College Admissions Weekly Roundup January 14 2012

Ahhhh…well into the winter season here in Northern, NJ – the cold has finally set in.  Nothing like a hot cup of java or tea on a cold and windy Saturday morning to warm the soul (better than chicken soup, in my opinion!).

Of course, the college admissions machine keeps rolling, and this week is no exception.  Financial aid, scholarships, acceptance letters, deferrals, and the like are on the minds of high school seniors and their parents.

Juniors and even Sophomores are starting to awaken to the college admissions process as well – we had good response to our own blog post – “How to Start Your College Search in 5 Minutes” – which was written specifically for those just getting started with college admissions.

There are many articles from all over the Internet this week. Here are a few that caught our attention:

On the website GoLocalProv.com, ”College Admissions: 6 Biggest Lies in College Admissions“, by Cristiana Quinn takes a stab at those catch phrases many admissions departments often use.  Phrases like “We look at the whole student” and other such phrases can often be code for something entirely different.  This is not a condemnation of all admissions officers and departments, but we’ve all heard these types of phrases at parent night presentations and other events.  In this article these “lies” are brought to light in an informative way.  Give it a read!

The NYT’s “The Choice” blog has published a six-part series of Q & A on filling out the FAFSA form which is replete with good advice from Mark Kantrowitz, founder of FinAid.org.  In “Part 1: Answers on the Fafsa, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid“, Mr. Kantrowitz tackles questions regarding deadlines, graduate program applicability and citizenship.  Part 2 tackles questions about divorce, parent education level and Fafsa history. Part 3 answers questions regarding unemployment, the accuracy of net price calculators and putting twins through college.  Part 4 addresses how inheritances and retirement plans might affect an expected family contribution (E.F.C.); how the Fafsa defines “assets,” and how applying early decision can affect financial aid.  Part 5 covers questions about privacy issues, when to file and the rules concerning tuition assistance from grandparents and other relatives.  And Part 6 will be published Saturday morning – and we are pre-writing this post (we usually don’t!) as we’ll be at our daughter’s track meet from 6am on…so we’re not sure what questions Mr. Kantrowitz will answer as of this writing!

And last (but not least!) over at the WSJ’s MarketWatch.com website in a published press release, “Go Daddy Awarding 10 College Scholarships“, you’ll find out all the info you’ll need to apply for one of 10 – $10,000 scholarships being offered this year by GoDaddy.com – the love ‘em or hate ‘em domain registration site.  Famous for it’s racy SuperBowl advertisements, GoDaddy has just gone through an acquisition and financial restructuring in a private equity deal.  The new partners promise not to tamper with the company’s “culture” – we haven’t yet figured out if that is a good thing or not!

Until next week…Happy Trails!