The last two years have been spent getting students ready for college admissions. Applications, essays, financial aid documents all done. Your child got college acceptance letters and after careful evaluation, finally picked the college he or she will be attending! Yay! But wait, the work is not done yet, here is our college checklist for seniors: The college application process is a long and arduous one. Once the final acceptance decision has … [Read more...]
How to File the FAFSA
8 Steps to Filling Out the FAFSA Form Need to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form but don’t know where to start? I’m here to help. Let’s walk through the process step by step. 1. Create an account (FSA ID). Student: An FSA ID is a username and password you need to sign the FAFSA form online. If you don’t have an FSA ID, get an FSA ID here. It takes about 10 minutes to create an FSA ID. If this will be your … [Read more...]
Student’s and Parent’s Responsibilities in College Planning
Responsibilities of Students and Families While working with the college consultant, families and students have certain responsibilities in order to help the process run smoothly. The consultant's job includes guiding the student and family through selecting colleges, applying to those college, through the financial aid process, and to assist with college essays and scholarships. It is not within the consultant's services to write essays, … [Read more...]
How Safe are Texas Universities?
Parents are always worried about college and student safety. Unfortunately, many families only base their information on the reputation of the college, its location, or rumors. To help families make more informed decisions, we conducted a data search of Texas 4- year universities with student bodies of more than 5,000 students, excluding for-profit colleges and those without residential housing, for a total of 35 universities. This data was … [Read more...]
What is the PSAT 8/9?
The College Board now offers the PSAT 8/9 to eighth graders and high school freshmen as the first test in a group of tests they call the “SAT Suite of Assessments”. This test is a practice for the PSAT 10 (for 10th graders), the PSAT/NMSQT (for 11th graders) and the SAT (the test for college admissions). For more information directly from the College Board, click here. So, What Is the PSAT 8/9? The PSAT 8/9 is the first test in the College … [Read more...]
College Resources
Thanks to College Culture for this amazing list of books, websites, films and other college related resources. Not included is the standard college admissions guides. A History of American Higher Education by John R. Thelin A Hope in the Unseen by Ron Suskind. Suskind follows a poor African American student through high school and the college process. At times a bit too condescending and not always as clear as Suskind probably … [Read more...]
When Are Admission Decisions Released?
Here's When Colleges Are Releasing Regular Admissions Decisions for the Class of 2016 It’s March and there’s finally a light at the end of the admissions tunnel for anxious high school seniors – colleges will soon start releasing their regular admissions decisions! Here are regular application decision notification dates for current seniors, class of 2016, or soon to be- the Class of 2020. Expect these dates to change as we draw closer to … [Read more...]
Four Texas Universities Earn Tier One Status
The top Texas colleges, with the Carnegie designation of Tier One status, are Rice University, UT, Texas A&M, and UH. The Carnegie ranking- one of the most prestigious- is updated every five years and only lists 115 universities in the top category. In Spring 2016, four more Texas universities were added to the list: University of Texas at Dallas University of Texas at Arlington Texas Tech University University of North … [Read more...]
Top 4 Websites for College Research and Information
There are lots of resources for parents or students looking for college admission information online. The admission website for the specific college that the student want to apply to or attend is always the most accurate and relevant, but sometimes we need more information or comparisons. This is when these top four websites come in handy. College Results is a website with thousands of profiles on colleges. It lets users enter specific … [Read more...]
Class of 2015 College Admissions Data
The Class of 2015 high school graduates are soon off to college and about to become the Class of 2019 (for the lucky few who will actually graduate from college on time). But do we know which colleges they are headed to? We do know the most recent college acceptance rates, number of applications and number of students … [Read more...]
