Panel of Experts

We pick up on our financial aid discussion for junior year and discuss the steps required to ultimately get your financial aid award letter. When and how should you estimate what your family is expected to pay for college? Do all colleges require the same financial aid forms? When will you receive your financial aid award letter, and what can you do if there’s still a major gap between what you’re expected to pay and what you are able to pay? Can you appeal a financial aid award to request more aid? What are the components in a typical financial aid package?

Guest expert Don Betterton discusses what steps you can take in the Spring of your junior year to begin estimating your financial aid profile relative to the colleges on your wish list. (more…)

 

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As a junior in high school (or parent of a junior), what should you do to begin analyzing how to pay for college? What college financial aid process should you follow if you’re just now getting started? Earlier in our talks with Don Betteron, director of financial aid at Princeton University for thirty (30) years, ePrep focused on what parents of younger children can do to prepare for college tuition. Today’s prepcast discusses what high school juniors can do to determine their estimated family contribution and seek help from their college financial aid office. Typically, most junior and senior students are so focused on college applications and SAT test that they fail to consider their ability to pay for the colleges on their wish list. Join us as Don talks about now to use an online financial aid estimator at finaid.org and what to do with the information.

For those looking for more in our series on Financial Aid, we encourage you to review our previous ePrep financial aid posts:

The 16 Things You Should Know (or Do) Junior Year in High School
The 15 Questions You Should Ask About a College’s Financial Aid Program
The Price Tag: You Can Always Say “No”
Paying for College: Pre-High School Savings and Financial Aid

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Boston.com today reported that MIT Dean of Admissions Marilee Jones resigned after it was discovered that she falsified her resume. She served MIT for 28 years. Ironically, Jones was know for speaking out against the teen practice of resume “padding.” For more on the story click here.

For those lucky students who will celebrate Cinco de Mayo by taking the SAT, we wanted to gather some last minute help in one post. We’ve been posting blogs and videos relentlessly on ePrep for almost a year, and the serial nature of blog posts even makes us forget some of the timeless SAT gems we’ve recorded. So, without further delay, here’s our suggested ePrep reading/video list:

SAT Test Day: The Night Before and Morning Of
Real SAT Stories: Second Guessing on the SAT
SAT Directions: Optimize Your Time on Test Day
When to Guess on the SAT Writing Section
When to Guess on the SAT Critical Reading Section
When to Guess on the SAT Math Section
SAT Sentence Completion Questions: When to Guess?
Don’t Blame the Chicken Pox for SAT Math Mistakes
Approach to SAT Math Problems
Habeus Answer, or Show Yourself the Answer!
Mastering Your SAT Test Weaknesses
SAT Questions…Easiest to Hardest
Autopilot – Don’t Set a Course for a Lower SAT Score
A Lesson from a Course in Wills, Trusts and Estates
Bubbling: Avoid Mistakes in Your Answer Key
Please Put Down Your Pencil!
The Dreaded SAT Experimental Section

You can also see EVERY SAT post here. If you have an iPod, we encourage you to subscribe to our free podcasts and take ePrep with you on the go!

One of my current students is a very bright young woman. She has all the raw materials she needs to crush the SAT. Her problem, however, is that she is very impulsive when she takes the test. (Her impulsiveness usually results in a handful of extremely careless errors on any given practice test.)

In a conversation with the student and her mother after a recent session, I found myself asserting the following:

The SAT does not measure or reward potential; it measures and rewards execution.

This is why the SAT is particularly frustrating for teachers and parents. (more…)

Our thoughts and prayers are with families and friends of Virginia Tech. We are all Hokies at this time.

In our continued series with Seamus Malin, a former Harvard admissions officer and administrator, we focus on the various elements of the college application and the importance to ensure consistency throughout. How does an admissions officer create a composite picture of a student through their essay, letters of recommendation, and alumni interview? What are the ramifications of a student purchasing an essay through one of the many online services today and how easy is it for an admissions officer to identify the offense? Acccording to Seamus, now that the SAT requires a written essay, it’s quite easy for colleges to compare your SAT writing (albeit under pressure) with the prose you submit for your application. Click the play button below to start this prepcast on college applications. (more…)

 

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According to an article appearing on the website examiner.com, some students in San Francisco have found a creative way to deal with college rejection letters; its called “Class Rejection Therapy.” Students brought their rejections letters to class where prizes were awarded in categories that included: The student who received the highest number of rejection letters and the college that distributed the most insincere rejection letter (Harvard). Students also reviewed rejection letters for the least number of words before the recipient knew that he/she was getting rejected. Sounds like the therapy session was a lot of fun.

Question: Is it better to take AP classes and receive a lower grade than to take easy classes and receive high grades? According to Seamus Malin, who spent years reviewing applicants as a Harvard admissions officer, “it depends”. While that might not be the answer you’re looking for, in today’s podcast with Seamus we’ll cover everything from AP classes, the risks of academic burnout, and the decline of students’ writing skills. (more…)

 

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College acceptance letters were received this week by students across the country. For those academically elite students applying to “elite” colleges, their definition of “elite” was called into question. No longer is a 4.0 GPA and perfect 2400 SAT test scores a ticket into your college of choice. As the New York Times reported yesterday, “high school valedictorians were a dime a dozen” at Harvard, Yale and Princeton. “There’s a sense of collective shock among parents at seeing extraordinarily talented kids getting rejected.”

Here’s a look at the low acceptance rates of a few top schools:

The rejection of top students does not diminish the importance of academic achievement and scoring high on the SAT. In fact, it points to the increased importance of high grades and SAT scores as a requirement to even be considered at top schools. The difference maker these days appears to be what Seamus Malin calls being “well-lopsided” – showing some particular passion that you can bring to that school’s freshman class. Mere resume building, it seems, doesn’t work anymore.