<p>Okay so I'm currently a junior in high school, and like almost everyone else, I'm starting to look at colleges. I would love to go to a great nationally ranked school, but any school that sparks my interest I would be honored to attend. One thing that worries me is that I'm basically going to go through the college process alone. My parents do not know the college process and can't offer help, so I'm flying solo for this. Since I am completely naive to this process what should I expect? What should I do? Is there anything that I can do now that will save me time later? Sorry for the questions and me being completely lost with this, but I truly am ahah. Thanks for anyone who will offer any help in advance.</p>
<p>Start off with a bit of research. Read “Admission Matters” by Jon Reider (available on Amazon for $13.52) from cover to cover. Schedule a discussion with your high school college counselor and ask him the question you posed to the CC site. Locate a reasonably good college that you can reach by public transportation, and visit. Better still, schedule an official visit. Look at that college’s web site for how to go about doing that. All this should give a push in the right direction for figuring out how to proceed.</p>
<p>I just finished my application process and like you I had very little help from my parents. As a result I often felt like I was behind everyone else. I’ll do a brief overview and tell you some of my personal experiences but I can get a lot more specific if you let me know your extra curricular activities and some schools that interest you.</p>
<p>First, talk to your guidance counselor about possible colleges based on your grades, interests, and personality. Then go to collegeboard.com to look up these colleges. Also talk to people you know who attend colleges and look at what kinds of colleges your upper class friends are attending to learn about the feel of the college.</p>
<p>The college process can be broken up into these sections:
Grades (Transcript at beginning of senior year as well as midyear transcript)
Extra Curricular Activities (including work experience)
SAT or ACT scores
Essay
Teacher Recommendations
Whatever supplement the college asks for
And afterward there’s the financial aid stuff and scholarship applications</p>
<p>Your colleges need all of this stuff. The websites collegeboard.com and commonapp.org are your friends, as are the websites for the individual colleges.
At collegeboard.com you register for the SATs, send your SAT scores, look at the colleges to see what they require, and fill out the CSS/PROFILE form to see about financial aid.
At commonapp.org you fill out the common application as well as the supplements for the colleges you want and print out teacher recommendation request forms.</p>
<p>Personally I had a post-it note for each college and on each post-it I wrote what the college wanted, and when I had sent it to the college I checked it off. I also wrote down the various usernames and passwords I had for each college so that I could check the status of my application easily. Just a way to keep organized.</p>
<p>Get everything done early and always check the websites to make sure your colleges are getting everything they need and that it is your best quality work you are sending them.
I’d love to get more specific because the last four months have been incredibly knowledgeable for me in terms of how to apply to college, so let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to know. Trust me, it’s a difficult, time-consuming, and expensive process. BUT it pays off in the end.</p>
<p>People here on CC will be more than willing to help you! There are so many awesome moms (and kids) who will help you every step of the way. I wish I could be of more help, but I’m too “new” to this to help you much! Look for posts from (or PM) mom2collegekids and swimcatsmom (Sorry if I didn’t mention any others - I can’t remember them all!). Good luck and I admire you for coming here for help! :)</p>
<p>The first, and most important thing you can do is to sit down with your parents and find out how much money they have for college, and how much debt they are willing to assume. College costs range from $20k/ year at the local state school to $55k/ year at a private university, if you don’t get a scholarship, merit aid, or qualify for tuition waivers under some other program. Then find out what your parents expect your contribution to be. Consider too that graduate school, if you plan to attend, could potentially add to the cost.</p>
<p>The next part of the discussion is to understand what other constraints they will place on you and why: geographic is the most common, but some parents feel strongly about single sex, religious orientation, the kind of degree you pursue (pre-professional vs. not), whether a school is urban or not, etc… For many students, the local state school is the ‘no brainer’ choice-and a good one. Check if they have an honors program.</p>
<p>Next, do your homework. Within the constraints you’ve agreed on, what is important to you in a school: size (large public, medium privates, small LACs, etc…), an honors program?, certain majors (if, for example, you want engineering, you have probably eliminated most LACs). Homework is reading college guides like Fiske, Colleges That Chance Lives, etc…and then researching these schools on-line. Use the tools on this site to identify possible schools.</p>
<p>Do some ‘field trips’: Check out a large state school nearby, a community college (if you are going that route), a private university and a LAC (liberal arts college) just to see what they feel like. (You don’t have to apply-right now, you just want to know how they differ.) If you have friends who are attending, so much the better-get the scoop from them.</p>
<p>Finally, look at your grades, test scores, class rank and compare yourself to the common data set for each school that you are interested in. Are you in the top 25% of admitted students, the middle or the bottom 25%. It will give you a feel for your chances, knowing that even if you are in the top 25% of a very competitive school, you are still looking at a ‘reach.’ (vs. a match or a safety).</p>
<p>Find a safety you would happy to attend. That is a school which you know, with 100% certainty that you can both get in, and can afford. Love your safety, is the mantra on CC. </p>
<p>Then come up with your list of schools to really dig into. CC can help you refine it based on the criteria you set. The number of schools on your list depends on many factors: CC has lots of threads on this topic.</p>
<p>And read the common application so you know what information you have to provide, essays you need to write, etc…Do it over the summer before senior year.</p>
<p>And start looking into scholarships too-a whole separate topic for another time.</p>
<p>Have fun and keep it organized. If you get this over the summer before senior year, you’ll avoid getting overwhelmed.</p>
<p>The good news is that the U.S. has probably 1,000 colleges that are nationally ranked. In addition, 60% of students applying to college get into their first choice.</p>
<p>In addition to reading at least one of the many excellent guides to college admissions that are available . I like the ones put out by Time, Newsweek and U.S. News. They also include info about what to do each month to prep for college. They are available at most bookstores and at many newsstands.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that most students go to public colleges within 250 miles of their home. Don’t use CC as your guide because the posters on this site represent a very small segment of college-bound students. In general, the students on this site are affluent enough that they don’t have to worry about money when it comes to college, and have SAT scores in the top 5% of the college-bound population.</p>
<p>As is the case for the majority of college-bound students, finances will be your #1 issue. Find out what your parents can afford to pay for your college each year. Pin them down on this. Don’t allow them to say something like, “Whatever you need, we can pay.” Depending on the college, private colleges can cost more than $50k a year, and even public colleges can cost $30 k a year for in-state students (more for out of state students).</p>
<p>Also use the financial aid estimator at finaid.org </p>
<p>Realize, however, that the figure that you get is not what most colleges will give you. Very few colleges can afford to meet the full demonstrated need of their students. The few colleges that are able to do this are very hard to gain acceptance to (1 in 10 applicants may be admitted) places like Harvard and Stanford. </p>
<p>Other colleges may give you, for instance, $30,000 a year less than you need or may load you up with $30 k a year in loans, a very unreasonable loan load. (The average college student in the U.S. takes a total of $17 k in loans to cover all 4 years of college. ).</p>
<p>The poorer you are, the less likely you will be to get the financial aid that you need.</p>
<p>To save money, many students --including some smart middle class ones – live at home and go to their local community college for 2 years and then transfer to an in-state public. Some public universities offer nice merit aid to in state students transferring from community colleges.</p>
<p>Also, your parents will need to submit forms (FAFSA) and income tax copies so the colleges will be able to substantiate any grants/loans/scholarships they offer you. Sometimes parents are reluctant to provide this info. However, convince them that the timely submission of this can garner tens of thousands of dollars for you.</p>
<p>Again, start with book suggestion and a sit down with your guidance counselor. Good luck to you</p>
<p>I also like Admission Matters for general information about the college application process, but I thought it was written by Sally Springer?? Either way, you can find it at Amazon or possibly even your local library. </p>
<p>For financial aid information, I like the website finaid.org</p>
<p>Make SURE you have a financial and academic “safety” on your list! Or two. What you’ll learn in the next year will be a lot, and scary (what colleges cost, and the amount of paperwork). You can’t be too prepared and it sounds like you’re headed in the right direction. I never went to college and I’ve helped (?) my daughter through the process SOLELY through the aid of CC. But DO take advantage of any seminars/paperwork/visits that your school offers. Meet college reps, go to local college fairs, attend financial planning seminars. My D’s toughest stuff was deciding where to apply! With 3000 schools…where do you start? Well, start with your favorite in state public university. Apply early, apply for scholarships, file for aid. Then ADD the colleges that just seem to speak to you - but research who offers what type of aid (if that’s important). Kids seem to often just pick a school because their friend goes there, they have a good soccer team, they’re in a location where they want to be, they like their advertising. And all that does play a part, of course. But none of it matters if you can’t get in, or you can’t pay for it. So cast a wide net while researching. Narrow down later. Enjoy the thrill of deciding your next 4 years!</p>
<p>Thanks so much for everyone’s posts. It is definitely a lot to take in all at once. I have a few questions:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>How did you obtain merit scholarships or any other scholarships for that matter? Do I just find scholarship competitions and enter them or can I apply to a school and they supply me a scholarship? </p></li>
<li><p>Northstarmom mentioned the poorer you are, the less likely you’ll get the financial aid you need. Is that really true? I’m not poor, but my parents do not make enough money to pay for my tuition. They told me that money is not an option in college choice and if I do not get aid–they assured me that I will–they will help me take out loans. Although they said that, I would hate to put that burden on them. </p></li>
<li><p>Also, I know that SAT scores matter a lot and scores under 2000 are considered subpar, but is that a major blow against me in the application process? I got my PSAT score online since my school neglects to give them back to us and I did roughly 300 points better then before and it was still substantially far from a 2000. I’m taking the SAT in March and will try to jam studying in, but due to playing sports and participating in research, I’m unable to dedicate that much time to it. Even if I don’t reach a 2000, hopefully I will get close, how badly will it affect me? I go to a school that does not focus on SAT prep, but only the regents exams and that the school in general barely scrapes by. Will colleges take that into consideration?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Once again sorry for asking so many questions and thanks so much for all of your replys!</p>
<p>SAT scores under 2000 are not considered subpar. Scores of 1800-2000 are above average scores and would gain a student admission to most colleges in the country. They are only subpar for the top schools in the country, places like Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Northwestern.</p>
<p>You don’t need prep courses at school to prep for the SAT. You can get prep books and prep yourself. Also look at Xiggi’s method on the SAT boards here. That method has helped many students do very well on the tests.</p>
<p>Most students get scholarships by applying to schools that give them. For merit aid, apply to schools offering merit aid and where your stats put you into at least the top quarter of applicants. For need-based aid, apply to schools that offer good need based aid or where your stats put you in the upper quarter of students. Being in the upper quarter of applicants won’t guarantee you’ll get merit or need-based aid, but it will raise your chances. Take a good look at individual colleges’ financial aid and merit scholarship web pages before deciding whether to apply to them. </p>
<p>"They told me that money is not an option in college choice and if I do not get aid–they assured me that I will–they will help me take out loans. "</p>
<p>You need to do the research on this because as is the case with many parents, your parents don’t know how much college costs, the difficulty in getting aid, and the unrealistically huge amount of loans you could have to take out if you apply to colleges without considering costs. As I said before, a private college can cost $50 k a year, and most are not able to meet the full demonstrated financial need of accepted students. Many also will reject high need students. No one will give you $200 k in loans, and even if they did, that would be crippling to pay back.</p>
<p>Only wealthy students are able to apply to college without considering costs. Virtually everyone else does factor in costs even if students don’t tell you that or don’t realize they are doing that. That’s why so many students go to in-state public schools. </p>
<p>It is worth it to pay $15 to access the US News on-line college guide until Aug. because it provides the best breakdown I’ve seen on individual college’s admission stats and financial aid info. Otherwise, you could waste a lot of time applying to colleges that you can’t afford. </p>
<p>Also read the Financial Aid and Scholarships board here at CC.</p>
<p>"But by U . S . News’s count, only 54 of the 5,000-plus American colleges and universities promise to provide enough scholarships to meet all students’ financial need. And those colleges give plenty of aid to the far greater numbers of middle- and upper-middle-class students whom they admit. Harvard, for example, charges no more than 10 percent of a family’s income for all those who earn $180,000 or less.</p>
<p>A few dozen other schools promise to meet the need of students from low-income families only, typically cutting their generosity off at annual incomes of about $40,000.</p>
<p>The few students who meet these criteria may very well receive better financial aid deals than similar students who aren’t lucky enough to win admission or whose families earn slightly more than their school’s cutoff. But the numbers of students who get this advantage is surprisingly tiny. Most of the really generous schools are quite small. Princeton University, for example, enrolled just 1,300 freshmen this year. An analysis by Postsecondary Education Opportunity, a think tank based in Oskaloosa, Iowa, found that only about 10 percent of Princeton’s students come from low-income families. Using some back-of-the-envelope calculations, I’d estimate that these generous schools take no more than 200,000 or so of the 3 million freshmen who start college each year. But because the majority of those admitted to elite schools tend to be from well-off families, the number of low-income freshmen who get full financial aid probably doesn’t exceed 30,000—or 1 percent—of all college freshmen.</p>
<p>For the other 99 percent, the think tank found that it is the poor and working class who particularly get the financial aid shaft…"</p>
<p>[Who</a> Really Gets the Most College Financial Aid? - College Cash 101 (usnews.com)](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/blogs/college-cash-101/2009/10/19/who-really-gets-the-most-college-financial-aid.html]Who”>http://www.usnews.com/blogs/college-cash-101/2009/10/19/who-really-gets-the-most-college-financial-aid.html)</p>
<p>Some other resources:</p>
<p>[Schools</a> That Say They Meet Full Need - US News and World Report](<a href=“http://www.usnews.com/education/paying-for-college/articles/2008/09/05/schools-that-say-they-meet-full-need.html]Schools”>http://www.usnews.com/education/paying-for-college/articles/2008/09/05/schools-that-say-they-meet-full-need.html)</p>
<p>The other posters seem to have the financial aid and procedural stuff covered. I would like to say that while CC is helpful for these uniform parts of the admissions process, you shouldn’t let the hysteria around some parts the forums guide you . You’ll see these mostly around the chances threads and in the Admissions category from January to April(decision-waiting period). Just know you’ll end up in a good school that you’ll like and if you play your cards right, will be affordable.</p>
<h1>1-every college and every scholarship is different. Just research, be aware, keep your eyes open, pay attention at time of application. Some high schools keep flyers in their guidance office with local scholarship opportunities. There are online places, including College Board, who can guide you through a scholarship search of things that might be a fit for you. Google anything “different” about you (dyslexia scholarship, you know anything). If the school you’re applying to offers merit scholarships, they’ll describe them on their website, tell you if you need a separate application, give you deadlines. Local or state schools tend to have lower standards for their merit scholarships of course. Some have “automatic” scholarships based on things like your GPA and SAT. So there are many kinds, many different processes. Start looking at applications now, find some you can download from colleges in which you’ve developed an interest, and see what their “essay”/short answer type questions are. You’ll probably be answering a LOT of those questions next year (depending on the type schools you apply to). Spend the summer writing essays - that is the hard part of the process and you’ll be so glad to have some done/started come next Fall. Then you can just tweak them (because you’re writing style WILL improve in a year…it’s AMAZING what happens over the course of a year in high school). You can usually use almost anything you chose to write on, and find a way to make it fit the application questions. They’re often generic, and you also often have the opportunity to choose one out of 3,4, questions…the last one sometimes being “Or a topic of your choice”). You also frequently need essays for scholarship applications. So, getting this big chore done so you’re more prepared to work on applications and research is a good thing!</h1>
<h1>3-try to also take the ACT maybe, a lot of kids fare better in that than the SAT. Something to try anyway. There is a girl on CC who got a perfect 36 on the ACT, and said her SAT was horrible. I don’t know what she means by horrible, and that’s probably a very unusual situation, but…worth a try.</h1>
<p>Are there any colleges or universities near your home? Even if you don’t want to attend those, visit the campuses, take a tour, chat with some students. This will start to give you a sense of what’s out there, what appeals to you and what doesn’t. Ask students you meet to tell you something about their admissions process.</p>
<p>Also some colleges look favorably on applicants who are first in their family to attend college!</p>
<p>Once you have done some of the homework described above, come back to CC with:</p>
<p>-GPA (W and UW)
-your SATs or ACTs
-your school criteria (culture, financial requirements, geographic requirements, size, etc…)
-your interestes: acadmics, professional and EC</p>
<p>At that point, you will get a lot of feedback about specific schools to check out. Monroylobo is right, by the way-don’t let the 5% of over-achiever students who haunt CC freak you out. There are fabulous schools for kids with B averages and test scores below 1800. It’s all about fit.</p>
<p>For now, read the common application so you know what information you need to provide. And start thinking about who will write your letters of recommendation (teachers, a coach perhaps, someone you work for). You’ll want to ask them before the end of this semester-and, if you are really savvy, you’ll provide them with the information they need to do a really great job for you. Good luck!</p>