When your oldest child begins high school, you may never have heard of the acronym, “EFC” before. But by November of their senior year, most families of college-bound teens are not only familiar with the term, they likely know what their EFC number IS. In general, most families feel that it’s too high. But what…
It’s time to talk about something that many families don’t discover or understand until it’s college application time. Sometimes, families don’t even realize it then. But application time is often when you discover that your student’s high school GPA (Grade Point Average) is not necessarily the same GPA that colleges will look at for admission. …
Any time I get asked a college admissions-related question more than once, it occurs to me that it’s probably article-worthy. If one student is asking the question, then that means there are others who are also wondering. And in the last week, I have been asked twice about the Common App “Additional Info” section. It…
College athletic recruiting is a complicated thing and there is absolutely no way to capture all of the nuances in one article. For one thing, it varies by sport! But, I am going to give you an overview to get you started. And then, I’ll provide some further resources for you. Before getting too far,…
Due to the ease of applying through the Common and Coalition college application platforms, students are applying to more colleges than ever before. And colleges are well aware of that trend. It makes their job more difficult because they want to admit the students who are most likely to attend. Maybe that makes the answer…
Recently, I had an eye-opening conversation with my husband. I mentioned that XYZ Public U would actually cost way more to an out-of-state student than ABC Private college down the road from it would. Since this is what I’m immersed in all day, it seemed obvious to me. But, he reminded me that for parents…
I often write about factors that colleges consider as they make admissions decisions. There is one factor that gets very little attention – financial need. Did you know that there are “need-blind” colleges, as well as “need-aware” colleges? Unfortunately, this is an aspect of the college admissions process that students have very little control over….
The question in the title is one that many students don’t even know they should ask. And the answer is often, “No.” Sadly, students frequently don’t realize until late in high school that simply fulfilling the basic high school graduation requirements is often not going to be enough to get into the college of their…
So, you’ve decided it’s time to take the first steps in the college search process. Maybe you’ve even read the Best Books about College Admissions. But now what? The next step for most of us is to turn to the internet in search of some online resources for college admission and the process surrounding it….
When it’s time to apply to college, students generally understand the importance of their grade point average (GPA) and college admissions test scores in the process. But does their class rank in high school also matter? What is Class Rank? Before talking about how colleges may or may not use high school class rank as…