Opportunities during the Pandemic Shutdown

Life has certainly changed. The way forward is unclear in many ways. At the same time, there are incredible opportunities that have opened up during this time.

SENIORS

March & April are busy times of receiving acceptances, scholarships, aid packages, and invitations to apply for additional awards. Many colleges have accepted student events and gatherings. With the campus closures, most, if not all, of these events are or will be modified in some way. Some schools have already announced that they will not hold students to the May 1 commitment deadline. Click the button below to get updated information on your colleges AND monitor your accounts, social media, and visit their websites for additional updates. Ask the admissions office to connect you with students who live in your area, then reach out to them in order to gather more information about campus life, both academic and social. Facebook groups and other social media is great but there's nothing like a one on one conversation to make connections and learn more about your prospective colleges. Reach out to professors in a limited way; most are overwhelmed with shifting their teaching to online modalities.

For the graduating Class of 2020 , this is a very unique spring. Not only are on-campus graduation ceremonies in question, but access to staff, faculty and on-campus academic and extracurricular resources have gone out the window for thousands of students. High school graduates need to plan to hit the ground running this August and need to maintain their strides, but now on a virtual setup. Help your senior stay on track this spring and summer in terms of academic advising, campus readiness, and post-degree planning, including grad school. A Personalized Action Plan plus one on one video consulting will propel your spring and summer 2020 forward.

JUNIORS

The April 4 ACT has been rescheduled for June 13th and the rescheduled March SAT and May 2 SAT have been cancelled. Registered students will receive refunds. Follow the College Board's updates here. Updates about the AP exams can be found here. The next update is expected on Friday, March 20. Use this extra time to prepare for these exams. I encourage you to use ePrep's Premium courses so you have 6 full practice tests as well as 6 months to prepare. Use the scheduler to double up now, while you have extra time, then adjust it as needed. To register with my 20% off discount, click here.

ALL STUDENTS

A global health crisis is also an incredible learning opportunity. We’re watching public health emergency and global responses unfold right before our eyes. In mid-February, the Imperial College London launched a free class on the Coursera platform: Science Matters: Let’s Talk About COVID-19. Are you fascinated by the mathematical modeling that predicts the progression of the virus and how social distancing and other efforts “flatten the curve”? If so, you might like UNC’s online course, Epidemiology: The Basic Science of Public Health, or Johns Hopkin’s online course, Data and Health Indicators in Public Health Practice. All three are available free of charge.

With schools across the country closing for a period of weeks, high schools are moving to virtual or remote learning. Since the traditional school day has been disrupted, I encourage students to take advantage of the time to deepen your learning and find ways to help those in your community who may be struggling. I also encourage you to take a little time to journal, pray, and ground yourself. We've all been through enormous upheaval during the past week.

Some ways to leverage your time:

• Take advantage of online courses on platforms like Coursera, EdX, MIT’s Opencourseware, Yale’s Open Courses and more. Check out this link to 450 online courses you can take at Ivy League schools for no cost. These free online courses are great opportunities to deepen your interests and keep your mind sharp.
• Use this free time to boost your writing abilities so that you can return to school on a stronger footing!
• Have you considered entering your work in writing, history, computer science, math modeling, and art contests? Since these can all be done remotely, this would be a great time to stretch yourself and submit your work. Do a little research and you'll find many contests you can enter.
• Start a virtual art and literary “magazine” for your classmates, homeschool community, or the senior citizens in your community. Encourage people to post stories, poems, artwork, and music all composed in this time of social distancing. Give a theme and help people get their creative juices flowing.
• Can you create and post instructional or “how to” videos on YouTube? Create a virtual homework club and offer it to a local library. Offer to help homebound younger students with their lessons. If you're homeschooled, help others in your area sort out how to organize their day and stay sane as they guide their children's learning for the first time, often while balancing their own work tasks.
• Launch a virtual PE class with your friends. Challenge yourselves with competitions you can do at home – pushups, sit ups, jumping jacks, etc. Organize a virtual dance party. Get creative!
• Explore prospective careers, colleges, majors, and more. Let's get you started! We'll have a consultation then go from there. Consultation fees will be applied to your prep program. Click below to schedule your first meeting at a time when both parents and the student are available.

CARING FOR YOUR COMMUNITY

Most importantly, look for ways to help those in need in your community. Check in regularly with your grandparents and older relatives, as well as older neighbors and others in your community. Write letters, make crafts to gift, lead an online class to teach younger kids to draw pictures for the older people in their lives. Is your community seeking volunteers to help keep food banks stocked? Can you volunteer to pack meal kits? If your older college-aged siblings are home, can you work together to deliver meals and supplies to those who are homebound? Can you work together to take care of the meals and other chores in your home so your parents can teach the younger kids?

This is not the first pandemic. Great things can happen, even under these unusual circumstances. During a pandemic in 1665, Isaac Newton found himself with down time when the University of Cambridge sent students home (sound familiar?). Later, he called the year he spent away from school his “year of wonder.” It was then that he famously noticed an apple fall from a tree and came up with the ideas around gravity.

So, even as you practice social distancing and good hygiene, you can continue to stretch yourself academically and make a positive impact in your community. Who knows? You might discover some new passions and hidden talents!

Let's move your college preparations forward. Let's meet! Just click on my name, Katherine O'Brien, and select a good time for the parents and college bound student(s). Once you have scheduled your hour long personal meeting, I'll send you further information.

A Look at the Cost of a College Degree & Ways to Reduce It

Living Happily Ever After – Is it Possible?

A Look at the Cost of a College Degree and Ways to Reduce It

By Katherine O’Brien, MA CCPS

For many, their dream is to go to college, graduate, get a good job, make decent money, and live happily ever after.  Unfortunately, for many, that does not come to pass.  In this article, we’ll explore several of the reasons why and some options to consider in order to make that dream into a reality.

What does college degree actually cost and What Can We Do to Lessen that Cost?

For those who start with about $16,000 in savings, get scholarships, grants, and work to help pay for school, they will accumulate about $42,000 in student loan debt during the six years it takes most students to earn a bachelor’s degree.

In contrast, if s/he had decided to be a restaurant server rather than go to college, the student would make about $39,000 per year (assuming s/he is in the top 25% in a metro area like Houston).  In six years, after taxes and the cost of living adjustments, s/he would make just over $81,000, rather than racking up student loans.  In other words, s/he wouldn’t have a degree, but would be $123,000 ahead of the average college graduate ($81,000 + $42,000).

How long will it take the college graduate to recover that lost opportunity cost and catch up with the restaurant server?  Assuming the graduate gets a job in a field like marketing that has a starting pay of $51,000 per year, it will take 18 years to catch up with the restaurant server, assuming s/he pays off the loans six years faster than average.  This also assumes that the server’s salary steadily increases every year.  While catching up, the college graduate will pay over $18,000 in interest, a total of over $60,000 in loan payments.

What are the alternatives?

1.     Attend a Public university to lower costs?

Many people think that the only option to make college affordable is to send their children to public universities, given their lower tuition rates.  Let’s explore this assertion.

The average in-state tuition is almost $10,000.  The average out of state public tuition is $25,600 and the average private college tuition is almost $35,000.  However, those are the sticker prices.  The average net price (out of pocket cost) for tuition is $4,000/year for publics and $15,000/year for privates, per Big Future.  In order to see the cost to earn a degree, we must also consider the average number of years to graduate: public university students average 6 school years while privates average just above 4 school years.

Here’s a look at the math:

Public universities:

$4,000/year * 6 years = $24,000 tuition, on average

$10,800/year * 6 years = $64,800 room & board, on average

+ $47,268 lost wages $909/(bls.gov median weekly earnings of FT workers with HS education)

TOTAL COST OF DEGREE: $ 136,068 + $27,000 in loans (approx.) (+ fees, books, etc.)

Private colleges:

$15,000/year * 4 years = $60,000 tuition, on average

$12,210/year * 4 years = $48,840 room & board, on average

TOTAL COST OF DEGREE: $ 108,840 + $33,000 in loans (approx.) (+ fees, books, etc.)

Here’s a second look, with figures from a different source.

At end of 6 years,

Public university graduate - $27,000 debt

Private college university graduate’s financial status = $68,480

2 years of working at $50,390 (Money mag) = $100,780 – $32,300 debt (with 75% in debt)

(Data from Mark Kantrowitz, 2012)

[For profit college graduates (88% have debt) with the average debt = $39,950]

[A word about for-profit colleges, in addition to their students carrying more debt, their graduation rates are much, much lower than non-profit colleges, with an average of only 19% graduating in 4 years.]

Since the idea of attending a public university to save money on college isn’t actually very effective, we’ll explore some alternatives.

2.     Graduate FASTER!

There are several ways to shorten the length of time to earn a degree (in addition to attending a school with a 4-year graduation rate of over 50%).  By working ahead via AP, IB, CLEP, and DSST exams as well as dual enrollment opportunities during high school, the student, depending on his or her abilities, can accumulate as much as two years’ worth of college credits while still in high school.  Students will need to research the acceptance policies of these various programs by the colleges and universities they are considering.  Each college/university sets its own policies (sometimes by college or department within the university, sometimes as an institution) regarding how these scores and credits are treated.

For some students, staying at home and taking classes online can be a less expensive path to earning a degree. There are, however, social sacrifices involved in that path that make it unsuitable for some students.  Online course completion rates are significantly lower than completion fates for in person classes.  Additionally, having the positive peer pressure to study and complete your degree is found on campuses with a 50% or higher 4-year graduation rate and  is a powerful aid to help students stay on track to graduate in four or fewer years.  Per the National Center for Education Statistics, 36% of public college students graduate in 4 years while

54 % of private college  students graduate in 4 years.

3.     Save more, Get More Bang for Your Buck

Starting earlier and saving more than the $16,000 used in the initial scenario is also helpful.  Saving takes diligent, sustained effort and, often, many sacrifices.  Every dollar saved will actually save your student $1.50; keeping this in mind can help you stay on track with your savings goals. Per CNBS and USA Today, the average amount families have saved for college (in 2018) is $18,000. This is a significant increase from 2004 when I began working with families.  It’s time to be way above average!

There are various types of accounts that can be used to save funds for college.  Some, like 529s and Coverdells, have limitations on the amount of money that can be deposited each year as well as regulations regarding the use of the funds.  Some kinds of accounts are considered assets and so are included in need-based aid calculations while others are not included.  Consequently, determining the best type of account to keep your college money in requires exploring both the tax and financial aid eligibility ramifications.

4.     Plan Ahead

Despite the high costs of college, many students arrive on campus with little to no idea what they want to study or what sort of field in which they would like to work.  As the adage goes, failing to plan is planning to fail.  Unfortunately, the vast majority of students have received absolutely no guidance regarding potential careers and majors.  Almost none have actually done a job shadow, further an internship in a field under consideration.

InsideHigherEd.com reports that, per 2017 federal data, nearly one-third of students change their majors during their first three years in college. Other studies state that as many as 80% do. Ohio State University shows data that 38% of their students changed their major between when they applied and when they completed freshman orientation.  They didn’t have data available about how many more change once they matriculate nor on how many times their students tend to change their majors.

In addition to changing majors, 25% -38% of students at 4-year colleges transfer to another college or university.  Students are much more likely to take five to eight years (or more!) to graduate when they transfer, especially those who transfer twice. 

In both cases, students often have many credits they have earned that do not fulfill their new graduation requirements.  For example, a student transferring from French into chemistry will not be able to use most of the humanities credits earned towards their graduation requirements for a BS in chemistry.

When changing majors, students typically add a year to the length of time it takes to earn their degree.  When transferring, two years additional time to degree is not uncommon. The average added out of pocket costs for one extra year of college at a public university is $62,208 ($14,940 tuition/room/board + $47,268 lost wages).  The average out of pocket costs for an extra year at a private college is $74,008 ($26,740 tuition/room/board +$47,268 lost wages).

5.     Should You Start at a Community College?

This is the path that a number of today’s parents used successfully to save a significant amount on the cost of college while still graduating in four years.  Unfortunately, in addition to having a significantly lower 6-year bachelor’s degree completion rate, getting an associate’s degree actually adds the time to degree for those who do earn a bachelor’s degree.  Approximately 25% of bachelor’s degree seeking community college students actually transfer to a 4-year college or university.  And only about 10% of those who start at community colleges have a bachelor’s degree after six years.

This path can be used successfully but it takes even more careful planning and frequent visits to the transfer counselor than the other paths to a bachelor’s degree.

6.     Get Scholarships

Scholarships are given by colleges and universities as well as private organizations.  93% of college scholarship dollars come from the schools themselves.  In fact, private scholarships impact need-based financial aid eligibility dollar for dollar so may or may not lower a given family’s out of pocket costs. (While it feels great to say that your child has received a scholarship, the actual impact on the family’s bottom line tends to be the more important factor.)

Why do colleges give students money? 

Most people are aware that scholarships are awarded for academic and athletic capabilities and accomplishments.  Some know that scholarships are also awarded by some schools for student leaders and those with special accomplishments (top debaters, for example).  Fewer are aware that scholarships are also used by some colleges and universities in exactly the same way as coupons are used, to entice you to buy their product/attend their school, rather than a competitor’s. Colleges and universities that have international reputations and tend to win large research grants tend to not give scholarships intended to entice students; they don’t need to.  Colleges that serve their region or are less well known tend to use scholarships as ways to recruit students.  Some liberal arts colleges and master’s colleges (offer bachelor’s and master’s degrees only) will give all or nearly all their students significant scholarships.  In addition, sometimes scholarships are awarded despite the fact that the family has no financial need, as an inducement to have their child attend their school, rather than another.  And, it works well! 

Lastly, a number of groups of states in the US have banded together in groups called student exchanges through which participating public universities in each state will offer students from the other states a significant tuition reduction (typically $5,000 - $10,000/year) when they attend their school.

7.     Get Help! Work with a holistic college consultant

Hiring an expert to help buy and sell a home is commonplace.  Next to a house, the next greatest expenditure is college.  Hiring an expert to assist with the process saves significant time and money, and protects people from making mistakes because "we just didn't know!"

While many college consultants only work with students to create their applications, some of us work holistically with students and their families.  For each of my clients, for example, I develop a personalized overall strategy then guide the student and his or her family through it, step by step.  I typically start by guiding students to explore possible careers then majors and schools. I evaluate the family’s financial resources then advise regarding ways to lower costs and increase resources in order to help the student accomplish his or her academic and career goals.  Working holistically, I’ve fostered my students’ personal growth and skill development, enhanced their awareness of their strengths, and guided them through the application processes, both for admissions and aid.  My clients have averaged about $75k/college in scholarships, plus need based aid.  While I work with clients from all education settings and backgrounds, I specialize in working with home educated students and Catholic students.

Lowering the family’s stress levels, providing expert knowledge, and seasoned guidance provides an improved quality of life as well as better academic and financial outcomes for my clients.

Evaluate your options and find a better way to get your degree.  College shouldn’t be a debt sentence.

If you’d like to meet with Katherine, you may schedule a consultation at CelticCollegeConsultants.FullSlate.com
 

What is Admissions Looking For? An Overview for Homeschoolers and Others, Part 2

Photo by Debby Hudson on unspash.com

In this series of articles I will address a number of factors of high school education from a college admissions perspective.  As a Catholic homeschooling mother of six and a professional college consultant, I will share some of my experience and knowledge in this series of four articles.  In the first article, I discussed the overall perspective colleges have with regard to homeschoolers and the various tests that are often part of the high school experience.  In this article, I’ll examine the various types of courses high school students can take.  Next time, athletics, extracurricular activities, and leadership will be the focus of the article.  In the final article, financial aid, scholarships, and college funding topics will be addressed.

My goal is to educate families so that they can make the best decision for their children.  Each child and family is different.  Out of respect for that, I seek to provide information, not to persuade the reader to a particular action.

Not surprisingly, academics are the most important qualifications for college entrance and success.  Students will present their academic credentials to their prospective colleges in a number of ways.  The courses chosen, grades earned, and test scores earned are the main ways academic credentials are presented through the admissions process.  The various tests were addressed in the last article; we’ll explore course options in this one.

High School Courses

Homeschooled students have an advantage over traditionally schooled students because they have access to a limitless number of classes on various topics.  In order to capitalize on this opportunity, it’s essential to know your child’s needs and find the appropriate courses and opportunities for him or her.  This requires effort, good communication with your child, excellent organizational skills, and, sometimes, outside assistance.  Without a focus, however, selecting and prioritizing courses (and diploma programs) is impossible and there’s no choice but to guess or “go with the flow.”

Homeschooling families have the opportunity to tailor the curriculum of each student child according to his or her needs no matter their academic strengths and weaknesses, learning styles, or the extent of their extracurricular pursuits.  Homeschoolers can take a significant number of college courses, even completing an associate’s degree as a high school student.  While many institutional high schools will allow students to take a few college courses, most limit that access significantly.  Needless to say, students who graduate with significant numbers of college credits have a greater chance of being accepted and they typically shorten their length of time at university, saving tens of thousands of dollars and months and months of time.

Courses can be structured or unstructured, hands on or theoretical, in person or virtual, live or recorded.  The plethora of options can be overwhelming but becomes more manageable once the parent narrows down the field to those that are most appropriate to a given student.

Families who homeschool through Kolbe Academy, for example, will have graduation requirements to meet according to the different diploma programs.  Those who earn an accredited diploma will, as far as college admissions is concerned, be considered similarly to institutionally educated students.  Homeschooling families choosing a non-accredited diploma program may need to set their own graduation requirements and will need to pay close attention to any additional requirements set by the student’s prospective colleges. It is essential that parents meet the most rigorous and demanding of these requirements.  Consequently, determining the likely fields of study and colleges (or types of colleges) will need to be done as early as possible in order to ensure that the proper courses are all taken.

With all of that in mind, it is important for families to create a tentative four-year course plan for each student.  Revisions may need to be made as you progress.  Nonetheless , planning enables the parent teacher and the student to see the flow of the subjects, ensure that all high school graduation and college entrance requirements will be met, and to schedule out the various college entrance tests that will need to be taken during the high school years.  Additionally, seeing the sequence of courses required for a certain major or cluster of majors can confirm or dissuade a student from pursuing that path.  Remember, it doesn’t cost a penny to change majors while you are still in high school.

All of that begs the question, what types of colleges will we be applying to and for what purpose.  Will we be applying to apprenticeship or certificate programs?  Liberal arts colleges?  Research universities with a strong Catholic presence?  Schools with internship or cooperative education programs?  Arts programs?  Engineering schools?...  Taking time to assess the personality, interests, inclinations, and God’s call for each child during freshman year is incredibly helpful.  In my private college consulting practice, I use a tool called Focus2career that combines data from surveys the students complete to suggest possible careers.  To that I add personal meetings and prayer to assist students with the process of identifying possible career paths to explore and with defining their college goals.  Knowing those, as well as their learning style and the available course options, are essential to creative an effective high school course plan.

AP Classes 

Homeschooled students have access to all of the AP courses through the Pennsylvania homeschool website.  AP courses are designed and approved by the College Board.  Consequently, they are strongly Common Core aligned and emphasize the perspectives espoused by the College Board.  Catholic students will need to broaden the scope of these courses in order to incorporate a Catholic perspective on the subject or historical period(s) being studied.  

Admissions committees see AP courses as an indicator of rigor.  For very competitive colleges, top applicants will have taken eight or more AP courses.

Please note: students do not need to take the AP class in order to take the AP test in that subject.  Please see the previous article in this series for more information about AP tests.  Additionally, students who take AP courses are not required to take AP tests.  However, the colleges will wonder why the test was not taken.  Some students will substitute the SAT subject test or CLEP test for the AP test.  

Class grades show admissions how a student performs day in and day out.  Tests show how they did on a given date for a few hours.  Consistent high level performance in their classes is a greater indicator of college success.  However, test scores are convenient measures so are held in high regard.  

Dual Enrollment

Taking college courses while in high school will enable students to study subjects not typically taught in high school and/or to take more advanced courses than they otherwise could.  In many states, tuition is waived for high school students taking community college courses.  At many community colleges, courses may be taken online in addition to being on campus.  Your local high school and/or community college will be able to advise you about the policies and procedures in your area.  This information is often available on the community college’s website.  Some colleges have age requirements and other policies that will affect your plans.  Be sure to explore the possibility carefully.

Admissions committees recognize that students with college credits have already learned how to be successful doing college level work.  College courses are run differently from high school courses and these students have learned how to schedule their work, take responsibility for themselves, advocate for themselves, and work to a higher standard than high school students do.  High school students who take college courses before they graduate will still apply to college as first year students.  Thus, they have the advantage of being eligible for the many scholarships available to first year students (as opposed to the relatively few available for transfer students).  Remember, high school students applying to college are typically considered first year applicants, whether or not they’ve taken college classes while they were in high school.

Transcripts

Creating a transcript can seem like a daunting task.  It doesn’t have to be.  Indicating when courses were taken, the course provider, and the grades are the primary tasks. Weighting grades is optional, but will need to be indicated on the transcript.  For those not familiar, to weight grades is to give more points for an A in an honors, accelerated, AP, or college class than for an A in a “regular” course.  The use of weighted grades is how some students have grade point averages (GPAs) higher than 4.0.  Using a scale of 0-100 is an option, as well. 

Numerous templates are available for creating transcripts for those who do not use a program like Kolbe’s that creates transcripts for you.  There are also professionals (myself and others) who will do this work for you.  Additionally, there are services that can accredit a non-accredited diploma.  Independent homeschooling families should keep track of all text books used, course providers, and books read as part of coursework.  Some colleges will ask for this additional information.

Students taking college courses during their high school years need to remember to submit both their high school and college transcripts to prospective colleges during the application process.  The colleges require both despite the fact that all of the courses will be listed on the high school transcript.

Admissions officers will use transcripts for two main purposes.  First, to see the grades the student has earned and any trends of increase or decrease among the grades.  Second, they will also notice the level of challenge the student has chosen.  Along with a transcript, the school (or parent) will send a one-page description of the school.  Among other things, this will indicate the course options available to the student.  For example, a student who took 6 AP courses sounds like a more robust candidate if s/he attended a school that only offered 6 than one whose school offered 15 AP courses.

What’s Next?

Now that we’ve covered the academic areas, the next article will focus on leadership, extracurricular activities, and athletics.  The final article will cover financial aid, scholarships, and college funding.

Katherine O’Brien, MA CCPS is a Catholic homeschooling mother of six who has homeschooled since 1998.  She is the founder of Celtic College Consultants and has served college bound teens all across the US since 2004.  Students in her 2015 -2018 classes were offered over $237,000 each, on average, in merit scholarships. In 2017, Katherine compiled and released Every Catholic’s Guide to College: The 315 Best US Colleges & Universities for Practicing Catholics, 2018.  It is available on Amazon.com. More information can be found at CelticCollegeConsultants.com.

How to Use your PSAT Score to Find Scholarships

Recently, the College Board modified their scoring system such that the PSAT score is now an estimate of your SAT score.  There are numerous tables available to help you convert the SAT to an ACT or CLT score.  With this information, there is a lot that can be done.

1.     Identify Prospective Colleges

2.     Identify Possible Academic Merit Scholarships

3.     Strategically plan out your testing schedule for the rest of high school

4.     Set Goals for SAT & ACT &CLT scores

5.     Decide when and whether to take SAT subject tests

6.     Decide whether or not to take AP courses in the future

For now, we’ll focus on:

How to you use test scores to look for scholarships

There are two major types of scholarships.  First there are private scholarships, which are those scholarships offered by private organizations like Coca Cola, Walmart, etc.  Most of these scholarships require essays or projects to be prepared and submitted along with an application.  Careful research to identify and track these opportunities needs to be done.  Tracking the scholarships you may be eligible for you will be key to accumulating funds for college.  Be aware, however, that private scholarships are considered resources by the financial aid eligibility calculators; they reduce need based aid dollar for dollar.  Consequently, determination of that impact needs to be done first.

The other type of scholarship is called institutional scholarships. These scholarhsips come from the colleges and universities themselves.  The good news is that they comprise 93% of the scholarship dollars and, since they are the colleges’ own funds, can be distributed as the colleges wish.

Remember the middle 50% of test scores we discussed earlier?  Let’s take a look at a few examples from Every Catholic’s Guide to College, a college guide I compiled for practicing Catholics (available on Amazon.com).  Like all college guides, it includes a great deal of information for each college, including the middle 50% of the test scores.

Arizona State University 510-630/520-640 or 23-28

Drake University 520-670/550- 690 or 24-30

Ferris State University 19-24 or 910–1110 combined SAT

New York University 610–710/630–740 or 28-32

The evidence based reading & writing score is always listed first, followed by the math score.  Be aware that some places are still using the old CR/M notation.  When the College Board revised the SAT, the critical reading section was renamed evidence based reading and writing.  Since there is no good abbreviation for that, some still use CR to denote that score.

At Arizona State, 25% of the accepted students scored higher than 630 on the reading and writing test and higher than 640 on the math portion of the test.  At most colleges and universities, scholarships are given to the top 10% of the accepted student pool.  Therefore, without doing any other research, a student with a 710/710 may be offered scholarships.  For a first pass at identifying colleges and universities likely to offer your student academic scholarships, ASU would be included.  From the above list, Ferris State would also be included, with a high likelihood of being awarded scholarships.

The second step, once you have created a list of potentially generous colleges for your student, is to investigate their financial aid websites in search of further information.  Some scholarships also have a need component.  This means that, in order to qualify for those scholarships, the student must have both academic merit and financial need.  Most financial aid pages include information on scholarships.

Here are a few examples of colleges that offer guaranteed scholarships based on test scores.  These schools award students with certain scores a set amount of scholarships, most of which are renewable if the student has satisfactory academic progress.  Some also require certain grade point averages or class ranks.  For the first few, I have included the details as they were recently posted on their websites.  A list of other colleges and universities follows.  This is by no means an exhaustive list; it is a sampling to provide examples of what some schools offer as “guaranteed scholarships.”  These awards are given to all qualifying students.

Baylor University

Clemson University

Colorado State University

Florida A & M University

Florida Gulf Coast University

Georgia State University

Louisiana State University

Texas Tech

University of Arizona

University of Mississippi

University of Nevada at Las Vegas

University of Oregon

University of Tennessee

University of Texas at Arlington

Utah State University

Your PSAT scores provide an incredible opportunity to reduce your college costs, find just the right type of college or university, and begin to prepare for success at college.  It’s a complex journey, with many additional considerations outside the scope of this e-book.  Sadly, most families will do very little with this information.  It’s like anything else, it’s easy to hear or read about something but difficult to actually implement what you’ve learned.  With regard to college prep, it’s even more challenging since teens are involved.

Given the fact that selecting a college is a $150,000 - $300,000 proposition, many families seek professional guidance on their journey to college.  With so many factors to be considered in the areas of student selection, college selection, funding, scholarships, and application, college prep is both complex and time consuming.  Selecting a college consultant can be challenging.  Since it’s a relatively new field, many families are unfamiliar with the options available, the types of training college consultants might have, and how much it might cost.  To answer just these questions, I wrote The Ultimate Guide to Top Quality College Planning, available on Amazon.  For Catholics, I’ve also compiled Every Catholic’s Guide to College: The 315 Best US Colleges & Universities for Practicing Catholics, also available on Amazon.

How will you use your PSAT score report?

(If you'd like the entire e-book teaching how to use PSAT Scores to get Scholarships, go here: goo.gl/HgviTr)

Have Special Needs? An IEP or 504 plan? Testing Tips

The College Board, home of the PSAT, SAT, AP, and SAT subject tests just changed their policy for getting testing accommodations. (December 2016) :

 

"At the College Board, we believe that all students should have access to the testing accommodations they need so they can show their best work on our assessments.  We've heard from SSD coordinators, counselors, students, and families who've asked us to simplify the process of requesting College B testing accommodations.

 

We recognize that educators know their students best, as we want to cut down on the time and paperwork needed to submit a College Board testing accommodation request.

 

Beginning January 1, 2017, the vast majority of students who are approved for and using testing accommodations at their schools through a current IEP (Individualized Education Program) or 504 Plan will have those same accommodations automatically approved for taking the SAT®, PSAT™ 10, PSAT/NMSQT®, SAT Subject Tests™, and AP® Exams. Most private school students with a current, formal school-based plan that meets College Board criteria will also have their current accommodations automatically approved for College Board exams."

 

Homeschoolers Please Note

 

The above mentions private schools.  In many states, home schools are considered private schools.  Contact the College Board about getting accommodations for your children who need them. 

Regarding the CLEP exams

The CLEP tests are not mentioned in the College Board's announcemnt, probably because they are primarily taken by adults or homeschooled students, neither of which typically have IEPs or 504s. These tests are also designed to be college equivalency tests, where IEPs don't exist and 504s are generally modified.  If you have questions, please contact the College Board directly.

What about the ACT?

The ACT has not made a similar announcement at this time.  Given the incredible competition for students between the two companies, a similar announcement is expected in early 2017.