One reason why students should complete the FAFSA even if they don’t think they’ll qualify for financial aid is because of the possibility of college work-study jobs. Work-study jobs require completion of the FAFSA and even if your EFC keeps you from receiving any federal grants, you could land a nice work-study job depending on which college you go to. Continue reading
As you start the college baseball recruiting process, you need to know what you don’t know. And sometimes it feels like you would rather not know than try to make sense of all of the information out there. Not only is there so much information out there, so much seems contradictory. Sometimes you just need a baseline to start with so that you can make sense of the rest of the information. So before drowning in Google search results, try these resources first.
Last summer, Inside Higher Education published the findings of a paper by researchers that according to the article’s title, revealed “Another Edge for the Wealthy.” According to the research, students who visited a college in person had a statistically significant advantage in gaining admissions to the college. And college visit companies across the country rejoiced. Continue reading
I just finished updating the list of 50-50 colleges with the latest IPEDS data release and thought I would share some statistically non-significant (as far as I know) observations. For those who don’t know what I mean by 50-50 colleges, these are colleges that accept at least 49% of students and have at least a 49% graduation rate. There are currently 441 such institutions with at least 500 or more full-time undergraduates. Continue reading
There are a variety of ways to format an athletic profile for baseball. And, yes, you want to have an athletic profile you can print out or email to coaches. Having an athletic profile in PDF form is very handy to attached to an email to a coach, especially if the college doesn’t have an online recruiting form.
In my last post, I defined Expected Family Contribution (EFC), how it works theoretically, and what happens in the real world. For many families, the difference between theory and practice is irrelevant since their EFC is much higher than their actual ability to pay. There are steps that you can take to reduce your EFC, and you should definitely do if you have the opportunity. However, the fact is that you’re likely to do more to cut the cost of college by targeting the right school than by trying to rearrange your finances. Continue reading
With the availability of more free information on the internet than we know what to do with, the suggestion of reading a book to understand a topic may seem, well, old-fashion. But it’s precisely because of the information overload spawned by the internet that books can be a great investment. A good book will present you with the information you need to know in a meaningful way without any distractions. That has value. And for those looking for such value, I want to recommend The Financial Aid Handbook by Carol Stack and Ruth Vedvik.
If you only read one book to understand the intersection of finding and paying for a college, this is it. Carol Stack and Ruth Vedvik have taken their experience as college admission directors and created an essential guide that will take families through a cost based college search. And best of all, it’s written for students. Continue reading
Just asking this question suggests that it’s possible to hide the injury from the college coaches. I suppose it’s possible if it occurs off-season and the player isn’t actually on crutches or doesn’t have an arm in a sling. But how many sports today actually have an off-season? Even those players being recruited in sports that do have a limited season such as football are likely to be playing other sports. Don’t you think the recruiting coach might wonder why the player is sitting out his secondary sport? Continue reading
If you haven’t started your college application essays yet, it’s time to stop procrastinating and get to work. Why? Because even though the college application essay would seem to fall under academic tasks you have already mastered in high school, it is an essay after all, the reality is that it’s not. By that I mean it’s not an academic task.
The college application essay has nothing to do with your ability to craft an essay to demonstrate to a teacher your analytical abilities in literature or history. It has everything to do with figuring out who you are and how to show it to the people reading your application. Now which high school class covered self-discovery? Continue reading