Financial Aid & Loans: Considerations for Parents & Students, Part 2

Before we go further, we need to explore debt payments.  With each mortgage payment on my house, I pay off some interest and retire some principal (the amount I borrowed).  Since my monthly interest charge is based on the outstanding (yet-to-be-paid) principal balance of my loan, it follows that, as the balance gets paid down, the amount of interest in each successive payment shrinks and the amount of principal in each payment rises by an equal amount.  Thus, my initial mortgage payments consist mostly of interest owed and retire (to my mind, much too) little principal, but for my final payments, the order is reversed; I’m now paying mostly principal and very little interest.  Plus, if I can pay off a large chunk of principal ahead of schedule, not only does the loan get paid earlier, but subsequent loan payments will also retire a larger percentage of principal (the amount I pay for each future installment remains unchanged, however).  Early (or faster) payoff spares me (the borrower) from having to make additional interest payments, and saves me a chunk of money I’d otherwise have to shell out over time in interest payments on my loan.

Besides applying to mortgage payments, this same form of loan retirement -- with the proportions of interest falling and principal rising through successive installments -- applies to other debt as well, including student loans for college.  Suppose, after you’ve applied to a college for admission and financial aid, that you’ve been offered admission and the college informs you, As part of our financial aid package, we will award you a grant of X dollars per year, and you will incur a loan of $5,000 per year for each of the four years you will be attending, meaning you can expect to incur $20,000 in debt altogether.  One way to think about this is that it’s like buying a car when you finish college -- which is what many students do, so we’ll discuss a loan as though you are paying for a car.

 But wait; there’s yet a little more:

My initial principal loan balance was about $28,000.  I didn’t get any correspondence from my loan provider until I was a senior in college.  When I got an email that said I had accrued $3,500 in interest, it felt huge to me.  I definitely made more than that through on-campus jobs and paid internships during school, and I could have put that money toward my student loans.  If the provider had been sending notices, maybe I would have been sending in money sooner.

Many students don’t understand that interest is accruing on your loans from your first day of college.  Once the grace period expires, that interest is added to your balance, so then you’re paying interest on the interest (emphasis added). -- -Madeline Barr, Chicago Booth Magazine, Fall 2016 ed., pps. 10-11.

From Ms. Barr’s description, it is clear that the meter for interest on borrowed funds starts ticking the moment you register for your first year of college.  And accrued interest is one additional component of a student loan that you should be aware of.  And, oh yes, the loan provider is not the college.

OK, then, so how much should I borrow?  How big a loan do I take out?  (Alternatively, how much should I pay for my new car?  Or perhaps more accurately, how much car do I want to buy -- a Honda Civic or a Rolls Royce? 

“If you can live with the debt, then take it on, and if you cannot then think seriously about attending a college that features a more robust financial aid program or a lower term bill.”

For this question, there’s no pat answer, so I’ll offer up a parable instead.  Over a century ago, an associate of J.P. Morgan had been speculating in securities by buying them on margin, meaning he bought stocks with borrowed money, and he’d borrowed so much that he couldn’t sleep at night because he worried excessively over how precariously far out on a financial limb he had climbed (bankers term this condition highly leveraged).  He mentioned his sleeplessness to his boss and asked how to cure it.  J.P., ever practical, replied, “Sell stock until you are able to sleep comfortably.”  (Bankers and economists have a term for this, too; they call it risk tolerance.)  Note that J.P. did not specify how many dollars worth of securities his associate should unload; that decision, he wisely left to his associate.  And so it is with debt to finance a college education.  Perhaps also worth noting, investor Warren Buffett has a different view on borrowing for speculative purposes, “It’s only when the [financial] tide goes out that you learn who’s been swimming naked.”  Clearly, Buffett, who addresses himself to all who would emulate J.P. Morgan’s associate, is no fan of debt, and had he been J.P. Morgan’s associate, the conversation over speculating on margin would not have taken place.  Whoa!  Wait a minute: is taking out a student loan a form of speculation?  Well, yes, it is.  By applying for the loan, the borrower implicitly places a bet that, after he graduates, he will do well enough financially to not only repay the debt but to accumulate much more wealth as well.

If you are pondering how much debt to take on to help pay your way through college, I couldn’t begin to suggest how much you should borrow, but if borrow you must, J.P.’s advice seems timeless.  If you can live with the debt, then take it on, and if you cannot -- if the amount seems so unduly burdensome that worrying about it would keep you awake at night -- then think seriously about attending a college that features a more robust financial aid program or a lower term bill, someplace for which the loan will be lower, or for which there will be no loan at all.

Our discussion has highlighted three two key points:  how student loans are structured; and, if the borrowed funds are used wisely and repaid, college loans can make an enormous difference in a student’s future -- the tricky part is determining how much to borrow.  In the process, you have been given a free tutorial in finance, which is all about borrowing and (its flip side) lending.

And this brings us to the point in the admissions cycle I came in.  After early admission decisions get handed out, admissions committees across the country will hunkers down to the selection of the remainder of next fall’s entering class.  But there’s no need to go further because we’ve already covered this.

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In closing, I hope I’ve helped explain how the admissions process works for selective colleges and universities, and maybe debunk some myth. The old adage that an ‘informed buyer makes the best buyer’ applies fully here.  This by itself won’t earn you college acceptance; that you must do through your efforts in and outside the classroom.  But I hope it have given you a framework within which to understand the admissions process and thereby helps make the task of applying to college that much sharper and clearer.

Dear Readers, I sincerely wish you the very best luck in your college admission quest.  You will make new, lifelong friends.  Your academic accomplishments will make your family proud, and will reflect great credit on your family, your teachers and your school.  You may endure an impossibly difficult academic regimen, and when it is finished, you will be amazed at what you have been able to accomplish.  I believe that for many of you, regardless of where you end up in college, you will take a class or come upon a teacher who transforms your life.  And for some, college may open up and gain you entry into a world which you could scarcely have imagined to exist.  Best of all, perhaps a few of you may someday be motivated to serve as alumni interviewers for your college!

--Bill Parker

   William B. Parker, University of Chicago (MBA-1978)

   Member, University of Chicago Alumni Schools Committee since 1983.

   Cape Coral, Florida

   December, 2016

Why Your Recalculated GPA Is Important to Know

Throughout high school, everyone stresses your grade point average (GPA) as a large part of your college admissions process. While this is absolutely true, many students and parents do not realize not all grades are created equal. Colleges and universities look at your grade point average differently than your high school. In this post, I want to demystify some of the myths (if you even knew there were any!) about a student’s GPA and how colleges use them.

Words to know for this post:

Unweighted- this simply means the student does not get any extra points for more rigorous courses like honors, dual enrollment, Advanced Placement, and so forth. An A in PE would be the same as AP Human Geography.

Weighted- this GPA takes into account a student’s rigor. More points are awarded for more rigorous courses. The more rigor, the more points. Student class rankings are often determined off of this.

Academic Core- These include all courses taken in English, Social Studies, Mathematics, Sciences, and Foreign Language.

Academic Electives- This is sort of a grey area in college admissions. These are courses that students elected to take but are more academic; examples would be Psychology, Human Geography, Speech. Typically these courses are included in the recalculation.

Electives- Electives are the courses that do not fall in the core. These include classes like physical education, computer, business, arts, study hall, and so forth.

What to Know:

1.       Not all high schools use the same system! Some high schools use weighted or unweighted, some do not even use the traditional 4.0 scale. This is why many schools will recalculate all GPAs based on the scale they want.

2.       Colleges look at and use courses differently in recalculating the GPA.

a.       Some colleges will look at ALL course work taken. This includes not only academic core but all electives. Your student may have got an A in AP English, but why did they fail PE?!? That shows poorly in maintaining your responsibilities.  Typically what is on your transcript is what they use. **Check what your high school does!! Do they provide the unweighted and/or the weighted?**

b.      Some colleges look only at the academic core.

c.       Some colleges look academic core and academic electives.

3.       Most colleges use the weighted GPA as the best indicator for college success. Why? Well, the more rigorous courses you took in high school and did well in is a good indicator to how you will do in college. One director of admissions said this, “We put more weight on gpa than standardized tests (ACT/ SAT) because we would rather have four years of grit than one day of good test taking”.

“Colleges and universities look at your grade point average differently than your high school.”

4.       Colleges also look at what opportunities were afforded to you. Typically your school counselor has sent in a school profile that details what advanced courses they give, average test scores and school programming. This is important for those in small schools that might not have a lot of specialized classes, they often compare you to your fellow peers. However, while you may attend one high school, a lot of time there are multiple opportunities to take more advanced courses online or do Dual Enrollment.

Recalculating GPAs

So how does it work… let’s take a look at some hypothetical students and see how they would fair in college admissions. In these examples I have used what the Florida State University System has stated they use for weighting (+1.0 for all Dual Enrollment, AP, IB, AICE & AVID credits, and +0.5 for honors).

Student #1

Class	Grade	Unweighted	Weighted	Recalculated	College Credits*
AP English	B	3.0	4.0	4.0	3.0
AP Physics	B	3.0	4.0	4.0	3.0
Psychology	A	4.0	4.0	4.0	0
Weight Lifiting	A	4.0	4.0	n/a	0
Pottery	A	4.0	4.0	n/a	0
Honors Probability & Statistics	C	2.0	2.5	2.5	0
Average		3.3	3.75	3.625	6.0

* Possible college credits depending on score on AP test and college accepting credits.

So what you see here is that this student has taken on some AP courses and it helps in their weighted gpa. While they received a B in those classes, the extra 1.0 added to their recalculated gpa by the university makes it equal to a regular course at an A. What you can also see is that taking out the electives of weight lifting and pottery, reduced their overall recalculated gpa because those A’s do not count.

Student #2

Class	Grade	Unweighted	Weighted	Recalculated	College Credits
English	B	3.0	3.0	3.0	0
Pre-Calculus	B	3.0	3.0	3.0	0
Psychology	A	4.0	4.0	4.0	0
Weight Lifting	A	4.0	4.0	n/a	0
Pottery	A	4.0	4.0	n/a	0
Economics	C	2.0	2.0	2.0	0
Average		3.3	3.3	3.0	0

While this student is similar and still taking all the requirements for high school graduation, by not taking on more rigorous courses and not as many core classes, their gpa actually went down once you take out the electives. They become a less competitive student than Student #1.

Student #3

Class	Grade	Unweighted	Weighted	Recalculated	College Credits
Composition	B	3.0	4.0	4.0	3.0
Intro to Psych	B	3.0	4.0	4.0	3.0
Intro to Biology	A	4.0	5.0	4.0	4.0
Statistics	A	4.0	5.0	5.0	3.0
Intro to Philosophy	A	4.0	5.0	5.0	3.0
		3.6	4.6	4.6	16

I had to add this in. As disclosure, I work at a collegiate high school where our students earn college credit on a state college campus. I have a lot of parents looking at our program that ask about the difference between college-level programs like AP, IB, AICE, and AVID. While our students typically take less courses, they often take more core classes. Also, Dual Enrollment courses have an added weight, exponentially increasing their recalculated GPA- thus becoming more competitive for admissions.

If your student still has schedule opportunities (especially 10th & 11th graders), mixing and matching courses to maximize a student’s recalculated GPA could mean a huge difference in their admissions. It is best to plan early, talk with your school counselor to see what programs are available (do your research!!), and suggest to your student to continue taking on more core and rigorous courses all the way until the end of high school!

**As a note, GPA for college admission usually goes from 9th-11th grade. However, you do have to put in what courses the student will be taking their senior year. Admissions do look for a continuation or increase of rigor… it is definitely not a time to get “senioritis” or to slack off in the core area.

As a reminder, GPA is only ONE factor colleges look at when deciding if students would be successful at their college. Other factors include ACT/ SAT scores, extra-curriculars, and personal story. But if you plan well by taking more core classes and more rigorous courses your student will be at an advantage going into the admission cycle.

Do SW Florida Students get into Ivy Leagues? It Could be You! Part 2

Continued from Part 1:  Do SW Florida Students get into Ivy Leagues? It Could be You! Part 1

To repeat, to get in, you need to bring more than just good grades to the table.  What do I mean by “more?”   Well, for starters, teacher and counselor recommendations that say, “my/our best student in the last 10/20/40 years,” or “the best all-around student in the school,” tend to be accorded special favor (Jim Cramer, the Mad Money TV stock analyst, terms a stock that ranks above others in its size and risk class as “the best in show.”  The same applies here).  It also helps if you have accomplished something meaningful -- inside or outside the classroom.  Maybe something athletic:* one of Dick Taliaferro’s kids finished in the top quarter of his class -- a good though not great showing, and ordinarily not enough to merit a second glance from an ultra-selective college -- but he still ended up at Harvard.  Why?  He set the state record for the most career dual meet wins by a Virginia high school wrestler; his wrestling coaches still call him the best high school wrestler they ever coached -- or ever saw.   Hey!  Wait a minute.  You’re telling me that some kid with less than stellar grades got into Harvard just because he’s a jock?  I have better grades, but my chances of getting into HYP&S are still slim.  That’s not fair!  You’re right.  Nobody said the selection process is fair.  Recall, please, my assertion from an earlier post that the admission playing field for selective colleges, especially the Ivies, is tilted.  Recall, also, Dick Taliaferro’s salad bar and reread his wisdom from above.  Also consider that the wrestler in question was no mere letterman, but a highly accomplished athlete; he probably would not be expected to graduate summa cum laude, but if he ended up wrestling in the Olympics, he would carry Harvard’s name, its Veritas imprimatur, on his rock hard gluteus maximus -- which is why it chose to admit him.

Music can also provide a ticket to an ultra selective school:  15 years ago, I interviewed one of the two top high school harpists in the Middle Atlantic states.  She went to Chicago.  In academics, going beyond the textbook can also help:  In a BC calculus class, a sophomore math whiz spontaneously came up with a 5-minute proof that was far more elegant than the convoluted 50-minute proof employed by the teacher, who instantly -- and gratefully -- appropriated it and incorporated it into his course syllabus.  The math whiz not only got into Chicago, but also Caltech, MIT, Princeton and Rice.  Two years ago, regarding an applicant from Bradenton, I wrote, “She is one of the two or three best pure intellects I’ve encountered in 35 years of interviewing,” (in her admissions essay, she revealed, she played with language the way Nabokov does in Lolita).  She got in.  My brother, the college guidance director for a Virginia boarding school, related that his school’s TV quiz show team, which included his school’s brightest and best students, was utterly and singlehandedly destroyed by a single kid from little known E.C. Glass High School in Lynchburg, VA.  The E.C. Glass student would go on to be named a presidential scholar and ended up at Princeton.  Overcoming a major adversity can give an applicant a strong playing card:  ten years ago, the gang leader former boyfriend of a young lady from Chicago’s South Side showed his disenchantment over being informed that she preferred her studies to his company by dousing her face with lighter fluid and then lighting her on fire.  Despite her lengthy ensuing hospital stay, this tough, gritty lady retained her Number 1 class rank in high school and got admitted to the U of C.  Demonstrated ability and talent outside school can also help:  another of Dick Taliaferro’s charges worked over the summer between his junior and senior years at a Northern Virginia auto dealership.  Starting out as a go-fer -- assistant to the general sales manager -- the kid, by summer’s end, had advanced to assistant general sales manager, wore a three-piece suit to work, and was even issued his own business cards.  One of his college recommendations was written by the dealership’s general sales manager.  The kid went to Princeton.  And finally, there’s a family name:  one occasionally reads of a Kennedy at Harvard -- as though that were a birthright -- or Rockefellers anywhere.  (Speaking of birthrights, I read years ago that Harvard still so valued its ties to the Pilgrims that it reserved places for the sons and daughters of Back Bay and Beacon Hill Boston alumni whose ancestors came over on -- or at least not too long after -- the Mayflower (by this measure, the Kennedys are mere come-latelies).  Whether this clearly incestuous, inbred relationship holds today, I cannot say, although I rather suspect it does.  Before you decry Harvard’s seeming Brahmin bias, recall that those offered entry through this portal are exceedingly talented and capable -- dumbos need not apply -- and would be admissible anywhere, including even to (ugh!) Yale.  Moreover, theirs are the families who over the centuries built the university into what it is today, something Harvard is unlikely to soon forget.)  I could go on, but I hope these glimpses of “that something extra” convey some notion of what selective colleges not only hope for in the applicants they admit, but have come to expect.

*I say little about athletic accomplishment because selective schools compete at different athletic levels, and these varied levels of competition bring with them a sliding scale of desirability regarding the admission of jocks.  Duke, Northwestern and Stanford compete in NCAA Division I sports, and thus, leave themselves a little more, umm, leeway in choosing their athletes because they seek to wind up in the Final Four or the Rose Bowl.  So, while their team SAT scores run higher than those of other Division I programs (they tower over all SEC schools save Vanderbilt), we’ll just say that their athletes are expected to perform in the classroom; otherwise, they’re benched!  The Ivies also love athletes, but do not offer athletic scholarships, and their athletes are likewise expected to remain in good academic standing.  Still, they might bend the normal admissions guidelines if a kid can help them beat Yale.  Chicago, which competes at the Division III level, offers no athletic scholarships, but it does field basketball, football and other athletic teams.  Naturally, its coaches try to find suitable athletes to populate their squads, but they know that any candidates they find had better be able to do the classwork; otherwise, they won’t get admitted.

                        This is a good place to pause and ask ourselves, What, exactly, is the Ivy League?  It sounds like more like an athletic conference than a collection of colleges and universities.  Which it is.  Strictly speaking, the Ivy League is composed of eight member institutions (for the record, Brown University in Providence, RI; Columbia University in New York City; Cornell University of Ithaca, NY; Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH; Harvard University in Cambridge, MA; the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; Princeton University in Princeton, NJ, and; Yale University in New Haven, CT) that play each other in sports, just as member schools do in the ACC and SEC and Big 10.  With one partial exception, the Ivies are private, the outlier being Cornell, which, as we explained earlier, is partly private and partly state supported -- there’s no other university quite like it.  But unlike, say, the SEC, whose makeup and public persona seem 99 percent motivated by maximizing public exposure and, especially, revenue from football operations (We have football players!  Students?  Academics?  Who and what are they?),* the Ivies seem motivated first, by academic excellence and, just barely second, by their continued attempts to convince the public that a degree from one of their schools carries an academic and social cachet that cannot be replicated by a degree from an outside institution (Take that, Stanford!).  For academic excellence, they slowly seem to be losing their once-iron grip;** for the latter, they’ve successfully retained their monopoly and pursue it with an intensity comparable to that with which the Mafia safeguards its franchise -- “this thing of ours.”  With each school featuring its own distinct personality, individual Ivies are as different from one another as chalk from cheese.  And with three exceptions, they were founded to train ministers, so, no surprise, most of them boast church-affiliated roots:  Harvard and Yale were Congregational; Columbia was Anglican; Brown, Baptist, and; Princeton, Presbyterian.  Penn, founded by that most famous of Philadelphians, Benjamin Franklin, to prepare men (co-education lay more than a century over the horizon) for careers in commerce, boasts a Quaker affiliation.  Dartmouth was founded to educate Indians, and before the debatable virtues of political correctness set it, its athletic teams were known as the Dartmouth Indians; today, consciously or otherwise evoking their North Woods home -- or maybe its implied ecological connection -- Dartmouth’s teams are known as the Big Green.  In contrast, the Big Red, a/k/a Cornell, is by far the youngest Ivy and at its founding was by far the most radical; it began life co-ed and nonsectarian, characteristics other Ivies would take on a century later.  Following the Civil War, as the nation industrialized and wealth began to accumulate, especially in the Northeast, most Ivies morphed into glorified finishing schools for the sons of the well-to-do.  Most weren’t all that hot, academically.  In fact, it wasn’t until the 1920s when, influenced competition from by new, upcoming research universities like Johns Hopkins and the University of Chicago, they began to hone their focus on rigorous academics and serious research.  Long ago, they played big time sports, just as Duke, Northwestern and Stanford do today (so once did Chicago), but in the early 1950s, perhaps influenced by the U of C, which ten years before had with great fanfare dropped big-time football and out of the Big 10, they decided by mutual agreement to tone down their own athletics and concentrate on academics and research -- except Dartmouth, which is a late comer to the research university ranks.  (The one Ivy that really got snakebit by the de-emphasis in athletics was Penn, which then boasted a Top Five national ranking in football and consistently beat up its sister Ivies as though they were the Little Sisters of the Poor.)  To the general public, by dint of their age, their stature, and (especially) their accumulated wealth, the Ivies have long symbolized the most prestigious destinations for kids heading off to college. 

*Vanderbilt University, a fine private research university in Nashville, TN, provides an exception so conspicuous that I often wonder why it remains in the SEC.  Incidentally, at a post season bowl game a few years ago, at which Northwestern was (predictably) getting whomped by an SEC opponent (Auburn or Tennessee, I forget which), the SEC fans began pridefully chanting, “S..E..C!  S..E..C!.”  The Northwestern stands’ rejoinder was intellectually devastating enough to make up for the score, “S..A..T!   S..A..T!”   

**One can argue that the Ivies, strong as they are, by no means monopolize the best academics among private universities.  Consider a “league” of schools constructed from among MIT, Stanford, the University of Chicago, Duke, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, and perhaps Washington University in St. Louis and Carnegie Mellon.  Plus, NYU and USC are coming on today like Seabiscuit at Santa Anita.  There also exists the little known “Ivy-Plus” consortium of schools that co-operate and pool scholarly resources.  Composed of the eight Ivies plus MIT, Stanford and the University of Chicago, by its mere existence, the Ivies tacitly admit that a few other schools possess academics and scholarly resources equal to their own.

                        All this leads me to what I’ve said before:  if you’re a fine student and want to shoot for the best, there’s no good reason to let cynics, doubters and naysayers quash your dreams.  If a college admissions department closes a door in your face, fine, because you’ve given the application your best effort.  But why slam the door in your own face?  Also, listen to your advisor:  if you want to study, say, science or engineering at MIT or Stanford, and carry B+ grades in math and the sciences, your counselor may dissuade you from applying -- and with good reason; your chances of getting admitted to these schools are exceedingly slim.  But if that same advisor believes you have “the right stuff” and encourages you to try for them, by doing so he or she that signals that he/she likes what you’ve done and will put in strong words on your behalf.  If this happens, then what can you lose by applying?  Keep uppermost in mind that, ultimately, talent and performance win out.

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                Searching for/investigating schools:   Only you know what you want out of college; only you know what sort of school you want to attend, and where you’d like to spend your four college years.  Would you stay in Florida or do you want to experience other parts of the country?  Do you need to remain close to Mom and Dad, or do you want to stretch your wings?  Do you want an urban school, a suburban school, or a school out in the boondocks?  The seashore or the mountains?  Liberal arts or science-and-engineering?  Do you want to study, would you spend four years engaging in social protest, or do you prize big time sports and partying?  In answering these questions, the ball lies solely in your court.  A good way to start is to ask, what subjects do I enjoy?  What do I want to do in life?  My one piece of advice:  look for what you enjoy, something that brings you pleasure and fulfillment, not for something that promises only to earn you money (incidentally, some observers, Forbes Magazine in particular, strongly disagree).  For this search, college guidance counselors can be a wonderful resource.  They may suggest fine schools or programs you might never otherwise consider, and they can help you realistically determine reaches, likely schools and safeties.  Ideally, your family should be made part of this process.  College guide books can be of great help, and can be found in Lee County libraries and in many college guidance offices.  These guides provide treasure troves of useful information, especially regarding the hard numbers associated with the colleges they cover, such as enrollment, number of applicants, percent accepted, yield, SAT/ACT test score ranges, price range, and in one or two cases, overlaps -- schools to which students applying to College X also apply in the greatest numbers.  The best guides also offer up equally useful “soft” information about such topics as the quality of life, the social scene, what the students are like, what the college town or school neighborhood is like, and much more.

College fairs offer wonderful venues in which to learn and explore.  One will be held in Ft. Myers on September 20th.  Here, numerous colleges and universities to be represented, many of them by the reader for your territory, so you may have a chance to meet, introduce yourself and make an impression.  Virtually all Florida colleges will be represented by their admissions officers.  As the proximity of schools represented becomes farther removed from Florida’s borders, expect to encounter more and more alumni substituting for admissions officers -- Hello!  Did I tell you that I represent the U of C at college fairs?   Can’t make it to the fair in Ft. Myers?  No problem, several other college fairs will be held next fall.  There’s an equally good one at Golden Gate High School in Naples the night before and a not-so-good one (fewer out of state schools present) in Punta Gorda the night following.  For the truly adventurous among you, there’s a larger (more schools present than at Ft. Myers, including the most selective ones) college fair scheduled for Sarasota on September 8th at the Robarts Arena (take I-75 to the Fruitville Road exit, head west and the Arena will pop up on the left side of the road).  Yes, it’s 80-90 miles distant, but opportunity-wise, this -- for my money -- is the best college fair south of Tampa.  If you know about these and have lots of questions and choose not to avail yourself of the chance to attend one, you should be hit over the head with a hammer! (Well, maybe not…)  Find your schools, walk right up to the table and ask, ask, ask.  If there’s a large crowd at the table, come back later after it has thinned out.  By the way, this is the appropriate place to inquire about numbers of applicants, students enrolled, percent accepted, SAT scores and GPAs -- in short, the perfect venue for asking questions about schools you don’t know, and the reps all expect these questions.  (Occasionally I get asked, “Do you offer cosmetology?  Communications?  Criminal justice?  Hair dresser?”  My unvarying response, “We love you, but we can’t help you.” Often I get asked, “What’re your school’s average GPA/test scores?” and the response, if the questioners’ own numbers fall within the stated range, invariably brings a visible look or sigh of relief, as though that alone will get them in.  If only they knew!).  Most reps have a 2-3 minute spiel that describes the basics of their school while still trying to perk the interest of kids for whom their school might be a good match* -- I employ one -- and then open the discussion up for questions.

*At the Naples college fair last fall, while I described the intellectual side of Chicago, a young lady clutching the brochure of a prominent Ivy abruptly turned on her heel and walked off.  What she couldn’t know:  her pronounced lack of interest in Chicago academics probably meant that the Ivy whose brochure she held would be unlikely to view her interest with favor.

                        College fairs also offer great starting points in the college search for sophomores, even for freshmen.

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Regarding minority applications:  I’m a minority student.  What are my chances of getting into the schools you describe?   If you have performed well academically, and if you bring interesting, meaningful extra-curricular activities to the table, the chances for some minority applicants are very good.  Why?   Because colleges, both selective and otherwise, have come to view education as the path out of poverty and want, and they are determined to do their bit to help out.  For this reason, they’ll bend over backwards to attract promising minority -- black and Latino -- candidates.  From college admissions posts on the internet over the last two years, reports of applicants being accepted at all eight Ivies -- a rare feat -- are limited to such students.  Moreover, the constraints that restrict the numbers of other candidates offered admission may be relaxed for minority applicants in order to let them in (recall Dick Taliaferro’s salad bar, mentioned in an earlier post).  And yes, if you are a minority applicant you are a commodity, too, but don’t let that, or lack of family funds, deter you from applying.  This desire to attract minority students is a good thing, and given that all good things, such as relaxed admissions standards, eventually come to an end, ride the tide for as long and as far as you can.

I specified “some” minority candidates, though not all.  For Asians, who constitute a separate block of minority applicants, the deck is stacked in the other direction.  Because they outperform other ethnic groups in standardized tests and academics, Asians would seem to deserve preferential treatment, too, by being awarded more places than they receive.  Yet they tend not to be admitted in numbers proportional to their GPA and test scores.  This situation is much like the one that confronted Jews a century ago when they applied to the Ivies, at which they were rewarded for outperforming their goyishe peers by being under-admitted, a disgraceful condition that took far too long to get corrected.  Given that colleges have, implicitly or implicitly, set up racial and ethnic quotas for the admission of blacks and Latinos who underperform other applicants on standardized tests, it should have come as no surprise that a coalition of Asian students has recently sued Yale for racial discrimination -- they want more Asians in Yale -- and it seems highly likely that additional lawsuits may be forthcoming.  How this matter will get resolved only time will tell.  Speaking personally, I would note that through several decades of explicitly reserving places for blacks and then Latinos, it should have come as no surprise that Asians would eventually band together to demand equal even handed treatment, and I’m astonished that it has taken so long for such a suit to be filed.  In that sense, Yale and other colleges are hoist on their own petard.

The Asian students’ lawsuit also serves to underscore the competition for places at the most selective colleges and universities -- nobody is bringing suit over admission to Tijuana Tech -- which brings us back to the notion of selectivity:  the more selective the college, the more subjective the selection process.

That’s probably enough to chew over for the moment.  I’ll return in late summer to discuss applications and interviews.  Until then, enjoy the summer.

Cheers!!

--Bill Parker

Finding Money in Micro-Scholarships: Raise.Me

It is that time of the year when the college process is on the minds of senior students and parents. College visits are being made, applications are starting to be filled out, and the dreaded conversation of, “How much is this going to cost?” is happening.

Photo Credit by: Sal Falko

I will admit I was not a student banking on a full-ride scholarship, but fortunately for me college was much cheaper 20 years ago. However, today you will find website specifically dedicated to finding money for your student to attend college. The biggest issue I have is that students do not often know how much they will be awarded while applying, and it becomes a wait-and-see type of game.

That was before a new scholarship website emerged and is taking earning scholarships to a whole new level. Raise.me has taken a new concept institutional scholarships. Rather than the old, “Apply and wait game”, they now do, “Put in your resume, get scholarship money on the spot, and then apply!” A student will know how much they earn even before they spend the money for an application!

So how does it work? Well, each college determines mini-scholarships for things students do every day at school. Earn an A, earn anywhere between $10-1,500! Play after school activities, another $10-500. Take Dual-Enrollment, AP or IB credits, another $15-2,500. The small micro-scholarships begin adding up quickly. I have seen students earn over $50,000 from Raise.Me!!  Students may also as early as 9th grade year earning scholarships!

All the student has to do is to put in a list of their grades, standardized test scores (ACT/ SAT), list of activities, and select schools they are interested in. Raise.Me then begins the matching process for guaranteed scholarships once the student is admitted. Often these scholarships are stackable with other local, national, and institutional scholarships. The savings can be HUGE!

Think they don’t have your school? They have schools from all over the country like Tulane University, Carnegie Mellon, Oberlin College, Penn State University, Temple University , to name a few. For Florida, colleges such as Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, Barry University, Rollins College, Stetson University, Flagler College, and Jacksonville University. It is a great mix and more are being added each year.

A quick suggestion- before you begin any admission or scholarship application, be sure to write out a thorough resume of all the student’s activities from 9th-12th grade, as well as have an academic transcript handy. This will make your process so much easier, and keep it consistent from one application to another.

Get Smart About SATs

By Cammie McKenzie, M.Ed., MBA

Community Contributor

“Students attain their best standardized test results when they’re well prepared.”

Image credit by: nrjfalcon1

Students who are naturally good test takers may find self-prep for standardized tests effective, while those who may need re-teaching of certain skills may benefit from review classes.”

It is common knowledge that students who wish to go on college must take the ACT or SAT entrance exam. Parents and students alike are usually aware of this step in the college application process and make plans accordingly. Many assume this step is an easy one. For some students, it is. For most students, it is not.

The fact is that many students who expect to do well on these exams, are shocked to discover how unprepared they really are for the SAT and ACT. Students with high GPAs are perplexed to receive scores that are, at best, mediocre. Students who consider themselves to be strong in reading and writing cannot understand why their essay does not score a 12 or why the English section on the ACT seems so difficult. Others cannot begin to accept that they would run out of time during the exam. Parents are equally as shocked when the scores do not seem to reflect the “caliber” of student their child has proven to be in school.

Technically, these students have learned usage and mechanics in grammar, and ,generally, most do know what a rhetorical question is. But few understand how these are presented on the English section of the ACT exam. Similarly, most students know how to read material are able to answer critical reading questions, but few understand that both the SAT and the ACT have unique “style” and “expectation.” In other words, when preparing for the SAT, students must think the SAT way. And the same can be said when preparing for the ACT.

The dilemma might be best summed up this way. Imagine being fully capable of finding your way around town, completing tasks and accomplishing goals. In other words, you are as your child has good ownership of his or her school material. Then, without warning, you are lifted into air and dropped in a foreign land where, despite your many skills, you are at a loss. As to how to proceed given the expectations, rules, and language of this new world. Your failure to do well has little to do with your skill level but much to do with your understanding of “how things get down” in this new place.

IMAGE CREDIT BY: komsomolec

Preparation tips for students and parents

 Plan to begin reviews-whether at home or with a class- at least four to six weeks prior to the scheduled test.

 Consider time management as a critical component of the review process, especially when preparing for the ACT.

 Be sure to understand the difference between the critical reading and English components.

Critical reading is designed to test a student’s ability to read and understand information. The English component focuses on a student’s mastery of usage and mechanics. In other words, the English section presents what students know as grammar. Most students will benefit from in depth review of the basic rules of grammar.

 ACT/SAT self-prep can be effective for the student who is disciplined and already has a good command of the math verbal skills required on these standardized exams. Students who are also, by nature, good test takers can generally find working through practice tests on their own very productive.

 Classes or tutorial sessions will benefit those students who are not good test takers and those who may need reteaching of basic reading comprehension, grammar or math skills.

 The ACT contains a science component which tends to intimidate many students. Contrary to what most think, this section requires more skill int eh area of reading comprehension than it does in the area of science.

 Some students may choose to take their first SAT/ACT exam without preparation to establish a benchmark of sorts. Others choose to attend Learning in Motion for reviews prior to the first exam with the intention of using their initial scores as a guide for additional tutoring to increase scores where needed.

 Learning in Motion suggests students complete at least three verbal and two math sessions in preparation for their exam.

Cammie McKenzie is an education specialist and the owner of Learning in Motion Tutoring, which offers private, one-on- one SAT/ ACT review session throughout the year. She can be reached at 239- 415-0029 or at learninginmotiontutoring.com.