The Low Cost of College Tuition

The New York Times published an article today that provides a comprehensive look at the colleges that have been moving swiftly to lower their tuition rates for lower income and middle class families. Primarily, the colleges that are making these price reductions are the more wealthy, upper-tier institutions. But the article points out, as I often do to anyone who will listen, that most families do not pay the “sticker price”–and many pay far lower tuition rates that we might expect.
Amid all the hullaballoo about ever-rising tuition costs, it pays to consider that how one chooses a college has a bearing on one’s financial aid strategy. One of the problems, however, is that families with limited means–including middle class families–often don’t know enough about their college options to develop compatible college selection and financial aid strategies.
Mark Montgomery
College Counselor in Colorado

Changes in How US News Calculates Rankings

US News & World Report’s infamous rankings system may include new sorts of data, according to an article today in Inside Higher Ed.
They may add survey data collected from 1600 high school counselors, who are being asked to rate colleges on a scale of 1 to 5.  This data may–or may not–be used in calculating the rankings the next time they come out.
Many members of the National Association for College Admissions Counseling are outraged, largely because they believe the rankings are misleading, counterproductive, and based on faulty methodology.  College counselors generally want students to make  college choices that reflect their values, educational needs, and no on someone else’s opinion of what is good or bad.
I agree.
Opinions are opinions, even if they come from experts.  Every time I am asked, “what’s the best college,” I always answer, it depends on who’s asking.  For me, the best college might be a small, private liberal arts college.  For you, it might be a large, public university.
The answer depends on the criteria that are important to you, not the criteria that some editor at US News cooked up.
Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting
GreatCollegeAdvice.com

Quality of the Educational Experience: Questions to Ask Admissions Officers

A couple of my previous posts have focused on student-to-faculty ratios and class size averages as indicators of educational quality.
By and large, my conclusion is that these statistics are not all that helpful in uncovering the quality of the educational experience for a prospective undergraduate.
So what to do? How can we compare and contrast the educational services offered by different institutions? How can we get beyond these simplistic numbers?
Well, one place to start is the set of questions formulated by Loren Pope in his book, Colleges that Change Lives. I have already posted those here. The point is to ask more substantive questions about how courses are taught, and not to focus solely upon the size of the class.
But there are other questions that prospective students and their parents might ask in order to understand and predict what their experience might be like if they matriculated to a particular college or university.

  1. What is the “course load” for faculty members? How many undergraduate courses is each faculty member expected to teach every year? Is this number the same for all departments, or does it vary by discipline?
  2. What percentage of courses is taught by adjunct or part-time faculty? Is this percentage the same across departments, or do some departments rely on part-timers more than others?
  3. What percentage of courses has a waiting list? How does the college (or the individual department) determine who gets off the waiting list and when?
  4. How many campus lecture halls seat 100 students? 50 students? 500 students? How many seminar rooms are there? What is the ratio of lecture halls to seminar rooms?
  5. How small must a class be before it is canceled by the administration?
  6. What is the most popular course on campus (or in your department)? Is enrollment in this course capped? Who gets in, and who doesn’t?

As you ask these questions, you should not permit admissions people to give vague answers. They will hem and haw. They will will be imprecise.
But these figures do exist on campus, and they exist in the office of institutional research. The administrators in this office crunch the numbers. They have the facts. If you really want to know this information, you need to ask to be put in touch with someone in institutional research who can provide this information to you.
Still, you must not focus solely on the statistics. Every educational institution has administrative problems like the ones cited at Dartmouth in my previous post. You will never be able to guarantee that your son or daughter will not be shut out of a class. You will not be able to ensure that every course he or she takes is a gem.
But if you dig deeply enough, you may be able to figure out how forthcoming and honest the faculty and administration is about these difficulties, and you will learn how they are working to solve them.
Mark Montgomery
Independent College Consultant and
Former College Administrator

Answering Coach Questionnaires for NCAA Recruitment

Nancy Nitardy, a former Division 1 coach at Harvard, Dartmouth, and Indiana University, works with Great College Advice to ensure that athletes get the best educational and athletic experiences possible.
She applies her experience as a coach to advise students how to get their attention and get recruited for their teams. She and I work together with student athletes to ensure they get the best of both worlds: the athletic experience they desire and the academic experience they require. For more information about Nancy, click here.
She wrote the best book in the field, called Get Paid to Play, which is published by Kaplan. You should consider buying it, as it contains everything you need to know to navigate the athletic recruiting process.
Here is a video of Coach Nitardy explaining how to respond to college coaches’ requests for more information from the student athlete.

Consider purchasing her book: you’ll be glad you did!
Mark Montgomery
Great College Advice and Athletic Recruiting Assistance
Montgomery Educational Consulting

Division I vs. Division III: Sports as a Job, or Scholar-Athlete?

a hockey player logo

Today I spent another fun-filled day at the Colorado Crossroads volleyball tournament in Denver, where nearly 10,000 volleyball players are participating in this national qualifier event.

Parents were steadily coming up to my booth at the tournament (where I was, of course, dispensing some great college advice) to talk about their concerns. The topic of conversation that tended to dominate these discussions was parents’ concern that becoming a Division I athlete was too time consuming and ultimately detrimental to their students’ future success in college.

The first thing I said was that participation in sports was often an indicator of success in college. As varsity athletes tend to have higher GPAs and are more satisfied with their college experience.

However, these parents’ basic concern is valid. Being a Division I athlete is a huge commitment. One must eat, sleep, and breathe one’s sport, and a D1 athelete can plan on training throughout the year to stay in tip-top condition. Further, Division I athletes must commit to playing all four years if they want to keep their athletic scholarship.

But I spent a lot of time explaining that while Division III schools do not offer athletic scholarships, they do recruit athletes in a different way. Every school with a volleyball team (for example) wants to fill its roster with good players who can take a league championship. Thus many colleges offer other forms of scholarship money to entice an able player to join its team–and its student body.

For you see, colleges have needs that they are trying to fulfill. Not only do they need to round out their volleyball roster. But they need a tuba player, an editor of the school newspaper, and a tenor for the glee club. Think of admissions officers as social engineers: they need to populate the campus with a variety of folks to fill certain prescribed roles. The whole process is not quite so neat and clean as that (it’s not very scientific). But the art of the admissions officer is to build a well-rounded class. And in order to do this, they have to meet the needs of the coaches (among others).

So my advice to parents was to relax a bit. Their kids can still find colleges at which they can have a satisfying varsity athletic experience. And still focus on their school work and also allow them to explore other activities (study abroad, a new social cause, artistic pursuits, etc.).

While some kids are seeking the rush and excitement of serious competition a the Division I level. The majority of players that I met today at the Colorado Crossroads volleyball tournament will never be able to achieve that level of competition. But as I explained to these parents, their daughters will have myriad opportunities available to them. If they learn to play the college admissions and athletic recruiting games like a pro.

Speaking of a pro, I have been very fortunate to have Nancy Nitardy, author of Get Paid To Play, working with me at Colorado Crossroads. She is a former Division I swimming coach at Dartmouth, Harvard, and Indiana University. She works with me in advising athletes on their best athletic options. While I help the same students identify their best academic options. Together, Nancy Nitardy and I are able to provide great college advice for college-bound athletes, whatever their level of play.

Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting
Great College Advice

Colorado Crossroads Volleyball Tournament

If you’re looking for me in the coming days, you can find me at the Colorado Convention Center where I’ll be attending the Colorado Crossroads Volleyball Tournament hosted by the Front Range Volleyball Association. It’s a national qualifier, and I’ll be there to talk to students and families about college admission.
I’ll be joined by Nancy Nitardy, former Division 1 coach and the author of Get Paid to Play, a book on athletic recruiting published by Kaplan.
So if you have a hankering for some volleyball, drop by the Convention Center.
Mark Montgomery
Montgomery Educational Consulting
Great College Advice