Did You Know?
Cash Gifts: Cash gifts, which are paid DIRECTLY TO THE COLLEGE for tuition and fees (from people other than the parents) should be avoided. These gifts will be treated as a student ‘resource’ and a dollar-for-dollar deduction in financial aid.
Student Income: The student’s income should be kept at approximately $2,500 during the college years. Depending on the school, certain income over $2,500 may be assessed more heavily. (please note: if presented with the opportunity, it always makes more sense to earn income then to not earn income)
Capital Gains: The family should consider selling stocks in non-college years that would otherwise generate capital gain distributions during college years.
Loan Proceeds: Seeing that loan proceeds are not assessed in the financial aid formulas, it is often better to borrow funds during college years rather than attempting to pay for college by striving to increase earnings, which will decrease financial aid eligibility.
Until next week…
Your Friends At The College Planning Network
PS. As always, if you have any questions on how you're going to pay the upcoming astronomical costs of college, please do not hesitate to contact your College Funding Advisor. They can walk you through several different payment options to help determine the right one for you.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
TIP OF THE WEEK – August 23, 2010
Finding Out About You through your Email
Students interact with their colleges in many ways. It could be through a call to an admissions office, or to speak directly with a representative at an interview. But recently student emailing has been on the increase in all aspects of life, and emailing colleges is on the rise also. A college admissions counselor’s job is to help prospective students, but a poorly written email on the student’s part may hurt chances of getting into the school.
Writing an email to an Admissions Counselor to ask for advice, check the status of an application, or just to get a bit more information? Here's how to compose an email in a way that will not cause the counselor to hit the delete button, or worse, make the counselor reconsider an acceptance to the college. Make sure you type in complete sentences, do not use slang, and sound interesting. Here is an example:
"hi i am interested in ur school can u send me more info plz."
"Hello, I am interested in your school and would like to receive more information."
What Does Your Email Font Say About You?
As an interested student, you want to project a certain image in all of your interactions with college prospects - including your emails. A study conducted last fall by Wichita State University found that the choice of font can impact the impression you make on your email readers. The study tested several popular fonts for "appropriateness" in communication. Depending on your choice, you may come across as youthful, rebellious, unstable, less trustworthy or less professional. Not exactly what you intended.
Here's how the fonts stacked up, from most appropriate to least:
The fonts that rounded out the list as "least appropriate" were Gigi, Rockwell Extra Bold and Impact. The lower a font ranked in appropriateness, the more likely a reader was to assume the writer was a lower level trainee and less mature. The takeaway from the study: your font choice may create an unprofessional first impression if you're not careful. Steer clear of playful, "novelty" fonts that may not truly represent your level of experience. While Calibri ranked highest in the Wichita survey, it's not available on everyone's computer. Fortunately, nearly everyone has several of the other high-scorers, including Verdana, Arial, and Times New Roman.
How do you decide which to use? On one hand, you want your font to say something about you. Generally, sans-serif fonts such as Arial convey a more "contemporary" feeling, while serif fonts such as Times New Roman feel more "classical." On the other hand, you have to consider your audience.
Email address appropriateness
What about email addresses? Colleges will eventually see these emails and so will employers (good for our clients in school already).
Examples of obscene emails seen on a daily basis:
XXbrookeXX@something.com
PartyBoy4everEsomething.com
Sarahloves 007@something.com
RoudolfRIDICULOUS@something.com
XOXOMaryDIVAXOXO@something.com
Even though a student may be a straight “A”, hard-working individual, many college administrators do not see that aspect when their first impression is formed through email. As one college administrator puts it “Though they do make me laugh, these email addresses indicate a student’s passion in life, and obviously it isn’t studying.”
Students interact with their colleges in many ways. It could be through a call to an admissions office, or to speak directly with a representative at an interview. But recently student emailing has been on the increase in all aspects of life, and emailing colleges is on the rise also. A college admissions counselor’s job is to help prospective students, but a poorly written email on the student’s part may hurt chances of getting into the school.
Writing an email to an Admissions Counselor to ask for advice, check the status of an application, or just to get a bit more information? Here's how to compose an email in a way that will not cause the counselor to hit the delete button, or worse, make the counselor reconsider an acceptance to the college. Make sure you type in complete sentences, do not use slang, and sound interesting. Here is an example:
"hi i am interested in ur school can u send me more info plz."
"Hello, I am interested in your school and would like to receive more information."
What Does Your Email Font Say About You?
As an interested student, you want to project a certain image in all of your interactions with college prospects - including your emails. A study conducted last fall by Wichita State University found that the choice of font can impact the impression you make on your email readers. The study tested several popular fonts for "appropriateness" in communication. Depending on your choice, you may come across as youthful, rebellious, unstable, less trustworthy or less professional. Not exactly what you intended.
Here's how the fonts stacked up, from most appropriate to least:
- Calibri - highly appropriate
- Corbel
- Candara
- Cambria
- Verdana
- Arial
- Times New Roman
- Constantia
- Georgia
- Century Gothic
- Comic Sans - moderately appropriate
The fonts that rounded out the list as "least appropriate" were Gigi, Rockwell Extra Bold and Impact. The lower a font ranked in appropriateness, the more likely a reader was to assume the writer was a lower level trainee and less mature. The takeaway from the study: your font choice may create an unprofessional first impression if you're not careful. Steer clear of playful, "novelty" fonts that may not truly represent your level of experience. While Calibri ranked highest in the Wichita survey, it's not available on everyone's computer. Fortunately, nearly everyone has several of the other high-scorers, including Verdana, Arial, and Times New Roman.
How do you decide which to use? On one hand, you want your font to say something about you. Generally, sans-serif fonts such as Arial convey a more "contemporary" feeling, while serif fonts such as Times New Roman feel more "classical." On the other hand, you have to consider your audience.
Email address appropriateness
What about email addresses? Colleges will eventually see these emails and so will employers (good for our clients in school already).
Examples of obscene emails seen on a daily basis:
XXbrookeXX@something.com
PartyBoy4everEsomething.com
Sarahloves 007@something.com
RoudolfRIDICULOUS@something.com
XOXOMaryDIVAXOXO@something.com
Even though a student may be a straight “A”, hard-working individual, many college administrators do not see that aspect when their first impression is formed through email. As one college administrator puts it “Though they do make me laugh, these email addresses indicate a student’s passion in life, and obviously it isn’t studying.”
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
TIP OF THE WEEK-AUGUST 16, 2010
How to Succeed Freshman Year
Article from the Wall Street Journal By Emma Slayton
It’s true what they say: Time flies when you’re reading big books, meeting people, listening to lectures, taking exams and learning to be an adult. Oh, and having fun.
You only get one chance to be a freshman in college, and you’re probably not going to do everything you set out to. In part, that’s because you’ll discover so many other things on campus that you never even imagined before. And it’s because over the course of freshman year, you’ll begin to discover things about yourself that you never knew.
That said, you don’t want to look back on the experience a year later, or 10 years later, and think of that important period as a complete waste of opportunity, time and tuition money. So with the benefit of hindsight, I offer you a few general tips will that help you make the best of your freshman year:
BE SOCIAL: The first few days and weeks of college are made for socializing. And you should do plenty of it. Because once the real work starts, you might not have as many opportunities. Those days are set up for you to take advantage of orientation activities, ice breakers, open houses, parties and mixers, so that you’re socially comfortable before you take on the bigger challenges of higher education. Because your friends will serve as your on-campus family, “you have to be more social than you’ve ever been in high school,” says freshman Jessy Bear, who suggests walking down your dorm hallway and poking your head into open rooms.
If you really force yourself to be social, you’re sure to find the people who fit best with you instead of clinging to that first friend and missing out on the many other friendships you could have made. “I was really unhappy until I switched out of my first group of friends,” says freshman Emma Fisher, who initially was wary of breaking away from the people whom she met first.
In those first few weeks, try changing your surroundings often, sitting down with people you don’t know or starting up a conversation with a stranger in one of your large lecture classes. “Don’t be scared to sit at any freshman’s table. They are just as nervous as you are,” says Emma. “I made friends at the library who I see a lot now.” Heck, I met one of my closest friends at college standing in a lunch line.
BRANCH OUT: Heading into college, I knew exactly what I was interested in and what I wanted to study. I wanted to take writing and history courses. I was proud that I had such a focused plan, and this year, I did exactly what I set out to do. In retrospect, it might have been better to branch out a bit.
Bennett Cross, a student in my dorm, did that, and I think he’s better off for it. Instead of just following his interests, he kept an open mind about what he wanted to study, which led him to courses in music, logic and religion. In the process, Bennett learned a lot about himself. “I found out that what I liked and what I’m good at are not always the same thing,” he says. Bennett has also been smart about choosing a broad cross-section of courses that help him get his graduation requirements out of the way early. As a result, he has more freedom than I would to change majors along the way.
GET HELP: In high school, I had to stay after school with a teacher for calculus tutoring. I dreaded it, and not just because I don’t like math. Let’s face it: There’s a certain stigma associated with having to get extra help outside of class. The last thing any high school student wants to see is a teacher’s note on a test that says, “See me.”
In college, it’s very different. There’s absolutely no stigma, and for freshmen getting used to work at the college level, that extra time with professors and their teaching assistants is nothing but a prudent use of your tuition money. “It’s like having a private tutor who knows all the answers to the homework,” says Brian Orser, a freshman who never hesitates to get some face time with a professor. “No one else takes advantage of them.”
Indeed, “office hours”-those times that college professors set aside to help students outside of class-are an underused resource, probably because of freshmen who come to campus with high-school preconceptions about staying after class. Those people don’t know what they’re missing. Especially during freshman year, you don’t want to put your grades at risk for the sake of pride. And it can be really tough to rescue your GPA from a bad first year.
In college this year, I’ve been to office hours for almost half my professors and I still haven’t gone enough. My simple advice: If you need help, go out and get it-before you get a note on your test. Professors are standing by.
KEEP LEARNING: Long after their classrooms and lecture halls close up for the evening, college campuses are alive with learning opportunities-cultural programs, art exhibitions, ethnic festivals, speeches by visiting dignitaries and informal coffeehouse chats with professors, many of which happen only at colleges.
There were many lectures, a capella performances and sporting events that I missed because I was too busy with schoolwork. Looking back, I probably should have taken more breaks to attend those events. When I finally made it to a poetry reading last semester, I met some writers on campus and engaged in an illuminating conversation with the poet. The experience of learning for the sake of it-without the pressure of exams and grades-was a real treat.
So close the books and give yourself a break once in a while. “If you get an email or see a flyer about a lecture or an event that is outside your academic focus, go to it,” says freshman Liana Engie. Consider it part of the educational experience. You won’t regret it.
Article from the Wall Street Journal By Emma Slayton
It’s true what they say: Time flies when you’re reading big books, meeting people, listening to lectures, taking exams and learning to be an adult. Oh, and having fun.
You only get one chance to be a freshman in college, and you’re probably not going to do everything you set out to. In part, that’s because you’ll discover so many other things on campus that you never even imagined before. And it’s because over the course of freshman year, you’ll begin to discover things about yourself that you never knew.
That said, you don’t want to look back on the experience a year later, or 10 years later, and think of that important period as a complete waste of opportunity, time and tuition money. So with the benefit of hindsight, I offer you a few general tips will that help you make the best of your freshman year:
BE SOCIAL: The first few days and weeks of college are made for socializing. And you should do plenty of it. Because once the real work starts, you might not have as many opportunities. Those days are set up for you to take advantage of orientation activities, ice breakers, open houses, parties and mixers, so that you’re socially comfortable before you take on the bigger challenges of higher education. Because your friends will serve as your on-campus family, “you have to be more social than you’ve ever been in high school,” says freshman Jessy Bear, who suggests walking down your dorm hallway and poking your head into open rooms.
If you really force yourself to be social, you’re sure to find the people who fit best with you instead of clinging to that first friend and missing out on the many other friendships you could have made. “I was really unhappy until I switched out of my first group of friends,” says freshman Emma Fisher, who initially was wary of breaking away from the people whom she met first.
In those first few weeks, try changing your surroundings often, sitting down with people you don’t know or starting up a conversation with a stranger in one of your large lecture classes. “Don’t be scared to sit at any freshman’s table. They are just as nervous as you are,” says Emma. “I made friends at the library who I see a lot now.” Heck, I met one of my closest friends at college standing in a lunch line.
BRANCH OUT: Heading into college, I knew exactly what I was interested in and what I wanted to study. I wanted to take writing and history courses. I was proud that I had such a focused plan, and this year, I did exactly what I set out to do. In retrospect, it might have been better to branch out a bit.
Bennett Cross, a student in my dorm, did that, and I think he’s better off for it. Instead of just following his interests, he kept an open mind about what he wanted to study, which led him to courses in music, logic and religion. In the process, Bennett learned a lot about himself. “I found out that what I liked and what I’m good at are not always the same thing,” he says. Bennett has also been smart about choosing a broad cross-section of courses that help him get his graduation requirements out of the way early. As a result, he has more freedom than I would to change majors along the way.
GET HELP: In high school, I had to stay after school with a teacher for calculus tutoring. I dreaded it, and not just because I don’t like math. Let’s face it: There’s a certain stigma associated with having to get extra help outside of class. The last thing any high school student wants to see is a teacher’s note on a test that says, “See me.”
In college, it’s very different. There’s absolutely no stigma, and for freshmen getting used to work at the college level, that extra time with professors and their teaching assistants is nothing but a prudent use of your tuition money. “It’s like having a private tutor who knows all the answers to the homework,” says Brian Orser, a freshman who never hesitates to get some face time with a professor. “No one else takes advantage of them.”
Indeed, “office hours”-those times that college professors set aside to help students outside of class-are an underused resource, probably because of freshmen who come to campus with high-school preconceptions about staying after class. Those people don’t know what they’re missing. Especially during freshman year, you don’t want to put your grades at risk for the sake of pride. And it can be really tough to rescue your GPA from a bad first year.
In college this year, I’ve been to office hours for almost half my professors and I still haven’t gone enough. My simple advice: If you need help, go out and get it-before you get a note on your test. Professors are standing by.
KEEP LEARNING: Long after their classrooms and lecture halls close up for the evening, college campuses are alive with learning opportunities-cultural programs, art exhibitions, ethnic festivals, speeches by visiting dignitaries and informal coffeehouse chats with professors, many of which happen only at colleges.
There were many lectures, a capella performances and sporting events that I missed because I was too busy with schoolwork. Looking back, I probably should have taken more breaks to attend those events. When I finally made it to a poetry reading last semester, I met some writers on campus and engaged in an illuminating conversation with the poet. The experience of learning for the sake of it-without the pressure of exams and grades-was a real treat.
So close the books and give yourself a break once in a while. “If you get an email or see a flyer about a lecture or an event that is outside your academic focus, go to it,” says freshman Liana Engie. Consider it part of the educational experience. You won’t regret it.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
TIP OF THE WEEK – AUGUST 9, 2010
Finding a College Major and Career Building Strategies
Success in college and a career is a process which includes taking the time to find out and build upon the important aspects in students’ interests and abilities. This will pay off in excelled opportunities later.
Teachers and employers need to know who you are, what you are capable of, and what successes you have had to date. This is only possible by knowing what your strengths are. Students should be taking courses, and looking for internships and opportunities that enhance their strengths. Also, taking the time to create visibility, presence, and image with your teachers and professors will help by:
Success in college and a career is a process which includes taking the time to find out and build upon the important aspects in students’ interests and abilities. This will pay off in excelled opportunities later.
Teachers and employers need to know who you are, what you are capable of, and what successes you have had to date. This is only possible by knowing what your strengths are. Students should be taking courses, and looking for internships and opportunities that enhance their strengths. Also, taking the time to create visibility, presence, and image with your teachers and professors will help by:
- Building a solid resume through activities, internships and clubs that they endorse for the student and it will give you great work experience.
- Creating an opportunity for top-notch recommendations because the teacher/professor will really know who that student is and believe in their ability.
- Getting opportunities for special work assignments that can be used to further a student’s interests in a particular area.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
TIP OF THE WEEK - AUGUST 2, 2010
Social Networking Sites
Colleges are now using social networking sites, such as "Facebook" to recruit students through posting pages about their school. At the same time however, many of these same colleges may be looking at the student’s social networking page (Facebook, MySpace, etc...) to get a better idea about the student as a candidate for their school. Keep this in mind when posting things (comments, pictures, etc...) on a Facebook/MySpace account.
"THE ADMISSIONS OFFICE FINDS FACEBOOK" - - Courtesy of Alison Damast of Business Week (With an eye on the demographics, schools are seeking applicants through social networking sites)
A few months ago, Steven Price logged onto his Facebook page one evening to do his usual check-in with family and friends before going to bed. He was surprised when he found a "friend" request from Scott Minto, the director of the admissions office at San Diego State University's Sports Management Program sitting in his in-box.
"I was blown away," said Price, 22, a recent college graduate who is applying to business schools this fall and is currently interning with the Minnesota Vikings. "I'd been in touch with other schools through e-mails and phone calls, but I'd never had any schools contact me through Facebook."
Minto is part of a small but growing number of graduate school and college admissions officers who are aggressively using Facebook to recruit students for their programs. Many have built their own Facebook fan pages, which they are using as a tool to display videos, pictures and news articles about their schools. Others are using the site as a marketing tool, purchasing advertisements and targeting them towards certain demographic of students, based on their age and location. By drawing students to Facebook, schools hope to keep in constant touch with potential students, as well as provide them with important updates on the school, without bombarding them with dozens of e-mails and mass mailings.
"College and graduate school admissions officers are on the cutting edge of this," said Nora Ganim Barnes, director for the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, who recently conducted a study that found that 29% of university admissions departments surveyed used social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace (NWS)--a level higher than fast-growing Inc. 500 corporate respondents. "If you're an undergraduate or graduate institution and you're looking to attract people 35 and under, then I think you have to go to Facebook because that's where your opportunity is," she said. This is the case for Minto, 27, who estimates that he spends several hours a day updating the page and communicating with the students who send him questions via the page. The school also spends some of its advertising dollars on other areas of Facebook, placing ads that are targeted to the student audience Minto is seeking: college graduates 24 to 34.
Colleges are now using social networking sites, such as "Facebook" to recruit students through posting pages about their school. At the same time however, many of these same colleges may be looking at the student’s social networking page (Facebook, MySpace, etc...) to get a better idea about the student as a candidate for their school. Keep this in mind when posting things (comments, pictures, etc...) on a Facebook/MySpace account.
"THE ADMISSIONS OFFICE FINDS FACEBOOK" - - Courtesy of Alison Damast of Business Week (With an eye on the demographics, schools are seeking applicants through social networking sites)
A few months ago, Steven Price logged onto his Facebook page one evening to do his usual check-in with family and friends before going to bed. He was surprised when he found a "friend" request from Scott Minto, the director of the admissions office at San Diego State University's Sports Management Program sitting in his in-box.
"I was blown away," said Price, 22, a recent college graduate who is applying to business schools this fall and is currently interning with the Minnesota Vikings. "I'd been in touch with other schools through e-mails and phone calls, but I'd never had any schools contact me through Facebook."
Minto is part of a small but growing number of graduate school and college admissions officers who are aggressively using Facebook to recruit students for their programs. Many have built their own Facebook fan pages, which they are using as a tool to display videos, pictures and news articles about their schools. Others are using the site as a marketing tool, purchasing advertisements and targeting them towards certain demographic of students, based on their age and location. By drawing students to Facebook, schools hope to keep in constant touch with potential students, as well as provide them with important updates on the school, without bombarding them with dozens of e-mails and mass mailings.
"College and graduate school admissions officers are on the cutting edge of this," said Nora Ganim Barnes, director for the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, who recently conducted a study that found that 29% of university admissions departments surveyed used social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace (NWS)--a level higher than fast-growing Inc. 500 corporate respondents. "If you're an undergraduate or graduate institution and you're looking to attract people 35 and under, then I think you have to go to Facebook because that's where your opportunity is," she said. This is the case for Minto, 27, who estimates that he spends several hours a day updating the page and communicating with the students who send him questions via the page. The school also spends some of its advertising dollars on other areas of Facebook, placing ads that are targeted to the student audience Minto is seeking: college graduates 24 to 34.
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