Great College Advice

Yesterday Scott Jaschik of Inside Higher Ed reported in a lengthy (but characteristically thorough) article that despite the economic downturn, the number of early decision applications to many expensive, private colleges is up this year over last. Mr. Jaschik offers the following possible explanations:

1.  Colleges are better communicating that college fit matters, so students [...]

Brad Ward and his colleagues in the admissions office at Butler University put together a short, little video about what happens to your college application when it arrives in their office.

While the video is meant for students applying to Butler, it’s a great explanation of the process in place at most smaller, privat colleges.

Mark Montgomery
College [...]

I’ve received a number of questions from readers, clients, and friends about how to navigate the college admissions and financial aid process in tough economic times.  By far the biggest worry on everyone’s mind is finding the resources to pay for college.

In some ways we have a perfect storm a-brewing.  As personal savings and college [...]

The financial downturn has high school seniors and their parents running scared.  How can we reduce costs?  How can we get the best deal?

The conventional wisdom says that an in-state college is the cheapest option.  As with most conventional wisdom, this assumption is wrong.

Let’s compare costs for a Colorado student considering majoring in business at [...]

We’ve come to the Fabulous Fourth Edition of the Carnival of College Admission.  And what better way to celebrate than to bring the original Fab Four to help us sing their classic songs?  So join in the Sing-A-Long as we present the Beatles’ Greatest College Admission Hits.

COLLEGE ADMISSIONS
Got To Get You Into My Life:  Andy [...]

Clients have asked me repeatedly to explain the relationship between the financial aid and admissions offices, and to help them to understand how financial need is factored into admissions decisions.  Usually these questions revolve around whether a college is “need blind” or “need aware.”  So in this post, I’ll try to shed some light on [...]

A few days ago I wrote a post providing some of my predictions about how the credit crunch will affect college admissions.  The New York Times ran a story yesterday about how both rich and poor colleges are reacting to the economic downturn.

There are two points from this article I want to emphasize.

First, colleges and [...]

A couple of great carnivals are up that you might want to check out. Check out the Carnival of Homeschooling at Apollo’s Academy where my post about how the credit crunch may affect college admissions this cycle.

The same post was featured in the Carnival of Linked-In Users at Janet Barclay’s blog.  This [...]

The press is full of startling articles about the impact of the economic downturn on financial aid.  For example, George Washington University is likely to transfer a portion of its financial aid budget for next year to students currently enrolled.  The private university fears that a significant portion of its student may have to leave [...]

Forbes posted an article on October 22, foretelling hard times in the country’s higher education industry.  With falling stockmarkets, declining endowments, and some colleges having loaded up with debt in the past decade or so, the article predicts that some colleges may be swallowed up by financially stronger competitors, or will at the very least [...]