Tom Greene and the Campus Visit

The campus visit is one of the “must do” items when deciding on a college. You don’t want to spend four years of your life somewhere you don’t feel comfortable, safe or challenged.  You also don’t want to go on a tour with Tom Greene:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W4zYgIjmEU&feature=player_embedded#   

Call the college you want to visit
Confirm college tour times, and visit/interview policies, but don’t commit to any dates yet. Note weekend hours and dates when the admissions office will be closed. Be aware of the large programs as well as the smaller programs.  What suits your needs and schedule better.

When on campus, remain objective
A campus visit creates such an emotional response for a student and family.   You want to be able to answer the question, “How do I feel on this campus?”, but you also want to have the questions that are important to you answered by the professionals there.

Interview
Even if it’s optional, interview with an admissions staff member. It’s an opportunity you to interview them as well!

Go off the beaten track
Talk to students other than your tour guide. Attend a class. Eat in the dining hall. See a residence hall room.

Take notes
If you are going to multiple schools, write down your thoughts after each visit.  At the end of your visit experiences, they will all start to jumble together.  Writing down what stood out for you at each visit will jog your memory later.

Be realistic
No campus is perfect.

Affordability and Value

Two  important things to consider when choosing a college are affordability and value.

Please don’t assume you can’t afford to go to college based on the “sticker price”. By sticker price, I mean the listed tuition and fees most colleges place on their website. Those numbers do not include the wealth of scholarships and grants that you may have the opportunity to attain. Money is a tough topic to talk about. It is very personal. Most colleges know that and have staff to talk with you who empathize with your situation and questions. If you ask questions and seek advice, you will find affordable choices. Many high schools sponsor financial aid workshops. These are an invaluable option for you and your family. I strongly suggest www.finaid.org to help you gain confidence in asking questions and making decisions.

The value of a particular college is different for each student.  Do you value a strong Division I program, a vast library collection, a large college town, personal attention, academic support services or the type of alumni the school produces?  Find out what is of value to you.  More importantly, ask each school what they believe is the value of their institution.  There are challenges (personal and financial) for each student and family when attending college.  The question is whether those challenges at a particular school are worth the value you place on the education?

Focused Research and Snow

Being snowed it is the best time to do some focused research on the schools you want to apply to or the ones you have already been accepted to.  If you are primarily looking at private colleges, I know of a great website that helps you know the truth about  each school. 

http://www.ucan-network.org/about-u-can

U-CAN (University & College Accountability Network) is designed to give prospective students and their families concise, Web-based consumer-friendly information on the nation’s nonprofit, private colleges and universities. U-CAN consists of hundreds of institutional profiles that contain comparable data and links to campus information. The profiles are displayed in a very easy to understand common template.

The in-depth information included in the institutional profiles includes admissions, enrollment, academics, student demographics, graduation rates, most common majors, transfer of credit policy, accreditation, faculty information, class size, tuition and fee trends, price of attendance, financial aid, campus housing, student life, and campus safety.  It is a lot in one place.

U-CAN is one of many tools available to prospective students and their parents.  The thing about this one is how easy it is to understand the material they are presenting.  It is the kind of material you could take with you on a campus visit and ask staff from that college to comments on some of the data you found interesting.

Enjoy the snow!

Deferred

There are many students who applied to college Early Decision or Early Action that are now finding that they’ve been neither accepted nor denied, but deferred. For some, this is a gray area holiday gift they were not expecting.  Here is some advice:

1. Relax And Maintain Your Confidence

You’re close.  They would not have deferred you unless something can be done on your end to change their mind.  Your application wasn’t so far above average that the college wanted to give up a spot in the entering class until they could compare you to the full applicant pool. Or, they just want to see how your senior grades or another go at the SAt fair.

2. Find Out Why

Give the admissions office a call and try to find out why you were deferred. No matter how large or small the school is, that personal attention is important.  Go into the phone call with an open mind and ask to speak with someone who can shed light on what you can do to help your chances of being accepted.

3. Send your New Information

Chances are the college will ask for your mid year grades. If you were deferred because of a GPA, the college will want to see that your grades are moving up.  Also, think about these items:

• New and SAT or ACT scores
• New awards
• New leadership examples
• An essay that was optional at the start of the process

4. Be Polite

This will be a stressful time for you and your family.  Try to keep your frustration in check. Be polite and be positive. Offices are very busy this time of year, so thank them for their time.  Saying Thank You never hurts.

 

Facebook and Admissions

Student, and now parents, are using Facebook more and more.  As students start applying to schools and attempt to learn all they can about possible colleges for the fall, Facebook can be a vital research tool.  Recently, Facebook upgraded their privacy settings.  No matter where you stand on the debate of these setting, it is a great time for students and parents to review the material they post to Facebook.  All users from Facebook will be prompted to learn about the changes that are occurring.  An old article from the New York Times  in September titled: 5 Easy Steps to Stay Safe (and Private!) on Facebook is a great resource and reminder. There are some great Facebook pages out there that are run by various Admissions offices.  Not to mention the vast amount of pages run by students from the colleges you are interested in.  Just remember that for as much as you can learn from them, they can learn just as much about you.

Holiday Stress

Yes, the time has arrived where you are inundated with flyers, emails, postcards and commercials from the holiday shopping stores.  I hear so many people tell me how annoying the holiday marketing gets.  Not to mention that it now starts in October!  I can appreciate this sentiment.  Although I too get overwhelmed by the marketing, I was one of those people at Toys R Us at 12 midnight for the must-have toy on Black Friday.

With all that said, it is amazing how similar the world of admissions is.  Most schools have deadlines that were either last week or are the end of this week.  Many students are getting “last chance” emails and phone calls to ensure they apply.  It gets to the point where students start to feel they have no other option but to apply.  Marketing at its finest.  Some students just aren’t ready to apply yet and feel that holiday application stress because everyone else has already turned their application in.  Don’t stress if you have missed the deadlines.  In fact, give a call to the school you are applying to and see if you can get an extension.  Your worst case scenario isn’t really that bad at all.  Applying in January is still a great time to apply even if you did miss the “last chance” opportunity.

The one date everyone should be aware of is the FASFA start date.  Everyone can start filling out the FASFA on January 1.  A shameless plug for the Mount FASFA timeline:

The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is something we at the Mount encourage all students to complete. It’s not only tells you if you qualify for FREE money from the government, it also allows us to know if you qualify for Mount St. Mary’s University grants and federal student loans. Below are the recommended procedures to apply for financial aid at Mount St. Mary’s University. Please pay close attention to the corresponding dates for each step in order to meet all of the university’s deadlines. The Mount’s deadline for receipt of financial aid applications is March 1.

1. Recommended time: December
If you plan on submitting your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) online, go to www.pin.ed.gov at least two weeks prior to completing the form to apply for two separate electronic PINs, one for you and one for a parent.

2. Recommended time: January 1 – February 15
Complete the FAFSA and submit it to the Federal Processing Center electronically* at www.fafsa.ed.gov. The Mount St. Mary’s Title IV School Code is 002086. If you have yet to complete your income tax forms, we encourage you to file the FAFSA using estimated income so that you meet all deadlines. You will be given an opportunity to correct your estimates when your actual income is determined.

3. Recommended time: January 1 – February 15
Upon submitting the FAFSA, download and complete the Mount St. Mary’s Financial Aid Application and submit it to the university either electronically or via mail. 

4. Within several days of submitting your FAFSA, you will receive a Student Aid Report. This report will be sent to your email address provided on the FAFSA. Please share it with your parents and review it for accuracy. If any corrections need to be made, please make them and send a copy of any changes to our Financial Aid office.

*If you wish to complete a paper FAFSA and submit it via mail, you need to call 1-800-4FEDAID to obtain a copy of the application.  Families filing a paper application should submit the FAFSA no later than February 1 to meet the Mount’s March 1 deadline.

Thanksgiving = FASFA Research

As college costs rise, college-bound students and their parents have much to contend with.  January 1 is right around the corner.  that is the day you can start to fill out the FASFA (Free Applications for Federal Student Aid).  This is the ONLY way you can be considered for FREE  financial aid at any institution.  Go to www.fafsa.ed.gov to 1. register for two pin numbers (parent and child electronic signatures) and 2. Fill out the FASFA (just like a tax form).   Most financial aid  is given because the student has demonstrated need for it, and the amount of that aid is limited to the student’s FASFA (US Government) calculated need.  Simply put, a student’s need is determined as the difference between the cost of attending a specific college and the amount the student’s family is expected to pay (an amount determined by the FASFA).  The website above is a great tool to help.  The holiday season is the perfect time to start browsing the web for FASFA information and education!

and more questions

Questions that relate to items outside the classroom really help to get at the heart of that “fit”.  You probably haven;t done the math, but with 5 classes a semester, each of those classes meets 3 hours a week.  That is 15 hours a week they are in class.  That’s it.  Now, many student will need to put at least that many hours into studying outside the classroom.  Still, that leaves a lot of outside the classroom time not filled with classwork.

• What community service opportunities are there on campus?
• What is the typical compliant heard by students about activities?
• How do students voice their concerns on campus?  Student government?  Open forums?
• What surveys or data does the college have that shows how satisfied students are with their experience?
• How easy is it to get involved?
• What is the attendance like at the on campus events on the weekends?
• How are weekend and evening opportunities decided upon?
• When students are off campus, where are the popular places?

Ask Questions

Inevitably, you’ll be on a campus visit and someone from that college will ask, “Does anyone have any questions?”  It is there job to answer questions, so don;t be shy.  This is a huge investment, take the time to ask the questions.  Unlike buying a car, when some buyers have no idea what to ask, college is a little more about common sense.  Here are some academic questions I would ask if I were visiting with my children:

• Are faculty members accessible?
• How are a majority of the classes taught? Lecture style? By TAs, grads or Full Faculty?
• What academic requirements are there the freshman year?  What do the students think of those requirements?
• How often to students do research with faculty members?
• What is the faculty/student ratio?
• What is the typical freshman class size?  What is the largest freshman class?
• Do you know of any recent graduates who were successful in the (enter major here) major?

Does it fit?

For you to truly enjoy what college has to offer, you need a good fit.  College offers a degree, an education, a social experience, opportunities for personal growth and the ability to do good for the greater whole.  The only way to truly embrace and enjoy all of those factors is to feel as if the school you choose fits you for who you are.  Choosing a college because your fiends go there or because of where it ranks on a list does not take into account who you are as a person.  take the time to find out if it is a good fit for you.  Ask if you can send the night with a college host.  Attend a class, eat a long lunch in the dining hall or attend a sporting event at that college.  immerse yourself in the student life of that school and see how it fits.  What i am discussing is truly an emotional response you feel when on campus.  There are many other, non-emotional items you need to research.  Cost, major, ability to get the job you want, etc.  I just feel that the fit factor is sometimes undersold since it is so difficult to express.  In the end, as students from that college to answer one question. “would they come to that college if they had to do it all over again?”  It will be a small insight into what the fit was for them.