College Admissions Help Blog

Quick reminder, the 2012 Free Application for Federal Student Financial Aid, or  FAFSA, will be available January 1, 2012. Students who are hoping to receive federal financial aid for the Fall 2012 semester need to fill out the FAFSA to be eligible.

Filling out the FAFSA will mean you will have to coordinate with parents and guardians to get together tax information. A recent post by the StudentLoanNetwork highlights an IRS retrieval tool that can be helpful to students when filling out the FAFSA. If you will be filling out this form come January 2012, you’ll want to check out this post, and visit FAFSAonline.com to get tips and help with your finanicial aid applications.

Writing college admissions essays can be a lot of work! Here are the top 3 tips to remember when writing your essay:

1. PROOFREAD your college admissions essay. Show the reader that you are ready for the challenge that is college. Step back every once in a while, take a break and re-read your essay. Don’t hesitate to ask for help. Another set of eyes can be invaluable!

2. DEVELOP an interesting essay topic. Push the boundaries when it comes to showing off your best qualities. This essay is about you. Develop the story so it is packed with details that not only make the essay interesting to a reader, but a powerful statement of your personality and character.

3. CONNECT to the essay prompt and to the reader. You can proofread a well written, developed essay, but you cannot lose site of the goal of the essay. Ask yourself: Did I answer the question? Will this make sense to the admissions officer? Be open to scrapping a few of your favorite sentences so that you have an essay that meets the requirements. Help the reader, the admissions officer, answer the underlying questions: Who is this student? Does their personality, work-ethic, personal values and future goals align with this school?

To find more tips on writing your college admissions essay, visit on HowToGetIn.com. Our helpful applying to college section explains more about how best to develop your college essay topic, and covers more about the college application process, including how to ace your college interview.

Fall is a time when graduating Seniors are buzzing about getting their letters of recommendation for college ready, or their college admissions essays edited for upcoming application deadlines. What about younger students? What are they doing to prepare for college applications? (more…)

College application deadlines are right around the corner, early admissions students should have their applications almost finished for early November deadlines, and regular admissions students – January isn’t so far away! You might be asking how will I pay for college? Or, you may have questions about how to apply for financial aid, when to apply, and whether or not this will affect your chances at a given school or not.

If you have questions about financial aid, you should make use of all of the wonderful resource on the web. Here is a link to help you get started:

Free Financial Aid Webinars for Students

“Let’s face it, financial strategy and planning is not always on the forefront of college students’ minds. There is a lot of great information out there to help students budget while in college, but many busy students don’t have the time or will to read it…”

http://blog.studentloannetwork.com/financial-aid/free-financial-aid-webinars-for-students/

Have you heard your high school guidance counselors and parents telling you to consider whether or not a college on your list is the right “fit”? Well if they aren’t saying this to you, we’re saying it to you now! If you are getting ready to apply to college this year, check out the 3 steps to applying to college on HowToGetIn.com.

The college admissions process, while it has deadlines and some tricky decisions along the way, is straight forward. You need to do some research, pick some schools, and apply to college. The “pick some schools” part is where you will have to assess a school’s fit with your goals, values, grades and college budget.

When you are applying to college you should be considering fit at a variety of schools that will give you the best chances for success. Colleges you can get into, that you aspire to, and that are a good fit for you academically. (Read more about Reach, Target and Safety schools.) Even a school with the best reputation in the country, like Harvard University, it isn’t the right fit for the social bee perhaps, or an aspiring artist. (more…)

With September now underway, it’s back to the grind, and that includes planning for college. Once you get back into the swing of school, homework, and extracurriculars, you should take some time to continue (or start) your college plan. Preparing for college is a year round task, and here are some things you should think about as you begin a new school year.

Freshmen

September is a busy month, for Freshmen especially. You have the added stress of finding your way around new hallways packed with new faces and getting acclimated to a new school climate. However, there are still some steps you can take to start your college prep plan.

• Befriend your guidance counselor – Adjusting to a new school can be a challenge, so seek help from your guidance counselor now, that way, when it’s time to seek their advice on college, you’ll already have developed a rapport with them!
• Talk to your parents – Paying for college is tough, so the sooner you talk to your parents about how to do this the better. That way, you can put a little money aside from your summer job if you know you’ll need it in the future!

Sophomores

• Register for the PSAT or PLAN tests – Sophomore year you will want to (well, maybe not want) but should register for practice tests. Taking a practice SAT or ACT test can help students prepare better for the real tests by finding the areas where you may need to work a little harder. Tests usually take place in October or November, so make sure you register on time to avoid a late fee.
• Research some colleges – Just because it’s a few years away, you should still take some time to do a little college research. Ask family and friends why they went to the schools they did. Was it the size? Location? Cost? Getting a little background from friends and family can help you to eventually narrow your college list.

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One of the most striking aspects of college for incoming freshman is the new financial responsibility. Spending while under the watch of mom and dad is one thing, but for many students college comes with a lot of firsts: first credit card, first bills, and first place to really be financially independent. While there’s something to be said for learning by doing, handling finances should be done with more care. This is why it’s important to create your college budget.

Step One: Calculating Income

Before you know how much you can spend, you have to know how much you make. In college, many students find themselves living on the minimum, and this can become problematic. For example, make sure you know exactly how much money is in your account, because should you have a remaining $20, and buy a $25 item with your debit card, that extra $5 now costs you a whopping $40 in overdraft fees. Minor differences can have major consequences.
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Work study jobs may be awarded to students as a part of their overall financial aid package, or students apply to help cover expenses. They can consist of campus jobs such as library assistants, bookstore associates, or research assistants, and can range from simply administrative to research-oriented. Many campus jobs are filled by students in the work study programs. Additionally, some jobs are located in the surrounding community and are usually for local non-profits. All work study positions require that students be paid at least the federal minimum wage, though many do pay more. Additionally, only students who attend school at least half-time are eligible for work-study jobs.

Types of Work Study

There are two types of work study, federal and school-based. (more…)

If the answer to the first question is yes, this study says that the majority of your generation will also say yes to the second question. Who needs a sense of smell if you have a laptop and cell phone? Is this an accurate description of your generation? (more…)

The US Dept of Education's IPEDS (Integrated Post-secondary Education Data System) contains information on all 7,000+ officially-recognized institutions of higher education in the United States. We present a list of the 20 largest institutions of higher education by "12-month unduplicated headcount," meaning it is the number of unique individuals who enrolled in at least one class during the 12 months of 2009. Whether a system of individual campuses is counted as one or multiple institutions depends on how that institution is accredited and chartered. All data can be verified on the IPEDS system website. (more...)