Two More Options as Colleges Send Decisions

By Patrick O'Connor Ph.D.

Most of the Ivy League college news will land today, Thursday, at 5 PM.  We’ve discussed some of the options students will receive when they open their e-mails or letters, but there are two other trends that deserve a little attention from the Class of 2012:

January Admission  Seniors expecting to hear an answer from an admissions office may instead be asked a question—“How About January?”  A growing number of larger universities (most of them public) started using this approach about four years ago.  Knowing some freshmen who arrive as part of a large class in the fall will not be returning in January, these colleges invite some applicants to plan on coming to campus in the middle of the year, where they will have a bed, a room, and class sizes that don’t require the Superdome to seat the class.

Students see some clear plusses in this offer.  First and foremost, it gives them something many students crave—regulated time off from school.  Knowing college awaits them in the winter months, students travel, complete volunteer work, or more often find fall jobs to make sure their college experience is well-financed once it happens in January.  Parents should also see the plus of sending their student off to campus well after the Fall Frenzy, when energetic freshmen find try out ways to test their new-found freedom in ways that are, well, interesting. 

On the other side, students will also miss some of the safer fall rituals.  Football games are a big part of many schools that offer January admission, and many students make lifelong friends during those crazy fall days.  Some colleges might be talked into offering football tickets to January admits (hey, it doesn’t hurt to ask), but think carefully about saying yes to a later start if you’re worried about making friends.  You may need to work a little harder at building friendships in January; on the other hand, you could be the hit of campus with stories of your fall adventures, and you could find it easier to get better grades now that everyone’s a little more settled.

Transferring  Record applications and high college costs are leading more students and families to decide their senior will start at one college, then transfer to another college.  If this is something you’re considering, keep these points in mind:

·         Make sure your dream college accepts transfers.  There are some colleges that don’t accept transfer students, or admit so few that it’s impossible to achieve the dream.  Ask ahead.

·         Check transfer requirements.  Students often assume they can transfer to another college after just one semester, but that isn’t always the case.  Ask the college you’re transferring to for a transfer guide; this shows the classes you should take at your first college, and it outlines what grades you need to have for transfer admission.

·         Beware of electives.  You don’t always get the classes you want at your first school, which may tempt you to sign up for an elective not on the transfer guide.  This may still work out, but don’t waste your time and money; call the transfer admission office at your future college to see if this class will count as an elective, a requirement, or as nothing.

·         Enroll early.   Many transfer students start at colleges where enrollment for Fall classes starts in late June.  Don’t get five 8 AM classes by accident; apply to your first school now, take their placement tests now, and register—well, you get the idea.

Three College Admission Trends That Are Only Getting Bigger

By Patrick O'Connor Ph.D

Hollywood might think The Hunger Games is being released this Friday, but school counselors know the craving for meaty college messages has been on for three months. Early returns suggest applicants will be seeing an increase in three trends that could make April fools out of student and counselor alike, unless we plan ahead.  Here’s what to expect when decisions come out next week:

Another year of increased “no’s” The US birth rate may suggest a decline in the number of high school graduates, but colleges are still receiving record numbers of applications.  Two years ago, the University of Michigan received 32,000 applications, and that number jumped to 40,000 last year when U-M joined the easier-to-complete Common Application.  Predictions of a flat 2011-12 fell flat themselves when U-M announced they received 43,000 applications this year, leaving less wiggle room in the class than ever before.

Since colleges aren’t getting any bigger, more applications mean more rejection notices, including no’s to students who would have been sure bet admits two years ago.  There’s a good chance one or two of your students will get caught in the surprise; be ready to talk about the number of applicants again this year, confident you can say it was a record-breaking year.

Waitlists are something more and something less  Increased applications also means more students will be hearing “maybe” on a day when they had hoped to hear “yes.” More than one student has told me that being on the waitlist of a college is actually worse than being denied, since you have no idea if your name is going to be taken off the list, *and* you still have to make plans as if you weren’t going to be admitted.  It’s a good thing senior prom doesn’t work this way; imagine how a student would feel on the dance floor when their partner points to someone across the room and says “There’s my first choice.”

Waitlists may not be new, but their function took a big turn a couple of years ago, when more Duke applicants were waitlisted than admitted.  Now most colleges use the waitlist as both an economic necessity and a kind of beauty prize for applicants who would have been admitted just a couple of years ago.

Students know this, but still hope against hope they’ll be called off one of the six waitlists they may be on.  Make sure to bring them back from their journey to the World of What If long enough to put a deposit in at a school they will love, just in case all six “could be” schools turn in to “could have been” schools.

July-applying juniors  If you think all of next week’s action will involve only seniors, think again.  Hundreds of juniors will see the solemn faces and quiet tears of their role models and decide they know how to make sure this doesn’t happen to them—they’ll just apply earlier.

Even the most morose senior would tell them this logic is faulty, if they were asked.  But it’s likely juniors won’t be asking anyone about this “discovery”; they’ll just act on it on their own, unless you intervene.  Find a minute among the end-of-March madness to summarize the year in college applications, and e-mail practical advice to juniors and their families about what this means to the Class of 2013.  Mayan predictions aside, students who apply in July really could be the end of your counseling world; make sure they understand there can be such a thing as too early in the college application process, at least for one more year.

College Decisions: Just say Yes, Just say No, but don’t say Maybe

By Patrick O'Connor. Ph.D


College decisions have already started coming out.  Once again, we’re looking at record numbers of applications, and once again, Harvard, Princeton, Rose-Hulman, Knox and most every other college didn’t spend the winter buying an extra 50 acres and tricking it out with new dorms to double their class size—so there will be more rejections and waitlists than ever as well.

There’s ample advice counselors can use to console students who weren’t admitted and to encourage students who were placed on waiting lists, but there’s another stealth group out there who just won’t be getting a lot of love—the student who has so many admission offers, they just can’t make up their mind.  

On the one hand, this is easy to understand; Meryl Streep wouldn’t have garnered a lot of empathy if her acceptance speech had gone something like “Wow, a third Oscar?  Just where am I going to put this?” On the other hand, it’s important to support these students, not only because they truly need strong guidance right now, but because their problem could easily become everyone’s problem if they decide the best thing to do is to put deposits in at every college that accepted them, then decide in August.

Just to review the ground rules, students have until May 1 to place an enrollment deposit at one, and only one, college.  They don’t necessarily have to tell their other colleges they aren’t coming, but they can only tell one college they are coming, and they do that by submitting a (mostly) non-refundable deposit.  The reasoning here is simple—colleges need to build budgets, hire faculty, design schedules, and order enough mystery meat to make sure they can deliver on all the promises they’ve made students in those glossy brochures.

Students and parents who decide May 1st is just too soon often deposit at more than one college—either they just do see the rush, they think it’s unfair, or they don’t understand what harm it does…

…until they get to the one college they attend.  There, they discover their own college has had, oh, say, 20 students call admissions the day before classes begin to let them know they aren’t coming.  Because of these double depositors, the college has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue, and has financial aid that is going unused.  This also means students who were in the advertised 20 student seminar classes are thrust into 30 student seminars at the last minute, leading to schedule changes, unhappy students, and parents who are now consulting attorneys for breach of contract on the school’s part—even though they themselves may have double deposited at a number of colleges as well. 

The moral of the story is to tell all students and parents not to do this, and to say this an awful lot of times in a number of ways between now and May 1.  If they applied on Common Application, they signed a pledge they wouldn’t do this, and if colleges find out a student is playing them against one another (and this happens), the student will have plenty of free time on their hands come fall.  

College is the main thing they’ve been thinking about for the last eight months, and they still have 45 days before an answer is due.  By being available to talk with them, and with a few stern e-mail reminders to parents, good choices can be made by May 1 with everyone’s future looking bright, both now and in August. 

Shopping for College Help Online? These Three Sites are a Must

Counselors are always looking for online resources to recommend to parents and students.  These sites can’t replace strong school-based counseling programs, but they sure can supplement them nicely.

Here are some new and updated Web sites you’ll want to be sure to look at and pass along to your clients and their families.

The National Association for College Admission Counseling (http://www.nacacnet.org/studentinfo/Pages/Default.aspx) has always had a strong collection of publications and resources for parents and students in the college selection process.  Thanks to a redesign of part of their Web site, NACAC has beefed up their offerings and organized them in a dynamic new way. 

This new Web page outlines the ideas and activities students and parents should consider at every grade in high school, and concludes with a fifth tab that addresses the key issues of a strong college transition. Links to five key NACAC documents are on the side of the site, including a list of student rights and responsibilities in the college selection process, and advice on applying for financial aid.  Students and parents will value the clean, clear look of the page, as well as the depth of the advice that’s offered.

While it may not be new, the College Navigator site (http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/) is one of the most overlooked college search tools around.  The page offers an easy-to-use college search tool that becomes more sophisticated only if the user wants more features, and the side-by-side comparison of one college to another is a rare find in college search sites.

CN is also a great place to go for financial aid advice.  Access to the free financial aid FAFSA is just a click away (CN and FAFSA are both run by the US government), and the College Affordability and Transparency Center is the first bold attempt to try and give students a sense if they’ll be getting their money’s worth at that college. Students should never rule a college out just because of price; on the other hand, only applying to colleges that cost $45,000 isn’t the way to go either.  Predicting how much aid you’ll get is never an exact science, but the Center is more than worth a very close look as you build a list of colleges, keeping price in mind.

Finally, students and parents need to take a look at the online version of a classic college guide that changed the world.  Colleges That Change Lives was written by former New York Times Education writer Loren Pope.  Pope’s goal was to highlight colleges that best represented what college is all about—a chance for students to learn and explore the world with the right mix of support and challenge in an individualized learning space.

An updated edition of CTCL is rumored to be in the works, but college-bound families can get the best of the book online for free (http://www.ctcl.org/).  Readers will want to make sure to stop at the News & Resources tab and read the articles “Common Misperceptions” and ”How to Do a College Search.”  The site also includes detailed information on each of the CTCL colleges.

Students may not be interested in applying to small liberal arts colleges, and parents may find the tuition at CTCL schools to be a little steep.  On the other hand, the Web site teaches readers how to look at every college, and to search even the biggest colleges for personalized learning experiences.  Such opportunities do exist at some big colleges, but you have to know what you’re looking for; the CTCL Web page can train your eyes and ears to make the best college match.

The Real-World Politics of Schedule Changes

By Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D

I’ve decided it’s time to amend the United States Constitution. 

From now on, the only people who get to vote are school counselors.

This thought came to me after three weeks of nonstop phone calls to my house from presidential candidates.  After listening to the logic and claims they were making to try and secure my vote, I was sure I had been exposed to this interesting kind of banter before—and, sure enough, I had.

“Dr. O’Connor?”

“Hi James.”

“I came in because I need to change my schedule.”

“Really?  Didn’t we just change it three days…”

“Yeah, we did, an issue has come to my attention that demands an immediate change of course in my educational objectives.”

“Really?  In three days?”

“It came to me like a vision in the night.  I’m destined to be an engineer and lead society to a better world.”

“Through engineering?”

“Absolutely. So if you’ll just sign this drop and add slip…”

“James, you’re asking to drop Algebra 2.”

“Yes.  That is my intention.”

“But engineers need Algebra 2.  In fact, you’ll need to take Calculus by senior year.”

“That information flies in the face of the consensus of my supporters.”

“Your supporters?”

“Yes.  My mother tells me that leading engineers are more in touch with their creative side than those who have studied the tired theories of the past, and my uncle is an engineer who doesn’t even remember the quadratic formula.”

“Wow.  What kind of engineer is he?  Civil?  Chemical?”

“No.  He works for Amtrak.”

“But that’s not the kind of –“

“Dr. O’Connor, I really need your support to make this lasting change that will lead to a brighter future for all.”

“From Algebra 2.”

“Right.”

“To Ceramics?”

“If it weren’t for ceramic engineers, we’d never have the tiles that created the heat shield on the space shuttle, the world-known fountain at Metro Airport, or that really cool toilet in the teacher’s lounge.”

“How do you know about—“

“I have my sources, Dr. O’Connor.”

“So you’re telling me this change is in the best interest of your educational well-being?”

“Not just mine, Dr. O’Connor.  It’s for the good of all.”

“Including Amanda Bailey, I assume.”

“Sorry—who?”

“Amanda Bailey.  The girl who asked you to the Sadie Hawkins Dance out of the blue?”

“I am acquainted with Amanda.”

“She has French 2 during the period you want to take Ceramics.”

“Interesting.”

“James, students in French 2 have first lunch, and so does Ceramics.”

“And?”

“Algebra 2 has second lunch.”

“Dr. O’Connor, I’m really not prepared to address that issue at this time.  If you’d just sign this drop and add slip—“

“Tell you what, James.  Why don’t you leave it with me, and I’ll run this request by a focus group.”

“A focus group?”

“Yes.  Your math teacher, the assistant principal, your mother, Amanda’s mother.  Once I have consensus, we’ll all have a better sense of how to proceed.”

“Actually, Dr. O’Connor, I think it might be prudent to suspend my plans at this time.”

“I think that’s wise, James.  Better your plans get suspended then, oh, say, something else.”

“Or someone else.”

“Exactly.”

Everybody Needs Their Space—Especially Counselors!

By Patrick O'Connor, Ph.D

Every counselor has an ideal office, complete with four big windows looking out on a beautiful garden, three secretaries, and classical music playing in the background.

Since we all don’t live in that world, it’s important to keep these points in mind when evaluating the office you have, and considering how it could be better:

The key is student access to information.  Many counselors like to see papers in folders and books placed neatly on a shelf—but how does that make the information accessible to students waiting in the office?  Your physical space has to be student-centered; every student should leave your office area with more ideas about themselves and their world than they had when they came in, no matter what they came in to talk about.

This doesn’t always mean students have to have access to you.  Thanks to counseling Web pages, Facebook pages, the morning PA announcements and more, students don’t always have to see you to get the information they need. Look at your counseling Web site and ask yourself, What help does this give to your students and parents?  Better yet, buy four students a pizza and ask them this question while touring your Web site at lunch.

Remember the liquid rule.  Counselors have been trained to hold on to information, and that’s very important when it comes to issues that require confidentiality—but how confidential is information about summer programs, college visits, and other information for the public good? This information is water to students thirsty for college knowledge—let it flow into every estuary you can create, in the office, online, or otherwise.

How much assistance do you have?  It’s going to be tough to keep a Web site current if you have to print every transcript, and keeping a local scholarship file up to date is pretty hard if you have 700 students.  Be good to yourself --think creatively about the kinds of volunteers you can use to expand the reach of your office.  There has to be one parent out there who would love to keep that Web site open, and another who wouldn’t mind putting scholarship applications on a spreadsheet.  Use your resources.

What spaces are available?  Your office and waiting area probably have all kinds of counseling materials up and around, but what about the main office, or that empty bulletin board in the English hallway, or that 30 minute slot on the local cable TV show once a month?  If you took 10 minutes to think of where you could be spreading the college word, you’d surprise yourself at just how big your office can be.

How much delegating can you do?  If computers aren’t your thing, give the Web site to someone else; if you don’t have time to put the Career Night flyers up in local businesses, call the Chamber of Commerce, or the National Honor Society.  If your filing is driving you crazy, a retired educator in your town is dying to give back.  Getting bigger sometimes means letting go…

How much delegating can YOU do?  …and to do that, you have to be honest with yourself.  Does it really matter what color the napkins are for the cookie reception after Financial Aid Night?  You need to shape what the flyer for your test prep program says—but do you have to decide what it looks like?  Many hands will make light work, as long as you aren’t holding them all the time, or holding them back.  Be good to yourself, and help others help you.

FAQs on Financial Aid

By Patrick O'Connor Ph.D


You’re in the middle of scheduling, it’s almost February Break, and now students are getting financial aid offers.  How can you help them?—why, with this:

Remind me again.  What’s the EFC?  EFC stands for Expected Family Contribution.  This is what you and your family can afford to pay for college, at least according to Congress.  This figure is based on the information you provide on your free federal aid application, FAFSA.

What do colleges do with this number?  They use your EFC as the starting place to build your financial aid package.  If your EFC is $8000, and the college costs $15000 to attend, the college will try to find the $7000 you need to go there.  If College B costs $20000 to attend, they’ll try to find the $12000 you need to be a student there.  If College C costs $6000, they won’t be finding any money for you, since FAFSA indicates you can pay that much on your own.

My EFC is way too high—there’s no way I can afford this much for college.  What can I do?  If you have a money issue FAFSA doesn’t take into consideration, financial aid officers can use “professional discretion” and offer more financial support. This is one reason why some colleges offer you more aid than others.  Be ready to provide documentation to support your situation, and don’t be afraid to ask.

How do colleges help me pay for college?  Most colleges offer three kinds of financial aid:  Grants, or money you are given that you don’t have to pay back under most circumstances; Work study, where you take a part-time job at the college to pay off part of your tuition; loans, where you’re offered a low-interest loan you usually don’t have to start paying off until you’re out of school.

Will my financial aid be mostly loans? Over the past ten years, more and more colleges are giving bigger loans as a part of financial aid, while other colleges have eliminated loans all together.  If loans are part of your financial aid package, ask the college about the terms of repayment, and make sure you look at other options.

Like what?  This is where private scholarships can be a big help.  If you win a $500 scholarship from your local chamber of commerce, you should report it to your college.  Most colleges (that’s most colleges) will then take $500 off of the loan part of your financial aid package.  They’ll keep doing this until your loan part is gone, so look for those private scholarships—they can make a huge difference!

Do I have to accept an entire financial aid package, or can I just take the grants and work study?  You have the right to take, reduce or turn down any part of a college’s financial aid offer.  Students often turn down the loan portion, or accept only part of it, and decide they will work more during summers and weekends.  Other students decide not to take the work study part of the package, at least for first semester—this gives them a chance to focus on their studies.

Do colleges have to meet all of my aid?  Unfortunately, many colleges don’t have enough money to meet 100% of the financial needs of all students, and other colleges don’t meet all of your need as a strategy to see if you can’t pay more of your own way.  Many colleges will advertise they meet all need as an incentive for students to apply; if you don’t know, ask.