<p>I was the admissions counselor here. No special talent, just someone who enjoys research. ;)</p>
<p>Estimated Family Contribution (to borrow from long-time CC legend Curmudgeon) means “Every Freakin’ Cent.” That number is what the school feels you can pay, not what YOU feel you can pay. The FA folks don’t care about the size of your mortgage or your credit card bills. If you are divorced/remarried, educate yourself about what FAFSA and CSS/PROFILE will expect from your former and/or current spouse. If you have your own business, FA will assess things differently. There are folks here who have expertise on that. Run an EFC calculator. Add more $$ to that figure.</p>
<p>Be honest with your child about what your family can reasonably afford. If your kid needs to focus on getting merit $$, look at schools where her stats put her in the very top of the pool. Yes, there are some schools where you can win the Financial Aid lottery – but there are MANY students applying for one of those golden tickets. </p>
<p>What not all high schools will tell you – your student should take SAT-IIs after completing the relevant class. Some schools’ classes are better at covering what the SAT-II covers than others. Sometimes the teachers will know how the class and exam correlate. A $15 test book can help cover areas the teacher didn’t. Both my kids’s high schools had dozens of donated test books that were available for free. Math Level II can be taken right after pre-calc. No calc on the exam. If your kid is taking AP US History, there is a very strong correlation to the SAT-II subject test. June SAT-II spots fill up early. Not all SAT-IIs are offered at every sitting (esp. important for kids taking foreign language with listening exams). I tried to be aware of this kind of stuff so that we didn’t have to worry about testing during senior year (esp. important for kids with fall sports). </p>
<p>Some kids do better on the ACT than the SAT. Rather than taking the SAT n+1 times, try taking the ACT instead.</p>
<p>We were lucky that at S1’s HS, there are parents and teachers who “pay it forward” with what they have learned about the process and how it relates to kids at this particular program. When three different people soph year suggested we check out Harvey Mudd as being a good fit for my son, S1 took a serious look, liked it a LOT, and then he started looking for other schools with similar characteristics.</p>
<p>Both my kids’ schools used Naviance, which turned out to be darned accurate.</p>
<p>We used CC’s College Karma $150 StatsEval for a quick reality check of each kid’s list and to see if we were missing anything obvious. Did this the summer before senior year, once we had APs and test scores.</p>
<p>I spent lots of time on CC sorting the wheat from the chaff as far as advice on lists, FA, activity resumes, etc.</p>
<p>I got a few books from the library – Michele Hernandez, The Overachievers, Letting Go, a book or two on essays. Letting Go was definitely the most useful, though not directly related to college admissions. The other books served for me as warnings about what NOT to do, and the essay books didn’t impress me.</p>
<p>If your D’s HS has a questionnaire for the juniors (and/or parents) to complete for the GC rec, take it seriously. It is a great chance to start putting ideas and thoughts to paper and getting some ideas for essays. </p>
<p>S1’s research class junior year had to write resumes as part of the search for a mentor for summer research projects. This was extremely helpful with college apps – he had to collect all that info EARLY, get it organized into something that made sense, and it showed some trends in his interests that provided material for later essays. S2 was at a different program, but after seeing how helpful it was for S1, I had S2 do the resume early as well. Recognize that the resume will change between spring of junior year and December of senior year, but by that point it’s just editing. It’s having the framework that is useful.</p>
<p>All that said, my kids were happy to talk to us about this stuff. The process brought up a lot of funny stories and reminiscing. S2 wrote his Common App activity essay while we were on a camping trip. He was making beef bourguignon over a campfire and the muse struck. He had been agonizing for weeks about which EC to write about – and while he was stirring, it came to him – his love of cooking, the social pleasure of bringing people together, the challenges of cooking over an open fire, experimenting with the chemistry, the links to history, the joy of all those interwoven connections. It just flowed. From a kid who has fought for every word, this was a one-draft essay. </p>
<p>As far as essays – the hardest part, IMO, is <em>psychologically</em> getting to the point where the kiddo is ready to share some deeply held thoughts and beliefs. It also means they need to accept the reality that this is the first step towards leaving home – and I have no doubt a lot of HS senior writer’s block has to do with the very mixed feelings they have about this new phase of life (even if they act like they can’t WAIT to get the heck outta there!). Once they climb over that wall, at least at our house, the writing started flowing. </p>
<p>This thinking requires quiet and reflection, things our kids all too often don’t have time to do. As a parent, I tried to make sure they had as much free time as possible during this stage of the process. I know other parents have shared that having their kid work on apps from 1-3 pm on a Sunday (or other scheduled time frame) worked well, but not for us. The college app process took up a good part of our family’s energy and attention – it was a year-long quasi-celebratory, organic event marking a passage. That will probably makes some parents run screaming from the room about now! :D</p>
). Run a FAFSA estimator to see at minimum how much your family will be expected to pay for college per year. Ask more questions here. </p>