College Admission Officers have difficult time with saying 'no'

College Admission Officers have difficult time with saying 'no' By Jason Katz
Daily News columnist

Q: I have now heard back from all of the colleges I applied to, and I was accepted by some and rejected by others. The rejection letters I received felt so cold. Do admissions officers even care?
A: Oftentimes it can feel like you are being judged by some nameless, faceless person hunkered down in an admissions office somewhere. You may think that to them, you are simply a number and whether you are admitted or denied has no bearing on their emotional state; they simply move on to the next applicant.
However, this couldn't be further from the truth. I have spoken with many admissions officers over the years and they are some of the nicest, most empathetic people I have met.
They simply have a very tough job.
In today's ultra-competitive college admissions environment, the fact is there are far more qualified applicants than there are spots at the top schools. Admissions officers are forced to make gut-wrenching decisions about who gets in and who doesn't. Oftentimes this decision is based more on the college's particular needs rather than the merits of any particular applicant.
For example, two applicants might have both taken a strenuous high school course load, have a high GPA, have great SAT scores, excelled at extracurricular activities, and written eloquent application essays. However, one applicant plays the trumpet, while the other plays the trombone, and it just so happens that the college that both of them
applied to needs a trumpet player for the marching band. Because of the institutional need, the trumpet player gets in, and the trombone player is rejected.
Does this mean that the trumpet player is a more qualified applicant or a better person? Of course not.
Does this mean that it is easy for the admissions officer to reject the trombone player? Again, of course not.
Angel B. Perez, director of admission at Pitzer College in Claremont, recently wrote an empathetic piece in the Los Angeles Times about how trying it is to reject so many applicants.
"It's hard to justify to someone who has just been 'denied,'" writes Perez, "that although they've done everything right, we just did not have enough seats in the class. "... No matter how many years you work in college admissions, it never gets any easier to say 'no.' At my institution, we received 4,079 applications but have only 245 spots in the freshman class. Choosing among a majority of overqualified applicants is our challenge."
Finally, Perez offers one of the best pieces of advice I have heard with respect to college rejections: "To all these students, I say that where you get into college is not a representation of your worth, and please remind your parents that your college acceptance letter is not their final grade on the parental report card of life."


College Admission Officers have difficult time with saying 'no'

Do your homework on college grants and college savings plans

Do your homework on college grants and college savings plans
For some, saving money for a child’s or grandchild's college education seems nearly impossible. Before you give up the battle, however, consider this: A high school graduate will earn an average annual income of $26,416. A college graduate will earn an average annual income of $34,000 to $74,000. For someone who works 40 years, that can add up to an additional $320,000 to $1.92 million in earnings. That's quite a return on an investment in a college education!
Saving for college may seem like a monumental task, but you don’t need to save the entire amount overnight, and, chances are, you won't need to finance the entire expense yourself. Today, there are a multitude of loans, work programs, tax credits, and so forth designed to help put college within the grasp of nearly everyone. With a little homework, you can find all the options available to you.
Here are five sources of college funding to consider:
Grants and Scholarships
Grants and scholarships are awarded on a number of criteria, including grades, talent, heritage, race and gender. Grants and scholarships can be offered locally, statewide, nationwide and by particular colleges and universities. For that reason, it can be difficult to pinpoint all these opportunities. The Internet, school counselors and the financial aid offices of colleges and universities can provide a wealth of information on this topic. Grants and scholarships typically supplement college costs rather than cover total expenses. Therefore, it's important you take an active role in saving for your child's educational future.
Investments
Through the years, parents and grandparents have used savings bonds, zero coupon bonds and growth-and-income mutual funds to help with educational expenses. All are excellent ways to save for a college education. In more recent years, however, several new tools to help save for or offset college expenses have been introduced. All make financing a college education easier than ever before.
The Coverdell Education Savings Account (Education IRA)
A Coverdell education savings account can be established by anyone interested in setting aside dollars now to pay for future higher-education expenses. The annual contribution limit to a Coverdell education savings account is $2,000, a sizable increase over the previous limit of $500.
Once a Coverdell education savings account is established, anyone - a family member, friend or the child - can contribute to the account as long as he or she meets the adjusted gross income limits. A single tax filer can earn up to $95,000 and a married couple filing jointly can earn up to $190,000 and make full contributions. For single tax filers, the phase out range is $95,000 to $110,000. For married couples filing jointly, the phaseout range is $190,000 to $220,000.
For example, if a married couple has an adjusted gross income of $120,000, they can contribute the entire limit to an education savings account. However, if the married couple has adjusted gross income of $205,000, they can only contribute half of the limit to the Coverdell education savings account.
Eligible education expenses covered by the Coverdell education savings account included qualified elementary and secondary school expense (tuition, fees, tutoring, special-needs services, books, supplies, computer equipment, room and board, uniforms and transportation).
Corporations and other entities, including tax-exempt organizations, are permitted to make contributions to a Coverdell education savings account, but contributions by an employer are included in an employee's taxable income.
Another new alternative to saving for a college education is 529 plans.
529 plans can be established for a child or grandchild. When establishing a 529 plan, you choose from two options:
1. Prepaid tuition programs - In a prepaid tuition plan, you buy future tuition credit - at today’s prices - that is generally used at an instate school.
2. Savings plans - Under these plans, your earnings are not taxed as they accumulate, and qualified withdrawals are free from federal income tax.
Savings plans are the more popular of the two plans because they generally don't restrict students to certain colleges in specific states. Keep in mind, though, that withdrawals used for expenses other than qualified higher education expenditures may be subject to federal and state taxes and other penalties.
Tax credits
Even if you already have a child enrolled in college, help still may be available. The Hope Scholarship Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit are tax credits that can be used to offset college tuition and fees.
The exact amount that can be claimed depends on your family's income, the amount of qualified tuition and fees paid and the amount of certain scholarships and allowances subtracted from tuition. If you’d like college to be in the future of your child or grandchild, now is the time to begin. An investment professional can give you a good idea of how much you need to put aside for a college education and which investments are best-suited to your particular needs. Then, start searching for additional financing. Remember, there's a wealth of financing for those who do their homework!


Do your homework on college grants and college savings plans

The secrets of College 'Admission'

The secrets of College 'Admission'
By LAURIE MUCHNICK
Bloomberg News
Jean Hanff Korelitz is an Ivy League spy.
After reading high-schoolers' applications to Princeton University for two years, she has written "Admission," (Grand Central, 452 pages, $24.99), a novel that reveals the secrets of a place many prospects find more mysterious than the Pentagon.
Does the bright but unremarkable scion of an old Princeton family have a better chance of getting in than the quirkily brilliant son of supermarket workers? Making those judgments is Portia Nathan, a 38-year-old admissions officer. As the book begins, she's visiting high schools to meet with interested students.
We're treated to word-for-word transcriptions of two sessions, one at Deerfield Academy, a prestigious (real-life) boarding school, and one at a hippy-dippy (fictional) school called Quest.
"Look, there is no mystery about this," Portia says to the Deerfield kids. "We're looking for intellectual passion. ... We are looking for the student who is so jazzed about ... whatever ... that he or she can't wait to get to Princeton and find out everything there is to know about it."
I wouldn't have thought a speech about application essays could be interesting, but Korelitz makes it work. She doesn't have a definitive answer for why some get in and some don't, but it's fascinating to listen to her ruminate on the subject.
One of the hints Portia gives those Deerfield students is not to "mount a campaign": "There's very little we can learn from four of your teachers that we couldn't have learned from two."
Korelitz ignores her own advice, throwing too much stuff into the book, but in the end I'd have to mark her file "Admit."



The secrets of College 'Admission'

College Counselor Advice: Seniors Make Choices For Life Beyond High School

College Counselor Advice: Seniors Make Choices For Life Beyond High School
By Dave Emke
demke@post-journal.com
Spring is an exciting time for high school seniors.
Thirteen years of public schooling is coming to an end, and all the hard work and dedication will be rewarded with a high school diploma.
Then it's graduation parties, summer vacation and the feeling of freedom that comes with knowing that they will never need to attend high school again.
But ... then what?
The choices are static: enroll in community college, go to a four-year college, enter the work force or join the military. In recent years, as the importance of a college degree has grown more and more, a higher percentage of students has chosen the college route. However, given the current economic climate and the high price of a college education, numbers about which college they attend may be shifting.
A CHANGING CLIMATE
According to Emily Harvey, Panama Central School guidance counselor, the decision process for students is radically different than it was 11 years ago when she first entered the field.
''I have more kids talking about the cost and being nervous about the cost,'' Ms. Harvey said. ''They're just trying to find more out about what the financial-aid packages include and how much debt they're going to be in at the end of the four years.''
What students are finding when they crunch the numbers, guidance counselors report, is the value afforded to them by colleges with two-year programs such as Jamestown Community College and Jamestown Business College.
''JCC offers free tuition to the top 20 percent (in a high school graduating class),'' Ms. Harvey said. ''And we have more students in the top 20 percent taking advantage of that USA scholarship than what we've had in the past.''
Tina Duliba, Falconer Central School guidance counselor, says that families in her district have been in tune with the USA Scholarship for years, as well as other opportunities provided by the local two-year schools.
''At JCC and JBC, because the top seniors get to go there free of tuition, and JBC also has one that they give a tuition scholarship, many of our students stay at JCC and JBC,'' Ms. Duliba said. ''JCC offers a lot of the college credits through the high schools, and a lot of the kids get at least the first year done while they're still in high school.''
Sixty-seven of Falconer's 2008 graduates went on to two-year schools while only 29 went directly to a four-year school, according to the district's New York state report card. At Panama, 26 went to two-year schools and 13 enrolled in four-year schools. Only five of the 18 Chautauqua County school districts sent more graduates to four-year schools than to two-year schools in 2008 - and three of them (Fredonia, Silver Creek and Westfield) are located in the North County, just a stone's throw from the State University at Fredonia.
''As far economic status goes, the Falconer parents have always been really in tune to that anyway,'' Ms. Duliba said. While numbers may be increasing slightly, she said, students from her district have been choosing the less-expensive option of the nearby two-year colleges for years.
CAREFUL CONSIDERATION
While two-year colleges do offer many advantages for cash-strapped graduating seniors and their families, Ms. Harvey says it is still important for students to test the market - good deals might be out there, though not as plentiful as in the past.
''It seems like a lot of kids would always say 'Well, my parents want me to go to JCC because of the cost,''' she said. ''We in the past always would say 'Just wait and apply to a couple schools and see what you can get for a financial aid package, because you might find that it won't be that much for you to go to a four-year school. That isn't the case anymore.''
Ms. Harvey says there are ''hardly any'' four-year schools that can compete with the cost of community colleges, no matter the financial-aid package. Despite this, she said it is her department's stance to allow students to make their own decisions about finances. She says her department's place is to provide the students with as much information as possible about whatever schools to which they might apply.
''We really try not to push anything on the kids,'' she said. ''Our general advice hasn't changed. We tell the kids not to be shocked by the sticker price. We explain to them how the financial-aid system works, what their award letters will look like, what the different types of financial aid are, and how to determine what the actual cost is going to be.''
Ms. Duliba says that her school, despite the still relatively small proportion of students who choose the route, has seen a rise in the number of students who choose to attend four-year schools straight out of high school.
''They see their siblings and everybody achieving and going to some of these private universities,'' she said. ''Private universities offer a quality price when it's merit-based. And we have kids all over Chautauqua County who do exceptionally well with their GPAs and on their SATs and ACTs. They can get some wonderful scholarships.''
Ms. Duliba said that many students are working even harder than before to keep their grades high and to qualify for scholarships, knowing that may be the only way they can get themselves into the college of their dreams.
Students shouldn't feel pressured to attend a two-year school or stay out of college altogether just because of financial concerns, Ms. Harvey said.
''We always tell the kids we want them to consider all their options and look at all the information they can so that they can make the best decision for them,'' she said. ''Happiness is part of the equation.''


College Counselor Advice: Seniors Make Choices For Life Beyond High School

Social Media and College Admissions: Researcher Presents Findings on How Colleges Use Social Media to Recruit Prospective Students

Social Media and College Admissions: Researcher Presents Findings on How Colleges Use Social Media to Recruit Prospective Students
MADISON, Wis., A new report on social media in college admission offices shows a 32 percent increase in the use of social networking applications between 2007 and 2008. The report, which is based on the first statistically significant longitudinal study on the use of social media in college admissions, demonstrates the rapid pace and expanding breadth at which colleges are adopting social media technology to both recruit and research prospective students.
The report's lead researcher, Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes, a professor of marketing and director of the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, presented her findings recently in an online seminar titled Adopting Social Media: What New Studies Say. Hosted by Magna Publications, the seminar is now available in CD and/or transcript format. To order a copy, visit http://www.magnapubs.com/catalog/cds/602243-1.html
Conducted by the Univrsity of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research in cooperation with the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), the new study compares the results of the first study conducted in 2007 with the new findings in 2008. Both surveys were conducted with approximately 500 admissions offices at four-year accredited institutions in the United States.
The Use of Social Media in College Admissions on the Rise
In the studies, Barnes and fellow researcher Eric Mattson set out to discover how familiar higher education institutions are with social media, how they're using it, whether they think it's important, and if they're using it to recruit and research prospective students. What they found was that higher education is outpacing the corporate sector in the use of social media with just 15 percent of college admissions offices reporting that they do not use any social media. In 2007, 39 percent said they didn't use social media.
In fact, the study found year-to-year increases across the board, including the number of college admissions offices that say they use the following applications:
• Social networking: 61 percent, up from 29 percent
• Videoblogging: 41 percent, up from 19 percent
• Blogging: 41 percent, up from 33 percent
• Message boards: 36 percent, up from 27 percent
• Podcasts: 16 percent, up from 14 percent
• Wikis: 10 percent, up from 3 percent
Yet, despite the general widespread use and rapid adoption of social media in college admissions offices, there's still work to be done, according to researchers.
"There is evidence of enthusiasm and eagerness to embrace these new communications tools, but there is also evidence that these powerful tools are not being utilized to their potential," said Barnes. "Schools using social media must learn the 'rules of engagement' in the online world in order to maximize their effectiveness."
The report also serves as a warning to college-bound students who readily use social networking applications such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter to communicate with friends. About a quarter of admissions officers reported using search engines and social networking sites to research prospective students who were candidates for scholarships or entry into high-demand programs as a way of protecting the school from potential embarrassment.
During the seminar Adopting Social Media: What New Studies Say, Dr. Barnes discussed findings of the report -- including a few red flags -- and provided strategies for college admissions offices looking to increase their use and understanding of social media tools, including best practices in higher education blogging, how to monitor social media for posts about your school, best practices for social networking, and legal and ethical considerations.


Social Media and College Admissions: Researcher Presents Findings on How Colleges Use Social Media to Recruit Prospective Students

College Counselor Advice: Changes Test the Observation Powers of Juniors

College Counselor Advice: Changes Test the Observation Powers of Juniors

By Dr. Patrick O’Connor
As seniors continue to weigh their college options and colleges continue to look for the crystal ball that will tell them how many students are really coming to campus this fall, a small story broke recently that should be of great interest to juniors. Colby College is now giving applicants the choice of submitting either the SAT or the ACT OR three SAT Subject tests. The addition of the option of sending Subject tests adds a brand new option to test takers. Since Subject tests are designed to measure what students have learned in classes, students might decide these tests will better show what they know and require less test prep.

Colby’s decision adds another test choice in a year that’s rich with new test choices. College Board is now offering students the option of choosing what scores to send to colleges—remember that College Board used to send all SAT results to a college, leaving the student no choice but to send low scores along with high ones. College Board feels this new option will take some of the stress out of test taking…

…but of course, it hasn’t. Some colleges have responded to this new option by announcing they are going to require students to send ALL test scores, even if College Board and ACT offers the choice of sending only some. Counselors have expressed concern that the new policy will put more pressure on students who may have a high Verbal score on one test and a high Math on the other—will sending both be an advantage, or will the low scores on both put them behind the 8 ball?

Finally, all of this test talk has led even more colleges to look at their testing policies and say “Ya know what? Forget it!” Connecticut College is the latest school to go test optional; you can send some, all, or none of your test scores, and it’s more than OK with them. CC joins hundreds of colleges who have made the same decision—since test prep courses can sometimes teach students to appear smarter than they are, the transcript is becoming a more reliable source of information, even though grading scales vary greatly from one high school to the next. http://www.fairtest.org/ has a list of test-optional schools; take a look, and be sure to go to the college’s Web site to confirm the policy.

What’s a junior to do in the midst of all this change? First, take a test. Unless you know all the colleges you want to apply to are test optional, there’s a good chance you’re going to need a set of scores come September—and since rolling admission colleges are first come first serve, you want to have a set of scores good to go. It’s not too late to sign up for the late spring tests, so get busy—go to www.collegeboard.com and www.act.org for SAT and ACT, respectively.

Second, watch the Web sites. Colby and Connecticut College announced their changes this week, but many other colleges are so focused on this year’s seniors, they might not get around to making their announcements until May. The changes may not impact your decisions about which tests to take and which scores to send, but you never know the opportunities new changes might bring. So bookmark the Web pages of your favorite colleges, sign up for a test or two, and buckle up—the ride may get pretty wild.


College Counselor Advice: Changes Test the Observation Powers of Juniors

Report Finds Growing Use of Social Networking Tools in College Admissions

Report Finds Growing Use of Social Networking Tools in College Admissions
By: Heather Zimar
College admissions officers may take a student's MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, or other online social networking activity into account during the college admission process, according to a report released this week by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC).

According to a NACAC press release on the report, one-fourth of colleges surveyed indicated that they used a Web search or social networking technology to locate information about prospective students. The paper also suggested that colleges are more likely than not to use social media in promotion and student recruitment. Other findings included:
• More than half (53 percent) of colleges monitor social media for "buzz" about their school.

• 33 percent of colleges maintain a blog, 29 percent maintain a presence on social networking Web sites, 27 percent maintain message- or bulletin-boards, 19 percent use video blogging, and 14 percent issue podcasts. 39 percent of colleges surveyed reported using no social media technology.

• 88 percent of admission offices believed social media were either "somewhat" or "very" important to their future recruitment efforts
According to the press release, NACAC's research on social networking sites was intended to:
1) Present recent data collected by the author on the extent to which colleges and universities are using social media for recruitment;
2)Highlight best practices for blogging and the use of other social media and Web 2.0 applications for those institutions who are new to these endeavors
3) Begin to explore the ethical and legal issue inherent in engaging with prospective students through these media."


Report Finds Growing Use of Social Networking Tools in College Admissions