Three Days Until FAFSA Financial Aid Priority Deadline!
If you want to receive financial aid during the 2008-09 college year and have not yet filed you FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), do it today. March 3 is the deadline for priority consideration, and you definitely want to meet this mark. While your aid application may still be submitted after March (and all the way until June 30), you will need to file before this priority deadline to increase your likelihood of receiving maximum consideration for all sources of aid.
Also note that many states have March state-specific deadlines including: California, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Tennessee, West Virginia, and others (consult the official FAFSA website for state filing deadlines).
Leap-year may have bought you an extra day, but take this weekend to complete and submit your FAFSA online if you have not done so already. Even if you are waiting for information like your W-2s, your parents' W-2s, or other financial or tax information, you should fill out the FAFSA with your best guesses and then submit a correction later.
Last year, an estimated 2 million students who lost out on free money. Don't make that same mistake. Begin filling out your application at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov.
Have a question or comment? 1 person does.Two Readers’ Questions: Can My Admission Be Revoked After Being Accepted?
I have two questions that I wanted to answer related to a similar subject: colleges revoking admission after already accepting a student. The short answer is that a university may cancel your acceptance for any reason they see fit. The longer answer, though, will explain why this situation can be rare and what you can do if you're in danger.
Let's start with Kristen S who has this concern about her latest ACT result:
I took the ACT in February of Junior Year (I'm a senior now), and I got a 30. Last fall I was waitlisted by a lot of schools, so I took it again in December. Today I got the results. I went from a 30 down to a 26 somehow. Are colleges I already got into (and the one I plan to attend) going to revoke me? I'm really scared! What's gonna happen to me? Their admissions council is EVIL and I'm scared they will change their minds...
Don't worry, Kristen. The great thing about the ACT (unlike the SAT) is that you get to choose which scores to send. In other words, if you have a bad ACT score, you can choose not to send it to any college and they'll never know about it. As evil as their admissions council may be, what they don't know won't hurt you.
However, even if the college did receive the lower test score, I am not sure this would influence them at all. A higher test score could be a way to bump yourself out of a waitlist, but I don't believe that a lower one will hurt you. At least, I've never heard of a student who has later had his or her admission revoked on the basis of a poor test score after acceptance.
Revocation after a poor semester of grades, however, is another matter. Refer to this question from Shaun M:
I was accepted to a college already, but I'm failing a lot of classes this senior year. I've asked around about being rejected because of my grades and some say yes you can get rejected and others say not to worry about it. So I want a real answer. And also they said a final transcript is needed and I'm wondering what will happen if i just dont send it. Thanks!
To start, if you don't send in your final transcript, the college will likely put an "academic hold" on your record, which means you will not be able to sign up for classes. The school needs proof that you actually graduated from high school, and will not allow you to be a student without your final transcript. You must send it in.
As for the policy on post-acceptance rejection for poor grades, it varies from college to college. Check your acceptance letter and look for a clause that says something like, "your admission is contingent on your continued successful performance." While they will likely forgive a very slight slip in grades, multiple F's sends a message to the admissions committee that you may not be ready to attend college yet.
I highly recommend you contact the college directly and ask what their policy is, what will happen, and what you should do. The admissions office is there to help you and will do their best to figure out a way to keep you admitted if it is possible. Ignoring the problem and hoping the college won't notice will not work. If you are proactive in trying to work with the university to find a solution, you may be able to avoid getting your acceptance revoked.
Thanks for your questions, Kristen and Shaun. If any readers have questions they would like me to answer (either privately or on the blog), feel free to use my contact form.
Have a question or comment? 1 person does.Top 10 Most Common SAT Grammar Errors
Do you know the difference between a compliment and a complement? What about when it's appropriate to act discreetly versus discretely? Do you know whether to ask a counselor or a councilor about the correct usage of who and whom? The SAT will expect you to know all of these grammatical distinctions, and studying a quick list of the 10 most common errors is a great start and will help you to earn a few more points on the multiple choice writing section.
For the list, explanations for each term's correct usage, and tips on how to remember which word is which, proceed (or is it precede?) to my newest article, Top 10 Grammar Mistakes the SAT Hopes You Make.
Perhaps Yale Is Not As Friendly to Low-Income Students As Previously Thought
Yale University freshman Sam Jackson blogged recently about his dissatisfaction with Yale's low-income financial aid practices. Quoting an article that calls Yale's new initiative a "mere public-relations gesture", Sam opines:
Yale needs to work harder and reach out more to low income students. This might not be the fault only of the admissions office, it could be that they are not able to effectively allocate their resources to do so without compromising other parts of their mission which are valued more. Luckily, here at Yale, they don't really have to choose! The university has the resources needed to make significant change, and if it isn't moving up the charts on this, it can't point at Harvard or anyone else and try to avoid blame.
Indeed, Yale commands the second largest endowment of all colleges in the nation ($22.5 billion) and certainly has the ability to help finance the tuition and expenses for low-income students. And though Yale hasn't risen to the 'free college' level that some other universities have, they are making big changes. So why is Sam unhappy with a 230% more financial aid spending (from $24 million to $80 million), a tuition-increase ceiling equal to the rate of inflation, a reduction in expected student contribution, and a slashed cost of attendance for families earning under $200,000? He writes:
Harvard beat them to it. Where is all the innovation? Jeremiah Quinlan, Director of Outreach and Recruitment [for Yale's Dean of Admissions Jeff Brenzel], could make an MIT-style blogging site if only someone would let him (and give him money, staff, and time). That would be a good transformative start -- a ton of transparency for an admissions office in the Ivy League.
While it is true that Yale saw a 14 percent drop in students receiving Pell grants in the same time period that Harvard saw a 53 percent increase, and while I do agree that more transparency is always good, I can't help but feel that a major source of discontent with Yale's new financial aid policy lies squarely in the fact that Harvard and other colleges -- Ivy League and otherwise -- are also doing it.
So I must disagree with Sam's conclusions. I believe Yale is taking a step in the right direction. Perhaps it has not come quite far enough yet, but it is one of the colleges currently pioneering relief for the skyrocketing costs of higher education. I applaud its efforts thus far. I do, however, share in Sam's hope that the future will bring even more in this area and look forward to the proliferation of the 'free college' ideal.
Have a question or comment? 1 person does.Can I Take a Year Off Before College?
A 'gap years' or 'bridge year' both refer to the increasingly common choice to take a year off before going to college. What once was the realm for slacker, drifter teenagers has now become a viable option for almost any student. As such, I can reply to the titular question with a resounding 'yes'.
In a new article, I explore the types of students that benefit most from taking a year off, and also explain several possible activities for the gap year. If your parents are averse to the idea, make sure to read it with them.
Full article here: The 'Gap Year': When It's a Good Idea to Take a Year Off Before Starting College.
Brown University Becomes Latest Ivy League to Offer Free College
Brown University approved yesterday new enhancements to its financial aid program for lower income families. According to its press release, "students from families with incomes of less than $100,000 will no longer have loans as part of their financial aid packages, and most parents who earn less than $60,000 will not be expected to make a financial contribution to fund their child's education." With this announcement, Brown has joined Ivy League brothers Harvard and Yale in offering avenues to free college.
Brown's latest changes will apply both to current students and the new incoming Class of 2012. The new program comes at an estimated cost of $11.5 million, increasing the university's yearly expenditure on financial aid by more than 20 percent.
I would like to reiterate my desire to see this trend continue and look forward to many more announcements of colleges and universities across the nation dipping into their massive endowments to help make higher education more accessible. Kudos to Brown for being one of the newest pioneers in this area.
Have a question or comment? 1 person does.