I read a great article in USA Today about the Hidden Costs of College. It is true that many families only consider tuition, room & board, food, and books in their college costs equation. But there is more. Taking standardized tests carries a fee, every college application has a fee, many financial aid forms at private schools carry a fee… You need to be prepared. Read along and get your brain turning. As we say at College Planning Experts, you’ve got to start planning early! Not only will it help your student with the admissions process, but it will also ensure you have a plan to finance your college costs.
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Survive College Admissions Madness!
The New York Times had this earlier in the week, and I had to share. At this time of year, so many families are worried about where their children will end up for college. They are fearful that their college dreams could be crushed. This article is great because it negates some of those fears. At College Planning Experts we always advise on finding the right “fit” for school. These students had their hopes high on specific name brand schools, but they found their different happiness(es) elsewhere. And imagine this. They’re successful! Give it a read. I am sure you’ll enjoy it!
Celebrity College Major
Do you think all celebrities who go to college major in drama? You’d be wrong… I stumbled upon this article in the Huffington Post and had to share it. Enjoy!
Free College Planning Workshop Tonight!
As a reminder, tonight we’ll be co-hosting a College Knowledge Night with C2 Education in Agoura Hills. We’ll be going over all things related to college admissions, testing, financial aid, and more. College Knowledge Night March 18th from 6:30-8:00 P.M. Agoura Hills/ Calabasas Community Center RSVP: https://cpei.infusionsoft.com/app/form/20150318ahccc Co-Hosted by C2! You’ll learn insider tips for college admissions tests, how many hours of volunteering you need to get accepted, the biggest mistakes families make on financial aid forms, secret strategies to get more scholarships and grants, and much more! Don’t miss out!
Inspirational Quotes to keep Motivated
Education “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” William Butler Yeats “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Nelson Mandela “An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” Benjamin Franklin “Education is learning what you didn’t even now you didn’t know.” Daniel J. Boorstein Failure “Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement. One fails forward toward success.” C.S. Lewis “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Thomas A. Edison “Once you agree upon the price you and your family must pay for success, it enables you to ignore the minor hurts, the opponent’s pressure,…
College Planning Experts are Rockstars!
College Planning Experts had such a great time last week at Craig Duswalt’s Rockstar Marketing Bootcamp! I had the pleasure of speaking to the crowd about the importance of passion in entrepreneurship. If your sole motivation is money, you won’t be successful. You have to have a deep-founded desire to do what you love. I founded College Planning Experts in 2004 after my personally frustrating college experience. I wanted to help students (and parents) avoid the mistakes I made in applying to college and in applying for financial aid. Now, after 11 years, College Planning Experts has grown into a successful business, and I couldn’t be prouder. We are able to work as a team, doing what we love. We help make a difference in…
New Event You Won’t Want to Miss!
Want to have one-on-one interactions with college admissions representatives? Come to our event on the 26th! Picking the right list of colleges is important. You want to know that the schools to which you apply are going to be a great fit and are going to provide you with a world class education. This is why College Planning Experts has teamed up with three universities to provide you with an interactive seminar! On March 26th from 6-7:30 P.M., admissions representatives from Pepperdine, Purdue, and Ohio State will be serving as a panel of admissions experts to answer all of your questions. If you want to know what it’s like to go to school in the Midwest, what it’s like to attend a Christian school, what…
Would you want to know why you were rejected?
Earlier this year it was announced that college applicants could review their admissions profile via the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). This came to light when a group of students from Stanford reached out to the school for the information. It went viral, and soon there were templates for students from other schools to do the same. Now it seems schools are trying to prevent applicants from applying for their records. Stanford writes, “The path to Stanford is not easy and the admission process is rigorous and critical. So please ask yourself: What benefit do I seek from reviewing these additional admissions records?… Will my life be better for having reviewed them?” So I ask you, would you or would you…
How will America’s College Promise affect you?
During his State of the Union address, President Obama called for the government to guarantee free community college for its citizens. His proposal, America’s College Promise, is far from being a done deal, but it leaves us to question how this could affect future college students. Currently, the average time it takes a student to get through community college and transfer is 3 years. In the state of California, where education budget cuts have cost us faculty and course offerings, students are particularly struggling to get the classes they need to transfer. Did you know you cannot transfer to a Cal State or U.C. school unless you are at junior standing? If you need to be at junior standing, you have to take…
Does your race affect your chance of getting in?
I recently read an article in the Los Angeles Times about the landscape of college admissions with regard to race. The article opens to tell a story of a college prep company in the San Gabriel Valley that shows parents graphs summarizing the need for Asian American students to do better on their tests. The company says Asian American students “are penalized by 50 points [on the SAT] — in other words, they had to do that much better [than other races] to win admission.” The presentation was meant to show parents what they’re up against in trying to get their students admitted to top colleges. I can wholeheartedly say that this is absolutely wrong. In fact, in response to this article a former admissions…
