The items on the checklists of students looking at colleges and universities vary from student to student. Things like school size and location are very often at the top of the list and while many stu...
What You Need to Know About Applying for Early Decision vs. Early Action
Some colleges offer students the chance to apply for an early decision. On one hand, early decision can be a great way to nail down a school early in the process, leaving you free to concentrat...
What is the Western Undergraduate Exchange?
If your student is pursuing a specific academic program in the Western United States, there may not be a public in-state college or university available that offers the spe...
Why Does Applying for College Cost Money? What You Need to Know
When you start helping your child apply for college, it quickly becomes clear that you could be looking at spending hundreds of dollars just to give your kid a chance to be accepted into university. &...
How To Talk To College Admissions and Financial Aid Officers
A few years ago, a school counselor I worked with received a call from an exasperated admissions officer. The purpose of the call? To inform the counselor that repeated calls from a mother were...
Need Aware vs. Need Blind Colleges? What’s the Difference?
When your student applies to school, you hope they will be evaluated based on their academic merits. The good news is, they will be! On the other hand, most schools will also look at you...
Understanding the Different Types of College Admission Deadlines
By the time a student has made the final decision about which schools to apply to, you would think they were home-free. But, unfortunately, that’s not the case. Not only do you have to determine WHERE...
Is Your College List Balanced With Financial Safety, Match and Reach Schools?
Is creating a college list driving you crazy? You’ve done the college visits. You’ve seen the rankings. You’ve even looked into degree programs and talked to your child’s high school guidance c...
Advice From Parents: College Admissions & Financing
When it comes to the difficult, complex parts of life, there’s nothing like getting advice from someone who’s been there. That’s why we love our Facebook group, Paying for College 101. Our comm...
College Admissions Myths: Pulling Back the Curtain
My father used to say, “If you are waiting for life to be fair, you are going to be waiting a long time.” Nothing drives this point home quite like the colleg...