I want to help people go to college: ask me anything

[ursacorwin]

i work in college admissions as a counselor and i've never done this kind of vanity post, but it's a slow work day and i'm feeling chatty.

[TioDiego]

1. Okay ursacorwin here goes.

Red or Green?

[ursacorwin]

7. darlin i'm so red

but today i'm wearing green ;-)

[LARED]

2. My son is starting his freshman year

and is footing the bills himself via loans (+22K) What is the best way to get more money out of the college next year? He is getting about 6K in grants and 2K in work study as well.

Thanks for the advice in advance.

[ursacorwin]

5. getting money out of a school is a bit

of a mix of myth, fact, and hope. it's hard to do, and perhaps not always the right approach for maximizing 'free' money for college.

first off: what year is your son? if he's just going for the first year, there's still time to look into "high school" scholarships in your area and nationally which can offer him money. corporations, religious groups, national service orgs, the list goes on and on. some of these scholarships are a cakewalk, in the sense that they are directed at very specific groups (lutheran bisexual children of nurses) others are more general and open to all. a good place to start for these kinds of scholarships is www.fastweb.com, although there are literally 000s of others. do not pay for scholarship info, but take the process seriously and remember that even little ones add up quickly if you make them a priority.

secondly: how are his grades? most schools don't have *any* merit based monies; it requires a big endowment and a serious attitude about attracting meritorious students. if his grades aren't really good (in the top 5% of his incoming class) he probably won't be eligible for these monies. which is why i believe the "identity" scholarships are easier to get. but if he is a superior student, he should research and apply for all merit based monies his school offers. the admissions and financial aid offices at his school should have details.

next: are you eligible for need based aid? if you are, you should qualify for a number of state and federal aid programs (although bush is busy cutting them) which will reimburse your son for at least some significant portion of his tuition. pell grants are the primary program, but there are others. contact your school's financial aid office and make sure you've submitted the FAFSA (www.fafsa.gov)

and finally: if, and only if, your son is a superior applicant (sports, grades, something else special) then he can *try* to get selective colleges to compete over him. this is dangerous, and only works if both schools have *already* made him some kind of offer. if college X offers him $5K and college Y $6K, you could call college X and say, "we've been offered more at college Y, but John really likes your school better...can you make another offer?" as i said, this is dangerous and really only should be attempted by the most qualified students. if it fails, your son could be viewed as a scam artist, and have his scholarship rescinded. i do not recommend this option.

there are no easy scholarship solutions to college today. this is wrong, and it keeps worthy people out of college far more than any "affirmitive action" programs bring in. the simple fact is almost no one who is not idependently wealthy can go to a good or expensive school without some loan burden. but take heart- payback schedules are as forgiving as can be, and there are many reconsolidation programs to further reduce the already low interest rates. encourage your son to work part time and full time in summers to cut back on his total debt. remind him that opportunities for scholarships exist at every level of his education, and just like a class or a job, he should research them regularly. when it comes to college money, more often than not squeaky wheel gets the grease.

[LARED]

17. Thanks

Based on your advice he will be borrowing a ton of money.

As

His grades are ok, not great, he is a white male with no exceptional athletic ability and I make pretty decent money. (at least according to how they measure those things)

Thanks Goodness he can borrow the money.

[davidinalameda]

3. will you give me $28

the state of California just jacked my tuition!

joking--I need less than 100 posts to break 6000

[meegbear]

4. I have a question ...

How did you pick the handle has ursacorwin?

[ursacorwin]

6. it's a joke

my (much hated) ex was a big bruin (Ucla) fan, and wanted to name his first dog "bruin." but then we got a female, so i said how about ursa? when we split, i promised that i'd tar his name and never let anyone forget what an evil person he was, so i use his last name and his dog's name to post all kinds of liberal ideas all over the internet. now no one believes he's not a liberal...i can't tell you how hot that makes his conservative family! not too funny to outsiders, but sweet revenge for me nonetheless.

[GOPisEvil]

8. Bwahahahaha!!!!

That is fantastic! :evilgrin:

[meegbear]

9. OK ...

I see a bear handle and gender marked as female, I got confused. Thanks.

[Droopy]

10. As a returning adult student (I'm 30).....

Do you know of any grants that I would qualify for? I'm going on loans and my own savings, so it would be nice to have some extra income. I have two years of college from when I was younger with a 3.5 GPA. I've filled out all the federal forms and I didn't qualify for any grants there.

[ursacorwin]

15. there are very few options for returning students

and non traditional students in general. sorry to say it, but the best advice is still for you to look locally. it shouldn't be this way, but the lack of national level scholarships based on merit is a tragedy that affects us all, and forces students like yourself to rely on loans. but take heart, the payment rate is better than credit cards and if you've adult work experience, you should be able to sail thru college smoothly now that you know your priorities.

[cally]

11. Would you recommend honors or AP

courses. I'm a parent of a soon to be Junior who plans to take AP Calculus and Physics next year. She also plans to take honors English and US History. I'm concerned about her workload and I'm also concerned about whether she should take the AP US history instead of the honors US History.

I think the amount of work in AP courses is obscene and honors courses are almost as bad. When I took US History in college, I read 8 to 10 books, wrote two 15 page essays and had a final and midterm. In HS AP history, you have a 10 page essay a week, read a book a week and have multiple exams. Plus they grade harder and teach a more pro-American viewpoint. So, how important are these courses for admissions and do they help enough that it is worth so much extra work?

[goobergunch]

12. I'm taking 4 AP classes next year...

AP Calculus BC, AP US History, AP Physics C, and AP Computer Science A. What I like about AP classes is that you can get college credits for them...for instance, I got a 5 on my AP Calculus AB exam.

[cally]

13. Do you think AP courses are more work

than honors courses? I assume you are entering your senior year by your proposed coursework, so what did you take your Junior year? Also, did you take regular US History before or are you just taking the AP US history? Thanks?

[ursacorwin]

14. from our perspective, AP work is almost always

preferable. (this is a top ten school) AP work is unfortunately still the best nationally employed standard which can tell us how a student will perform in a college classroom. of course not all AP courses are the same, and not all are taught in the same fashion, but a 5 on an AP exam speaks volumes to any admission office.

"honors" on the other hand have no such standards, and thus it can be hard to be sure that there was anything of exceptional merit taught in the class. in many situations, there is hardly any difference between the honors and non-honors class, except that teachers have "tracked" certain students into one group or the other.

of course, not every school even has AP courses, let alone honors, and so in general what i tell my applicants : take the hardest, most demanding class you can in any given subject. if you can, prep for at least one AP exam or SAT II subject test. strong scores there can go a long way, and in some schools are required.

(and IB work is a lot like AP, very positive)

[TNDemo]

16. I have a couple.

My daughter is in her second of three senior years at a state university here (got in her major late) and has zero scholarship. She has an overall average of about 3.3 - 3.4 and an A average in her major, which is interior design (heavy in architecture). There was one small scholarship she applied for with her department last year and did not get it. This year she is president of the local chapter of the national society for interior designers so she is going to try to sniff out some money through that. Do you have any ideas to scout out scholarship money this late in the game for her?

Also, this is just a question out of curiosity. My son was only rejected by one school - Stanford. That had originally been his first choice but now that he has been attending Berkeley he is glad he went there instead and feels that Stanford is really just for rich kids. My nephew got his doctorate there and said he felt that was really true for the undergrads but that the grad students were more middle of the road folks. I often wondered if admissions people look at the ability of the family to pay for the whole four years as a criteria for admission. I really have no reason to gripe - he got into some great schools and has a free ride at Berkeley - I think we just tend to be like the actors who ignore all the good reviews and concentrate on the one bad review. And I have always wondered just how arbitrary the admissions process is - especially when you have lots of great applicants. Do you ever just say - that's it for today - reject the rest of this pile? Or how do you make the decision when it is really competitive?