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If I had to do it all again my first piece of advice would be to have a very frank family discussion about financial responsibility. It is so heart-breaking to see a kid get into the college of their dreams, and then not be able to attend due to financial concerns. Yes, all the website of the uni's will say they will meet "need", but that can mean a host of different things. Scholarships, Grants and LOANS.
Learn about the FAFSA and what your family's EFC will be. You can go here: https://www.collegedata.com/cs/promo...rrer=GoogleEFC to help learn. If you have a good idea about what your EFC will be, then when you are picking your schools to apply to (reach, match and safety's) you can also make sure that there are some financial safety's included in those.
Some schools also use the College Board Profile form because the FAFSA doesn't always give an accurate view of the family's finances. As a counselor, I would encourage the student to apply to any university they are reasonably qualified for. If the student really wants to attend, some universities will bend over backwards to give them the aid that they need.
We had to fill out the profile and the fafsa for a couple of years while both kids were in college, but it's not as if it's your choice - the colleges will tell you which one they want. As far as I know, no public colleges ask for the profile at all.
Too many parents tell their kids that they can apply anywhere but then don't give them a bottom line, not realizing how very expensive the bottom line can be. It's also amazing how much a difference there can be in the amount of financial aid is offered. My son applied to about 9 schools and the amounts of aid varied from zippo to $15,000.
Location: Just transplanted to FL from the N GA mountains
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Too true TBT. As you remember the boy applied to 7, got accepted to 7 (undergrad), and his non-repayable aid varied from 0 to 26,000.00 per year. Of course, then when you add our EFC, we still had to provide out of pocket expenses, totally a pretty penny. Which is something else new parents need to be aware..... Check out how scholarships are renewable. Does the child need to maintain a certain GPA to keep? If they don't when is it lost? Is it renewable to begin with? Do you need to re-apply each year?
What amazed me then, and still does, was the fact that our home State University was no more economical then what his private university was after all was said and done. We didn't have to do the Profile with any of his options... 3 State Universities and 4 privates.
I think the one other thing that I remember the most was that it was all about the fit. Because he choose according to fit, not USWNR rankings, he would have been happy at any of his 7. His ultimate decision turned out to be wonderful due to fit, and thus, he excelled. I think it helped when it came to grad school admission as well following the fit, fit, fit rule...........
I've been at both ends of this battle...And I took somewhat of an alternate route that takes out a lot of headache and wasted time.
As a senior in high school, I was average academically. So, instead of going through the cumbersome process of applying for tons of colleges, I just took a look at the local technical college. I was able to go there for a couple semesters, and knocked out all the basic courses that the big universities taught for 1/8 of the price. After getting my transfer stuff into place, I applied to seven universities, and received an acceptance letter for each and every one of them. This way also eliminates the stresses of the SAT and ACT tests as well...
Now, this route has the advantage of not wasting a colleges time by proving you aren't ready. Once they see that you have already proven you can handle it, they'll be more likely to accept you.
I don't know of any disadvantages to this process, and I find that a lot more Seniors are taking this route as opposed to jumping right in to a four year college. The monetary savings are unbelievable. Plus, with the local deal, if you fail a class you didn't just loose the equivalent value of a car.
^^^I see nothing wrong with this approach. In fact, I recommended it to my daughter when she decided she really didn't want to go to the college she had said "yes" to. She went anyway, and ended up transferring at the end of two years (to our state's flagship public U).
I see some disadvantages. You may end up having to take some freshman/soph classes when you are a junior. This happened to my daughter when she transferred, even though she was at a 4 year college with master's programs. In some states (Colorado for one) there is a list of courses from the community college system that the public colleges MUST accept. That doesn't necessarily mean they will accept all of them for anything other than electives. Also, the 4 yr college may have some other fresh/soph requirements that you have to fulfil that the CC doesn't offer.
Another disadvantage is social. Juniors and seniors don't usually live in the dorms, so it's harder to meet people and make friends. Her junior year, my daughter lived in an apt complex w/1 roommate. She made a few other friends through classes and church, plus re-aquainted with several people she knew from high school. This year, she is living in university-owned apartments, and is much happier. Her bldg is much more social than the apt complex, which wasn't all students, and had a lot of couples living there. For someone who poo-poos the social, I would say your mental health is important to your college success.
Back to topic, the national day of acceptance is May 1. I'm not in agreement with everyone who says to get all your apps in extremely early unless you really want to do early decision. Many colleges have a cut-off for regular acceptance and look at all the apps together after that date.
We had to fill out the profile and the fafsa for a couple of years while both kids were in college, but it's not as if it's your choice - the colleges will tell you which one they want. As far as I know, no public colleges ask for the profile at all.
Too many parents tell their kids that they can apply anywhere but then don't give them a bottom line, not realizing how very expensive the bottom line can be. It's also amazing how much a difference there can be in the amount of financial aid is offered. My son applied to about 9 schools and the amounts of aid varied from zippo to $15,000.
Correct, the Profile is mainly used by the prestigious private colleges and universities.
^^^I see nothing wrong with this approach. In fact, I recommended it to my daughter when she decided she really didn't want to go to the college she had said "yes" to. She went anyway, and ended up transferring at the end of two years (to our state's flagship public U).
I see some disadvantages. You may end up having to take some freshman/soph classes when you are a junior. This happened to my daughter when she transferred, even though she was at a 4 year college with master's programs. In some states (Colorado for one) there is a list of courses from the community college system that the public colleges MUST accept. That doesn't necessarily mean they will accept all of them for anything other than electives. Also, the 4 yr college may have some other fresh/soph requirements that you have to fulfil that the CC doesn't offer.
Another disadvantage is social. Juniors and seniors don't usually live in the dorms, so it's harder to meet people and make friends. Her junior year, my daughter lived in an apt complex w/1 roommate. She made a few other friends through classes and church, plus re-aquainted with several people she knew from high school. This year, she is living in university-owned apartments, and is much happier. Her bldg is much more social than the apt complex, which wasn't all students, and had a lot of couples living there. For someone who poo-poos the social, I would say your mental health is important to your college success.
Back to topic, the national day of acceptance is May 1. I'm not in agreement with everyone who says to get all your apps in extremely early unless you really want to do early decision. Many colleges have a cut-off for regular acceptance and look at all the apps together after that date.
Well, a lot of state universities and colleges operate on a rolling admissions cycle and if you don't apply early, you may not be admitted or you will not be eligible for scholarships.
I'm from Alabama and if you were planning on going to Auburn, you had better apply during the summer or first thing when you went back to school in the fall. The scholarship deadline is December 1st, so you have to pretty much have all your ducks in a row.
I recommend having all the standardized tests taken by the end of the junior year. The summer before the senior year should be used to get everything ready for your applications. It's so much easier.
I'm sure you know your stuff. Out here, however, May 1 is the "drop dead" decision-making day. (Out here being Colorado.)
I agree about having the tests all taken by the end of jr. year. My genius daughter was all signed up to take the SAT in June, then forgot to go (didn't write it on calendar). So she had to take it in Oct. It did her no harm, but it was a pain as she had to miss a gymnastics meet (competing, not watching) to do it.
While I agree that the school counselors could be better, they are another resource to consult.
I think you are talking about different deadlines. For rolling admissions schools (most big publics) it's very advantageous to apply early. Popular programs can fill up and qualified applicants will not be able to get in later.
Most colleges will state clearly what their application deadlines are. Once the apps are in, colleges will start giving their acceptances, typically in mid December through April. Again, each college will tell you that information but as Katiana has said, the national date for decisions is May 1.
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(I sure am hoping that you are the TBT that I know...if not...I'm going to feel like an idiot..... LOL
