until 2024. The SAT is a multiple-choice exam aimed at predicting "college readiness" among high school students. You are more than just your SAT score, but this exam does signify if you are ready for college-level work. Many universities went test-optional during the course of the pandemic, but schools have the option of reevaluating this decision on a yearly basis. Therefore, it is imperative that your child is adequately prepared to test.
What are these SAT changes? Aside from a new digital format, other adjustments to the SAT include a shortened test, allowance of graphing calculators throughout the math portion and faster results. The SAT will remain on a 1,600-point scale and continue to test skills related to the three subject areas of reading, writing and math.
The new digital test will be adaptive, which changes the level of question difficulty for subsequent questions based on a student's performance. Do we like this? How will this impact your children? As a college counselor, I have mixed feelings about this. Anxiety always plays a role in performance on standardized testing. If your child walks in nervous, then they might answer the first question wrong, which in turn, would immediately drive their score down.
The length of the exam will be reduced from three hours to two. Questions are also going to be more concise. For instance, lengthy reading passages are set to be replaced with shorter versions. Only one question, rather than multiple, will be tied to each reading.
Good news? A graphing calculator will be allowed! The current SAT divides the math section into two parts: a non calculator and a calculator portion. As part of the recent changes, a calculator is now allowed for the entire math segment.
Test results will also be available within a matter of days! No more anxiously waiting weeks for that email!
Due to the many months spent studying online during the height of the pandemic, many students are more comfortable taking tests digitally. The College Board is still figuring out how to accommodate students with learning differences.
The biggest question is whether your child should take the SAT/ACT with the implementation of test-optional. The answer is a resounding YES. If you take the SAT or ACT and are not pleased with your scores, then exercise your test-optional right to not submit them. If they are valuable to you and they could be a differentiator in your college application, then submit them. If you never take the test, you'll never be able to make that choice as you're applying to college.
Are you happy about these SAT changes?
The College Essay
It all begins with an idea.
Are you applying to college in the next few years? How much of your real self should you reveal in your applications? Your college essay is meant to be a glimpse into your story, not your entire life. This is not a resume, transcript or list of achievements. After all, you have 650 words to convey something that the rest of your application does not demonstrate. Therefore, this is not the space to show your grades, extracurricular activities or why you want to attend said university.
I want you to think of your personal statement as a way for colleges to get a sense of who you are through what values, qualities, and skills you’ve developed and will bring to their campus and community. Show who you are through what you value.
How can I give you a sense of who I am through what I value in the span of a few minutes? Why, you ask? Because that’s how long someone tends to spend reading your college application.
I’m not bringing this up to evoke anxiety. I want to manage expectations so that you write in a way that conveys all the beautiful complexity of you in the span of a few minutes.
This essay is also a place for exploration and discovery of yourself!
SHOW GROWTH.
I love when an essay helps me see how a student has grown through their experiences.
GET PERSONAL/VULNERABLE.
Vulnerability can be scary. Especially since we can be trained to think of vulnerability as weakness, which it definitely is not. In fact, it’s one of our greatest strengths. When a student opens up about their worries, fears, or difficulties, I feel closer to them. It feels like a gift when students bravely offer up a part of themselves.
DEMONSTRATE CRAFT.
Don’t try to demonstrate facility with language by using “big words” just for the sake of using big words. Think of someone you know who uses big, shiny words not because they fit the context, but because they want you to be impressed. Are you actually impressed? Unlikely. This will NOT impress admissions.
SHARE YOUR STORY
Don’t tell a story because you think it’s what they want to hear. Tell them about what matters to you, about what has shaped you.
A few important reminders:
Think from your reader’s perspective (for clarity, and for engagement—if you’d be bored, they probably will be too).
Don’t let a parent write/revise—admissions officers are really good at spotting this, and it will be the end of your application.
“The truth is, admission reviewers rarely know—or care—which prompt you are responding to. They are curious to discover what you choose to show them about who you are, what you value, and why.”- Brennan Barnard of The Derryfield School and Forbes
Early Prep is Key
It all begins with an idea.
Top schools saw record numbers of early action applicants again this year and admitted an even smaller percentage. Letting go of perceived control can be one of the hardest parts of parenting. Unfortunately, sometimes uncertainty and our growing lack of agency over our children’s future get funneled into the admission experience as a last-ditch effort to cling on. There are so many factors that go into building a class and, often, there is an overabundance of talented applicants–many of whom could be successful at a given college or university. Being top in your class does not mean an automatic acceptance at a college or university anymore. As more colleges move toward holistic admissions, other factors are becoming increasingly important, including course rigor, GPA, extracurricular activities, essays and in some cases, test scores.
When applying to college, teenagers and their parents often gauge their chances by looking at a university's overall acceptance rate. This statistic rarely tells the whole story.
The application volume for this cycle increased nearly 10% from last year—which itself was up some 10% from the year before that. Over the past two decades, the number of applications submitted to colleges has increased more than 150%, even as the size of high-school graduating classes has remained fairly stable.
I hope this demonstrates just how imperative it is to get the process started early. We will guide you on how to approach this process so as to not feel overwhelmed or have your child get lost in the large number of students assigned to his/her/their guidance counselor.
Wishing you the best. And remember…early prep is key!