Join the Carnival of College Admissions
If you're a blogger, college admissions coach, or anyone who maintains a website with tips for the college admissions process, please consider submitting an article to this week's edition of the Carnival of College Admissions, which will be hosted here.If you have never heard of one before, a Carnival is like a magazine with a collection of different article contributors. Each contributor submits an article from his or her own website which is then linked at the Carnival site.Submissions must pertain to a topic regarding college admissions. Some potential categories include financial aid, standardized tests (SAT or ACT), choosing a college, application tips, essay tips, or any other related topic.Click here to submit an article. It's free and takes only a couple of minutes.
Have a question or comment? Leave me one.MIT Becomes Newest Free College Pioneer
Joining the ranks of Yale, Harvard, Stanford and Brown Universities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has become the latest college to revise its financial aid package policies to offer free college to low income families. And though MIT's tuition is rising by 4% next year to $36,390, its financial aid budget, which will have increased by $74 million, will help to offset this. In fact, net tuition is expected to drop approximately 15%.
MIT, which does not offer any merit-based financial aid, plans to make three big changes to its need-based plans for the 2008-2009 academic year:
- Families earning less than $75,000 a year will have all tuition covered through scholarships, federal and state grants, and outside scholarship funds. This means 0 student loan obligation. Almost 30% of MIT's students fall into this Free College category.
- Families earning less than $100,000 will no longer have their home equity used to determine their financial need On average, this will reduce the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) by $1,600 for students in this category. Families who rent and do not have home equity will also see a comparable reduction.
- All students will have work study requirements reduced. All financial aid recipients currently on a work study program will have their minimum expectations lowered by 10%.
Says MIT Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Daniel Hastings, "we will continue our long-standing financial commitment to students and their families in the years ahead. That we can welcome to our campus such extraordinary students, regardless of their economic background, is due to our historic dedication to need-based financial aid."
I welcome the latest entrant into the Free College empire. With yet another elite university riding this wave, I can only hope the trend will continue to spread and receive even wider participation.
Have a question or comment? 4 people do.How to Get a Homeschooled Student Into College
Homeschooling is catching on, and colleges are becoming increasingly sensitive to the needs of homeschooled students in the admissions process. However, there are still things that a homeschooler must do to ensure that their child is as competitive as he or she can be. Read all about these tips in my newest article, The 9 Things Homeschoolers Must Do for College Admission
Have a question or comment? Leave me one.Don’t Worry About the Money: Why Stressing About Student Loans is Unnecessary
I find that students worry about money far more than they should. These worries start during the applications process when the high tuition price tag leads many to make admissions decisions on the basis of finances. Don't do this. Every college in the nation has plans set up to help you afford its education. For most students, educational loans are a necessity. And these types of loans should never frighten you.
Student loans are very different than other types of loans. While you may be seen as a credit risk if you hold $1000 in outstanding credit card debt, carrying twenty times that or more in educational debt does not have the same financial stigma (assuming you make your minimum monthly payments, of course). These types of loans are considered "good debt" because they represent an investment. Further, students loans are incredibly common. 65.7% of graduates go into the real world with loan repayment beckoning and with an average debt of $19,237.
Colleges loans common and harmless, and may even help you financially as well if you're smart about repayment. Consider these comments from John of FreeCollegeBlog.com:
If the student loan is subsidized, chances are that your best bet is to make the monthly minimum payments and forget about it. Most investments, even safe ones like government bonds, can get a better interest rate than what you're paying to the student loan. It might just be 1 or 2% difference, but over the life of the payments you could earn thousands more from investing than you saved by avoiding the almost non-existent interest fees.
In other words, you might actually be able to make money by intelligently investing the capital you've earned as a result of your education. Read the rest of John's investment analysis in his Pay off students loans, or invest? article.
The major point to take away is that educational loans are not scary. It may be daunting now to look ahead to the future and see an eventual debt of $30,000 and a repayment plan stretching 10 years after graduation, but this should never influence your ultimate application decisions. Notice that in my 10 things to think about when picking a college article, I never once mention the cost. Pick a school that you love without worrying about the money. You never know when a handsome financial aid package will be dropped in your lap, even potentially after you've already become a student.
Have a question or comment? 1 person does.Why You Can’t Buy ‘10 Items or Less’ and Other SAT Grammar Errors
Reader Carly F. wrote me in response to the article, Top 11 Grammar Mistakes the SAT Hopes you Make to ask about another common error:
I heard that when grocery stores say "10 items or less" that that's actually wrong. Is that true? And if so, what should it be?
Great question, Carly. And believe it or not, this is a grammar question that I have seen pop up on the SAT writing section several times. The correct answer is that the sign should say, "10 items or fewer."
The general rule is that if you can count the things you're talking about, you should use the word 'fewer'. If you can't count them, use 'less'. Since we can count 'items', we should say "10 items or fewer." The same is true for the opposite words 'greater' and 'more'.
Don't be confused by the rule about counting. The distinction is this: we may be able to count cups of coffee, but we can't count 'coffee' itself. So we say, "you should drink less coffee" or "you should drink fewer cups of coffee." Likewise, while we can count grains of sand, we can't count 'sand' itself. "This beach has less send" or "this beach has fewer grains of sand" are both correct.
This rule also applies to 'amount' and 'number': "If the amount of studying you do is high, you will score better on your SATs and get into a larger number of colleges."
'Fewer' and 'number' are words that we use so infrequently in the English language that they may as well not exist. But while these distinctions are now archaic and known only by the staunchest of grammarians, the SAT will expect you to know the differences. Earn those easy points by remembering these rules.
Thanks again, Carly. This grammar rule has been added to the common SAT grammar errors article.
Have a question or comment? 2 people do.10 Ways to Fail the FAFSA
You may have already submitted your Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) -- and if not, you really should -- but have you reviewed your submission to make sure that it is free from errors? One out of every seven FAFSAs contain a mistake which can delay processing and may even result in your form being returned.
Now that your eyes are fresh and you don't have to focus on the nitty gritty numbers, return to the FAFSA website to review your form. You have until September 22 to submit any corrections. To help you, fellow college guide College Tidbits published 10 common errors students make:
- Leaving fields blank - Many students skip fields when the answer is zero or if the question is inapplicable. Do not do this. Instead, write in a zero. A blank response will be interpreted as a mistaken omission.
- Using W-2 information for income - The FAFSA requires the information that is found on the 1040 federal tax return (or 1040A or 1040EZ forms), not the W-2. Make sure that you and your parents have entered this information correctly. If you or your parents have not filed taxes this year yet, you may estimate the values and then submit a correction later.
- Forgetting to report all income - Things like Social Security, child support, and Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) income sources are often neglected. Some scholarships will also need to be reported. Don't forget about other assets like bank accounts, stock portfolios, or retirement accounts either.
- Neglecting to sign the application - This is one of the big mistakes that will result in having your form returned. If you're a dependent (even if you're living away from home and even if your parents don't fund your college education in any way), both you and your parents must sign the FAFSA. If you file online, you may use your PINs. Your parents should have received a PIN as well.
- Waiting on your parents - You may be great about getting your taxes done on time, but many adults will get as close to April 17th as they possibly can before filing. If your parents are one of these types of people, don't wait for their taxes before submitting your FAFSA. Always make your best guess for now and correct it later.
- Filing late - The priority deadline has already passed, and so have a few state deadlines. It's not too late to file your FAFSA if you have not done so already, but aim to get it done as close to the January 1st opening as possible.
- Forgetting to file every year - Many students forget that the FAFSA has to be completed and submitted for every year you plan to be a student. Doing it once is not enough.
- Read more tips at College Tidbits.
If you have questions, consult the FAFSA's FAQ section on their web site, or call the Federal Student Aid Information Center at 1-800-4-FED AID (1-800-433-3243).
Have a question or comment? Leave me one.