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

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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.

What is Admissions looking for? An Overview of High School Should You Homeschool High School?

Part 1 of 4

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 this first article, I’ll discuss the overall perspective colleges have with regard to homeschoolers and I’ll explore the various tests that are often part of the high school experience.  In the second article, I’ll examine the various types of courses high school students can take.  Next, 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 through these articles so that you can prayerfully make the best decision for your children.  Each child and family is different.  Out of respect for that, I seek to provide information, not to persuade you to a particular action when I do not know your situation.

Not Sure Whether Your Student(s) Is/Are College Bound?

What if you aren’t sure that college will be the appropriate path after high school for your child(ren)?  At this stage, it is important to both keep the various higher education options open as well as foster the emerging interests and inclinations of our children.  If you aren’t certain, proceed in a manner that leaves college as an option.  However, if it is already clear that a different path will best serve your child(ren), skip the academically focused sections of this series and focus your attention on the other sections. Explore the certificate and apprenticeship programs available in your area and in your child(ren)’s area(s) of interest.  The Occupation Outlook Handbook found on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, bls.gov, will be helpful when researching any prospective careers’ expected growth and pay ranges.

Homeschooled students are welcome on campus!

Before going any further, it’s important to make it clear that homeschooled students are welcome on college campuses.  Many admissions offices have special instructions and/or admissions counselors just for homeschooled students.  On campus, homeschooled students fit in just as well as, if not better than, students schooled in other situations.  Academically, as long as they have learned to turn in their work on time during high school, homeschooled students tend to flourish.

If his or her high school transcript will be unaccredited, there are a few schools that won’t accept the student.  Most notably, the UC system is considered closed to homeschooled students.  Officially the University of California colleges accept homeschoolers, but it is quite challenging to meet all their requirements.  For full information about those requirements, please see the homeschool portion of their admissions website:

http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/homeschool/index.html.

While special admissions requirements for homeschooled applicants are somewhat common, the more selective the college is, the more likely it is that there will be special requirements and that they may be significant and/or take time and planning to meet.  The most common requirement is for homeschooled students to submit subject test scores to validate their coursework.  Most often SAT subject tests are requested although it is often possible to use CLEP or AP test scores instead.  The advantage of CLEP and AP scores is that many colleges and universities will give college credit and/or waive course requirements for students with high scores on these tests.  Each college has its own policy regarding whether and how they accept scores in lieu of required courses.  Some give no credit while others give elective credits and still others will waive required courses, accepting the scores instead.

Testing 

Test scores typically form a significant part of college applications for all students.  For homeschoolers, as mentioned, tests are often used to validate the student’s grades.  There are many tests, all of which have different goals and are available on different bases to homeschooled students.  Keep in mind that there are currently approximately 1,000 colleges and universities that are “test optional” or “test flexible” for admissions.  FairTest.org has information about them.  However, be aware that most test optional schools still require test scores to qualify for their academic merit scholarships.

75-80% of colleges and universities require applicants to take the SAT or ACT and submit their scores as part of the application process.  Be aware that both the College Board and the ACT sell student information to colleges (if you look closely there is an option to opt-out on their registration form).  Be sure to have your student use a different email address, not their usual one, when s/he registers for the tests.  That way the flood of marketing emails will not overwhelm their primary email account.

ACT Aspire – This test is a “standards based system of assessments to monitor progress toward college and career readiness from grade 3 through early high school.  Based on the information on the DiscoverACTAspire.org website, this test seems to be geared to give educators feedback about this students.  As such, it is not applicable to homeschooling families.  This test will not be part of any student’s college admissions application.

ACT Tessera – This test is offered by the ACT organization to measure social and emotional learning skills of 6^th – 12^th grade students.  Each student will receive a personal proficiency and growth report and be encouraged to set goals and identify strategies for improvement.  Having a child with Asperger’s compelled me to include a note on this test.  This test will also not be part of any student’s college admissions application.

PSAT 8/9 – This preliminary SAT test is given to 8^th and 9^th grade students. The score is on the same scale as the SAT and a national ranking is provided.  Score information can be used to create a high school course plan.  Primarily, the test gives an additional opportunity to take an official, proctored national exam.  This test score is not used as part of the college admissions process.

PSAT10 – The Preliminary SAT test is given to sophomores and usually provides the first nationally ranked test score students see. The PSAT score report also provides the student’s equivalent SAT score, which is very helpful information to have when exploring the academic fit of various prospective colleges.   This test score is not used as part of the college admissions process.  Many find it helpful to have a nationalized test score early in their college search as well as to have the opportunity to take an official, proctored test before taking the SAT, ACT, or CLT.

The PSAT is Common Core correlated and includes an English and a math section.  This test is only given to the students of brick and mortar high schools.  Contact your local schools’ testing coordinator in August of sophomore year to arrange for your student to take the test on their campus.  Public schools are often welcoming but are not required to allow homeschooled students onto the campus.  If they do not welcome you, contact private high schools in your area.  The test is typically given in mid-October.  Recently, some schools have begun to offer the PSAT10 during the spring instead.  Consult your local schools directly to obtain their testing schedule.

PSAT/NMSQT – The Preliminary SAT test given in October of the junior year and is the National Merit Scholarship qualifying test.  The only way to win a national merit scholarship is to score in the top 10% of the juniors who took the PSAT/NMSQT in your state.  Those students are semi-finalists and will be contacted by the National Merit Corporation and asked to submit a high SAT score and a transcript as part of the scholarship qualification process. The PSAT is Common Core correlated and includes an English and a math section.  It is only given at brick and mortar high schools.  Contact your local schools in August of junior year to arrange for your student to take the test on their campus in October.  Public schools are often welcoming but are not required to allow homeschooled students onto the campus.  If they do not welcome you, contact local private high schools in your area. 

Pre-ACT - The Pre-ACT is given to sophomores and provides a practice ACT experience and score as well as information on students’ college and career readiness.  The score report also provides the student’s equivalent ACT score, which is very helpful when exploring the academic fit of various prospective colleges.   The test is Common Core correlated and includes English, math, science, and reading sections. Like the PSAT, the Pre-ACT is only given at brick and mortar high schools.  Contact your local school’s test coordinator in August of sophomore year to arrange for your student to take the test on their campus.  Public schools are often welcoming but are not required to allow homeschooled students onto the campus.  If they do not welcome you, contact private high schools in your area.

SAT – Homeschooled students register for the SAT just like all other students, by going to the CollegeBoard.org website and registering.  Testers can select the test site (you can even take it far from home if you’re traveling!)  There is a special high school code for homeschoolers.  If you homeschool through a program that gives an accredited diploma check with your school; it might have a high school code.  The SAT may be taken with or without the essay.  Check the admissions requirements of your student’s prospective schools regarding whether or not the essay is required.  If so, be aware that admissions staff will be able to read students’ SAT essays.

ACT - Homeschooled students register for the ACT just like all other students, by going to the ACT.org website and registering.  Testers can select the test site (you can even take it far from home if you’re traveling!)  There is a special high school code for homeschoolers.  If you homeschool through a program that gives an accredited diploma check with your school; it might have a high school code.  The ACT may be taken with or without the essay.  Check the admissions requirements of your student’s prospective schools regarding whether or not the essay is required.  If so, be aware that admissions staff will be able to read students’ essays.

CLT – The Classic Learning Test was developed in recent years and is accepted by more than 100 colleges and universities in lieu of the SAT or ACT.  For full information on this test, which is offered at sites all over the US, please see CLTExam.com.  Many homeschooling families using a Christian and/or Classical curriculum find the CLT, which is not Common Core correlated, to be a more appropriate test.  The CLT includes an English and a math section.  Check their website frequently as the list of colleges accepting the CLT is increasing steadily.  If you are interested in the test and in a college that does not yet accept it, do not hesitate to call the admissions office and suggest they start to accept it.  Contact the CLT team as well; they might be able to assist you with getting the test accepted by that/those college(s).

AP exams are given in physical high schools every May.  Students are NOT required to take AP courses in order to take the exams.  AP exams are offered in many subjects and may be taken during any year of high school.  It is possible to take several AP exams during the same year. See the CollegeBoard.org website for a complete list.  Contact your local school in January to arrange for your student(s) to take the test with their students in May.  Be aware that not every school offers every AP test.  Just as is the case for the PSAT and Pre-ACT, homeschooled students must get permission of the testing coordinator in order to join the students on campus for the AP exams.  The fee for AP exams is handled by the high schools.

IB exams - The IB/International Baccalaureate program is a robust program consisting of six courses taken in the junior and senior years of high school, each ending in a test.  At this time, these are only available through institutional schools.  They are highly regarded by colleges and universities, including the most selective campuses.

SAT Subject exams – Some colleges and universities recommend or require these tests for admissions.  “Recommend” means the test is not absolutely required.  However, it is expected that all successful applicants will take them, unless there are geographical or financial constraints that prohibit the student from doing so.  A list of the subjects and the dates each test is offered may be found on the CollegeBoard.org website.  Homeschooled students register for SAT subject tests just like all other students, by going to the CollegeBoard.org website and registering.  Up to three SAT subject tests can be taken on most test dates.  The SAT and SAT subject tests cannot be taken on the same day. Testers can select the test site (you can even take it far from home if you’re traveling!)  There is a special high school code for homeschoolers.  If you homeschool through a program that gives an accredited diploma check with your school; it might have a high school code.

CLEP tests – Homeschooled students can take CLEP exams any month at sites all over the country.  See the CollegeBoard.org site for a complete list of the subjects tests as well as to find test sites in your area.  Testers make arrangements with the local test site to take the tests.  The website also has a list of the colleges and universities that accept CLEP scores.  Families will need to make arrangements with the test site directly to schedule and pay for CLEP exams.  Students may take more than one exam at a time, if they wish.

DSST tests – Homeschooled students can take DSST exams in a wide variety of subjects (including business math and criminal justice, for example). These college equivalency exams are offered at test sites all over the country and are designed to give college credit for job training,etc.  A complete list can be found on the getcollegecredit.com website.  A list of institutions which accept these scores is also available on the website.  Testers register on the DSST website as well.

More to Come…

In the next installments, I will address financial aid, scholarships, athletics, high school courses, transcripts, AP courses, dual enrollment, leadership, & extracurricular activities.

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 recent classes were offered over $225,000 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.

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)

Why Our Kids Can't Work Their Way Through College Like We Did

Recently, Julie Mack wrote an excellent article  (What many older people don’t realize about college costs today).  She points out (with great charts!) a number of factors that contribute to the challenge high school students face today.  In the ‘60s, ’70s, and ‘80s, students could work their way through college.  However, that opportunity is no longer available.  Let’s look, briefly, at why.

1.    Tuition was considerably cheaper.  It has quadrupled, even after factoring in inflation.  For public universities, approximately 70% of their funds came from state funding.  Now, only 23% do.  Adjusted for inflation, the 2001 Michigan state subsidy was 68% greater than the 2017 subsidy.  The Michigan House Fiscal Agency calculated that between 60% and 80% of the tuition increases between 2000 and 2013 could be attributed to cuts in state funding.

2.    Financial aid is different now.  In 1975, loans comprised 17% of financial aid.  Now, federal loans account for 42% of aid (some sources report an even higher percentage.)  The maximum Pell grant in 1975 covered ALL of tuition AND some room and board expenses.  The current maximum Pell grant will cover less than half of the tuition costs at a public university. Social Security stopped paying benefits to students who had lost a parent in 1982.  In 1975, Social Security paid more money to US college students than Pell grants did.  Scholarship monies have significantly decreased, with some need based scholarships that used to cover full tuition costs now only cover $1,000.

3.    Working during college is FAR less lucrative.  The high paying factory jobs collegians could work during the summers and earn enough to cover the next year’s college costs, are gone.  The jobs college students can get now typically pay minimum wage, half (or less) of what students in the 1970s earned.

 IIf you are interested in lowering your college costs, I invite you to schedule a consultation with me.  Over the past 13 years working with families all over the US, I have identified the key factors that need to be addressed in order to lower college costs and increase college funding.  My Class of 2017 students were offered over $243,000 each, on average, in college scholarships.  As wonderful as that is, it's only part of the expertise I bring to each client's situation.  Working holistically, I am able to guide students to college success.  Here's how I define that:

   Premier Student Preparation 
         + Savvy College Selection 
                  + Abundant Funding 
                             = College Success

Email me today to request your college consultation. Katherine O'Brien, MA CCPS kob@CelticCollegeConsultants.com
  For more information regarding my services, please visit http://CelticCollegeConsultants.com

For Julie's full article, please see:

http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/09/what_many_older_people_dont_re.html

FAFSA, More Changes 2017

The only thing true about college is that things are always changing.

The DRT/Data Retrieval Tool was introduced a few years ago to help families pull information from their tax returns into the FAFSA forms.  It was designed to eliminate the need for verification since the information was coming directly from the IRS.  However, there were significant security issues last year.  So, the DRT was turned off and many FAFSA filers were not able to use it.

In the interim, the IRS and Department of Education made changes in order to "enhance the security and privacy of the sensitive personal data transferred into the FAFSA form from the IRS."  Starting this year, the information brought over will be encrypted.  Users will be unable to see the data when they access their tax forms with the DRT and the information will remain encrypted when it is transferred to the FAFSA.  The data entry fields will show "Transferred from the IRS" instead of the data. 

The colleges will be able to see the actual data and make any adjustments required.

Since the information will be encrypted, some changes need to be made both in the "income earned from work" questions and in the instance of IRA rollovers.  Because the FAFSA formula gives an allowance for the extra costs incurred when both parents are working, parents have to enter in how much each made from working.  In the past, the combined income was transferred from the joint tax return.  Now, the amount earned from work by each parent will need to be entered in manually.  In the event of IRA rollovers, parents (and students, if applicable) will need to indicate whether or not an IRA distribution includes a rollover.  If it does, the amount of the rollover will need to be indicated.  The processor will then deduct the amount "rolled over" from the total in the income calculations.

One problematic outcome of this change is that the correlation between income and the EFC will not be evident since the income data will be encrypted.  Manual calculations will be necessary.  If you need help in this regard, please contact Katherine O'Brien directly (kob@CelticCollegeConsultants.com)