• CollegeBoard.com: This site is a one stop shot for all things college planning. On this site, you can see how much the average college is, what financial aid is available to you, and the best places to find scholarships.
• Scholarship America: Scholarship America is the nation’s premier scholarship and educational support service organization. This site posts scholarships and offers advice to your student on how to make the most of their scholarship applications.
• Savingforcollege.com: A super easy to use site that explains different savings options. This site does a great deep dive into 529 Plan.

We know that paying for college can be stressful, but hopefully these resources can ease a bit of the burden.

Tips for Calming Test-Time Jitters

If your child gets nervous before tests for classes, encourage her to try the following tips and strategies for keeping anxiety down and energy up for the next big exam.

Before the Test

Don’t cram: Studying like crazy the night before an exam can leave your child exhausted and more stressed out than before, so encourage her to study in small doses over several days.

Take practice tests: Knowing the format and style of a test can keep anxiety at bay, so have your child take practice exams if they’re available.

Get a good night’s sleep: Lack of sleep contributes heavily to anxiety. Be sure your child goes to bed early the night before an exam.

Eat a healthy breakfast: Blood sugar is at its lowest in the morning. In order for your child to think and problem-solve effectively, she needs a good breakfast.

Exercise: Encourage your child to engage in physical activity before the test to reduce body tension. For example, take a brisk walk or jog.

Come early and prepared: By arriving to the test early and with the right supplies (e.g., No.2 pencils, calculator), your child can avoid stressing out about small details. This will allow her to focus on the task at hand.

During the Test

Preview the exam and budget time: By previewing the test, your child can avoid any unexpected surprises (and anxiety). It will also give her the opportunity to budget her time so she doesn’t spend too long on any one section.

Jot notes: Jotting down brief notes right away can help your child feel less anxious about forgetting important facts or key information.

Read all directions: Some students are so anxious to get the test over with that they fail to read the directions.

Answer easy questions first: Getting the easier questions out of the way allows your child to focus her energy and time on the harder questions.

Rephrase difficult questions: Putting difficult questions in her own words can help your child slow down and really think about the problem. But your child should be careful not to change the questions’ meanings when rewriting them.

Organize thoughts before writing: Your child should organize her responses to short-answer and essay questions before diving in. Having a plan will help her feel confident while she’s writing.

Think positively: Negative thoughts during a test (e.g., “I’m going to fail”) can destroy your child’s confidence. Encourage her to override negative thoughts with positive ones (e.g., “I studied hard and I know my facts. I’ll do great on this test.”)

Relax: If your child starts to feel stress during a test, she should try quick relaxation techniques, such as:

• Taking deep breaths, and letting out tension with each exhale
• Tensing muscles for five seconds and releasing, repeating three times
• Visualizing a peaceful and relaxing setting

Keep in mind that using the tips above won’t necessarily keep anxiety away completely. However, practicing these techniques can give your child the right skills to manage test stress when it does happen.

Remind your student to apply.  College freshman click here. Upperclassmen click here.

Students on over 6,400 campuses across the country have saved millions of dollars with Chegg and made us #1 in textbook rentals. Over 98% have said they will recommend us to their friends. Tell your student to rent their books with Chegg this semester.

Or surprise your student by picking up the tab. You can buy your student a Chegg gift card here.  Chegg offers great prices, free return shipping, over 2.4 million titles, and flexible rental periods - all without long lines at the register!

Odds are, you’re going to take the SAT’s (or ACT’s.) Most “selective” colleges require them. True, more and more really good colleges – yes, selective ones! – are making the SAT’s optional. But the vast majority of schools still require them.

Three Questions are commonly asked:

First, do SAT prep courses work? The answer is yes. Practice helps; test strategies help; reduced stress levels help. Take whatever test prep course you can afford and works for you. They run from free school-based mini-courses; to online practice exams; to groups sessions; to private tutoring. Remember: many others kids will be taking test-prep courses, and they will benefit from the extra practice and advice. You shouldn’t be left behind because you didn’t take a course.

Second, how many times should you take the SAT’s? As many times as you need to get good scores. But don’t get crazy. If you don’t think you did as well as you should have on your first effort, take them a second time. If your scores go up significantly the second time, great. If they don’t, too bad; you may be a poor standardized test-taker. It is not the end of the world! In either case, taking the SAT twice is enough.

Third, what’s this thing called Score Choice; and should you use it? The College Board, which administers the SAT exam, recently introduced a new score-reporting option they call Score Choice. Basically, it allows you to pick and choose which scores from which test-times you want reported to colleges. The rub is that while it provides you with greater flexibility to showcase your highest scores to colleges, each college has its own policy about how they treat Score Choice. To make things a bit easier, the College Board has put together a an easy-to-understand tutorial, and complied a list of virtually every college’s policy towards Score choice. Here is the link for the tutorial; and once you are there, scroll down to the bottom of their page for a link to a pdf of college policies.

Click here for a list of SAT optional colleges.

]]> http://www.zinchparents.com/2009/11/the-sat/feed/ http://www.zinchparents.com/2009/11/you-ask-we-answer-2/ http://www.zinchparents.com/2009/11/you-ask-we-answer-2/#comments Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:10:03 +0000 Steve Cohen http://www.zinchparents.com/?p=57

Question:  Does it make a difference which standardized test my daughter takes?  All of her friends are taking the SAT’s and she is hesitating, thinking she’d do better on the ACT. - Joanne, Boston

Answer:  The biggest difference between these two long-established, and widely-used standardized tests is where they are “most popular.”  Simply for historical reasons, the SAT has been used more extensively along the East and West Coasts, while the ACT has been the preferred “test of choice” in the Midwest and the South.

Substantively, there are minor differences: the ACT includes a “science” section.  It is not hard-core chemistry or biology, but more like a reading comprehension test.  Conversely, the SAT has a required writing section while the ACT’s writing piece is optional.

Here is the big difference: tradition and expectation.  Colleges typically expect a student living in the Northeast (or on the West Coast) to be taking the SAT. And when they don’t, it can raise a red flag.  It might not, but it could.  And the last thing an applicant wants to do is give the admission office a reason to doubt, question, or reject her.  So, stick with what is the norm from your high school.

One final thought – if you’re from an area where both are widely used, take a practice test in both early in the process.  Unless the ACT is significantly higher, stick with the SAT.  Our tutoring experts tell us it is much more difficult to improve your ACT scores.

Two questions are typically asked:

First, do colleges give extra weight to grades earned in honors or Advanced Placement (AP) courses? The answer is usually – either by formally recalculating the student’s grade-point average, or by informally “inflating” the grades earned the more advanced classes.

Second, is it better to earn a “B” in an Honors or AP class; or an “A” in a regular class? Most admissions people answer the question with the half-cynical remark, “It is better to get an “A” in the AP course.” That doesn’t directly answer the question, but it does give a peek inside the system.

Recommendation: Get the “A” in the toughest course you can.

As a former college coach and admissions director – at both Division I and Division III schools – I’m often asked about athletic recruiting and the admissions process. Rumors abound. Half-truths take on the power of gospel. And dreams of glory are as often made real as they are shattered. And although the process differs a bit from college to college, and Division to Division, there are some “truths” that are important to understand.

The Lay of the Land

The NCAA, (the National Collegiate Athletic Association), is the major governing body of intercollegiate athletics. It divides schools into three divisions. Division I includes all those big-time athletic programs you hear about: – the schools in the conferences you see playing football on television every Saturday; the colleges in the bowl games; and those pounding the floorboards during the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. Division I schools range from the Ivy league to the Big Ten to the Pac 10 to the Southeast Conference and so on. There are about 350 schools classified as Division I. Division I used to be known as the University Division, while smaller schools were in the College Division or Division II.

Division II schools are normally somewhat smaller universities and not willing or unable to make that financial commitment to intercollegiate sports – but which still offer athletic scholarships. The distinction is really scale. A Division II school might give up to 36 football scholarships per year, while a Division I university would typically have about 85. There are several hundred schools classified as Division II ranging from perennial lacrosse champions like Lemoyne and C.W. Post in the east to the perennial multi-sport powerhouses of the California state college system. Division II schools often play Division I colleges in basketball, typically early in the season. Although they rarely win these match-ups, they are essentially warm-up games for the Division I schools and “money games” for the Division II colleges.

There are more than 500 Division III schools, and they range from smaller universities to some of the most selective private colleges in the country. Here’s the key take-away: there are no Division III athletic scholarships! Forget what you heard – your neighbor’s kid did not receive an athletic scholarship to a Division III school. A few Division III schools have one or two particular sports which compete at the Division I level. Colorado College’s hockey team is a good example, but those are the exception rather than the rule.

There are also a group of 287 smaller colleges that belong to a group called the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) — rather than the NCAA – and 90% of these schools do offer athletic scholarships. Similarly, junior colleges have their own governing body and set of rules.

I’ll focus my remarks on Division I and III schools for two reasons. First, they are what I am most familiar with. And second, the rules of the game for Division II schools are pretty much the same as for Division I.

Basic Eligibility

The NCAA serves as a clearinghouse for athletic eligibility for Divisions I and II. The NCAA sets a sliding scale of GPA versus standardized testing (SAT or ACT) that establishes eligibility. For example, a student with a high school grade point average of 3.0 needs a combines SAT score of 620 (on a 1600 point scale!) A student with a 2.5 GPA, needs an 820 SAT score. Division II schools don’t use a sliding scale. Students simply have to have a minimum GPA of 2.0 and an SAT combined score of 820.

The easiest way to make sense of the formula is to remember that for Division I schools, the higher a student’s GPA, the lower their standardized testing can be – and vice versa. The NCAA also sets up a series of core courses a student must also pass for eligibility, including four full years of English. Since most college coaches begin looking at prospective recruits way before the student’s senior year in high school, they are very concerned about a prospect’s ability to successfully pass their core courses and achieve the minimum testing scores. Many schools will not recruit a prospective student-athlete they fear ultimately won’t be eligible to play because of their high school grades or SAT/ACT scores.

Division III schools utilize their own individual standards for eligibility, which most coaches will share with you. In most cases, if a student has the grades and SAT scores to be admitted to a Division III school, he or she has met the sports-eligibility standards.

The Recruiting Process

Unfortunately, many coaches lie. I say that not out of disrespect, but because the system pretty much forces them to. If your kid is the national class, blue chip athletic prospect, you probably won’t be lied to. Every coach would love to have your child, and they’ll try to offer you the world. That world, however, is only an athletic scholarship, and anything more would be an NCAA violation. Most high school athletes, however, are not blue chip prospects. Rather, they are student-athletes with the ability to play at the college level. And that prospect may – or may not – be worthy of an athletic scholarship at that particular school in that particular year! In short, individual kids are part of the food chain of college sports; and the coaches are trying to figure out whether and where that prospect might best fit in. And for that reason, coaches must lie.

Let me explain. Division I coaches have a certain number of scholarships they can award in a given year. Division III coaches have “admissions slots.” (Yes, they negotiate with the admission office over how many places in the next freshman class they’ll be allowed to fill.) And most coaches will be “pretty honest” about how many slots they have and where a prospect stands on the list.

That’s “pretty honest.” Ok, it’s lying. The baseball coach with five scholarships in Division I — or six admission slots at a Division III school — must recruit many more prospects early in the process, before making their final decisions. They might need a pitcher more than a catcher or outfielder. But they need to keep all three prospective recruits interested; because the pitcher (or one of the others) is being recruited by multiple schools. The coach is also recruiting a backup for each of those three positions. In fact, the coach probably has a list of five prospects for each position, even though the pitcher is the priority. And the coach has to convince each of the 15 that he wants that particular kid. Or more accurately, the coach has to do that early in the process. As the recruiting/admissions process grinds on, the funnel – and the prospect pool — gets smaller. Some students commit to other schools and others fail to meet admission standards. The list gets smaller – and your kid may still be on it — but she may still not be the prospect of choice.

I suspect it’s a bit easier for schools with scholarships than those without. I remember a year at Auburn where I looked at the national rankings for high school mile times. I went after three of the best, offering each a scholarship. I also encouraged each of them to get in touch with each other, hoping that might encourage them to come together. The strategy worked, and they all committed to Auburn. But I had no money left for the other students I had kept on hold, since I hadn’t expected to land all three. My next group prospects were cut loose, and then picked up by other schools.

Think of it in terms of casting a wide net. When I was coaching track in the Ivy League (with no athletic scholarships), I would write to many student-athletes. They would be identified by their athletic performances – state meet or league results, performance lists etc. From those who replied, I would then narrow the group for academic reasons. I would then prioritize them based on our program needs.

Each year we’d start with a list of the track team’s needs. Did we need distance runners more than sprinters? Sprinters more than field event people? Then we’d establish a priority list of the prospects we’d been talking to, and turn it over to the admission office. In most cases, the admission office would respect our wishes. Sometimes they would balk over a particular kid, fearing that a student wouldn’t be able to survive the academic rigor of an Ivy League institution. Sometimes I’d be given the chance to make the case on behalf of the kid. But the ultimate up-down decision remained with the admission office.

Our initial prospect group of 500 good high school athletes might drop to 100 who had the grades and SAT scores to have a realistic hope of admission. From there, we would narrow it further to a group of 40 whom we’d submit on a priority list to the admissions office. And from that priority list, maybe 20 might be admitted.

But we’d still have to keep those 100 interested until we narrowed the list to the 40. And we’d have to keep those 40 interested until we learned which of the 20 might make it. And even then, we had to see how many of the 20 chose to commit.

So unfortunately, it’s hard to be completely honest.

One important note about the Ivy League: the Ivies have a formula called the academic index (AI) that throws another set of rules into the process. It combines class rank or GPA (many schools no longer rank) with standardized test scores. Not surprisingly, the AI standards are much tougher than the NCAA eligibility requirements. If your child is being recruited by an Ivy League school, the coach will explain it to you. The coach may also suggest that your child take the SAT again, not only to raise your child’s AI score – and improve his chances of admission — to raise that AI score, but to help the “team score” as well.

The highest possible individual AI score is a 240 total. That would reflect an A+ student/valedictorian with straight 800 scores on both the SAT1 and required subject tests, The Ivy League rules require that a school’s average AI team scores be within one standard deviation of that school’s overall entering class score. Which means that the Ivy League really is looking for smart student-athletes.

Consequently, an Ivy League coach might balance a great athletic prospect who has a slightly lower AI with a lesser prospect who has a higher score. Each school has the flexibility to approach this mix differently. Thus some teams may have higher cumulative AI scores than others. And to further complicate matters, football, basketball and hockey are limited in numbers and use bands that group the number of athletes in each category. So listen to what the coach tells you and respect what he might ask of you.

Division III schools typically utilize a process pretty similar to the one described above. But their process is often further complicated by having to wait to see who is left after financial aid packages (not athletic scholarships!) are offered by the admissions/financial aid office. Or whether athletic prospects make the admissions cut at highly selective schools.

The good, but perhaps not great, Division III prospect might be wise to follow a coach’s encouragement and apply early decision (ED) to that school, rather than keep waiting or hoping on a “higher-level” school. (Students can apply to only one school “early decision.” If admitted, they are legally bound to attend that school.) The ED approach is the Division III’s “letter of intent.” It significantly improves the student-athlete’s chance of admission, and then obligates the student to that school. The NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic Conference) schools are best known for this practice, and it is little surprise that great academic schools like Amherst, Williams and Middlebury contend for national titles through the use of this process.

The Student’s “Play”

A savvy prospect should not be afraid of letting a college know they are interested in that school. The student (or parent) should produce a CD/DVD highlight reel. (Many college coaches are very interested in seeing an entire game in addition to the highlight reel. They want to see what and how the prospect does when not being the star.) The student-athlete should also have their high school or club coach get in touch with the college coach. In addition to conveying the student’s interest in that particular school, it is also very useful to alert a college coach that the athlete is participating in a particular showcase or tournament. Finally, it is can be useful to find out which summer camps, tournament, or showcases the college coach plans to attend; and then have the student try to participate in those events.

The level of the coach’s response might also help the prospect realize what level of interest there may be in that student. Or in some cases, the high school coach can find out what skills the prospect may need to work on. And remember NCAA rules prevent direct contact between a college coach and most prospects until July 1 prior to senior year. (There some exceptions to this rule that apply to football, basketball and ice hockey). If the phone doesn’t start ringing then, it may be time to re-access whether athletics will play a significant role in the admission process, regardless of level. Click here for NCAA recruiting schedule.

Should Student Lie Too?

One of the most significant dilemmas of this process is whether students should “lie” as well. Should students “inflate” their level of interest in a particular school until they can determine the coach’s real level of interest in them? And while there are both ethical and practical problems here, the answer is yes. The student-athlete is well advised to play it “close to the vest,” telling several schools they are really interested in that school — until they get the green light from the college. One word of caution, however. In many sports, coaches talk among themselves; and a student-athlete would be wise not to cast the net in too many places.

Both Ivy League and Division III schools utilize financial aid to assist families with the cost of attending their schools. These financial aid packages really are based on the financial need of the family – not how badly the school “needs” that athlete. In the old days, the Ivy League actually compared aid packages to make sure they were consistent from school to school. While that process is now forbidden by Federal rules, few schools will risk the wrath of their fellow members – or Justice Department or NCAA probes — by offering a financial aid package way out of line with the family’s “demonstrated need.”

A family’s demonstrated need is the flip side of the family’s “expected family contribution.” The federal government calculates these numbers based on financial information provided by the family when they file the FAFSA or Profile forms. The formula is at once arcane, predictable, and unrealistic about actual cost-of-living expenses. For example, a family with a $100,000 income and $20,000 in assets would be expected to contribute about $9,000 a year to a child’s college costs But virtually all families can receive some form of financial aid – but it might be in the form of student loans.

So, a prospect can certainly share a financial aid award with another school to see if the second school might match it. But colleges are very unlikely to go way outside the aid package prescribed by the FAFSA and expected family contribution, and thus risk NCAA investigations. In short, Division III are very unlikely to award additional financial aid if it appears that athletic ability might have been factored into those awards

NCAA Division I schools have more flexibility in their aid awards – because they do award athletic scholarships — and can decide how to spend their dollars. Most likely, a non-scholarship athlete will receive a financial aid award consistent with students with similar need. Or in the case of students eligible for merit (academic) scholarships, they will get awards like non-athletes with similar grades.

The recruiting process is nuanced. Never be afraid to involve your high school coach or college counselor in this process. College coaches are much more likely to be truthful with high school coaches and counselors because they’ll probably want to “do business” with that high school again in the future. But realize too, that the coach or counselor – while the student’s advocate — may need to be honest with the college as well; they don’t want to lose credibility with that college coach that might affect future recruits. So be sure to keep the high school coach and counselor in the loop as the student-athlete’s priorities and interests change.

About the Author

Mike Muska is a former NCAA Division 1 coach of 20 All-American track and cross-country athlete; and was twice named Coach of the Year in the Southeast Conference. He is also a former Division III Athletic Director and Admissions Director, and spent ten years as a senior athletic and admissions person at Brown and Oberlin. He is currently Dean of College Relations at Poly Prep in Brooklyn, and the Chief Professional Officer at iCollegeCounselor.

]]> http://www.zinchparents.com/2009/11/the-truth-about-college-sports-scholarships/feed/ http://www.zinchparents.com/2009/11/should-a-college%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%9cranking%e2%80%9d-matter-to-you/ http://www.zinchparents.com/2009/11/should-a-college%e2%80%99s-%e2%80%9cranking%e2%80%9d-matter-to-you/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:55:15 +0000 Steve Cohen http://www.zinchparents.com/?p=69 It’s that time of year again: publications of every description are coming out with their college rankings. Some are insightful; others are fun; a few are meaningless. The real question is how can they help you?

The granddaddy of all college rankings is the U.S. News annual rankings of “America’s Best Colleges”. It’s been around since 1983. The Princeton review has been surveying college students for years to generate Top-10 lists of characteristics that often mean more to students – such as quality of life, political activism, and sex-drugs-and rock-and-roll, (My favorite is “Dodgeball Targets.) Forbes, Newsweek, have weighed in with their versions. And of course, there is Playboy’s annual pronouncement of the best party school.

Whether they like to admit it or not, college administrators jump though hoops to improve their ranking every year.

Why? The answer is simple: money and bragging rights. Colleges which rank higher attract more applicants. That, in turn, means less pressure to control tuition increases. It is simple supply and demand. But an equally significant reason colleges make substantive changes, tweak their statistics, and sometimes lie outright in order to improve their ranking is that a higher ranking means better bragging rights. And inasmuch as most colleges and universities are not-for-profit organizations, bragging rights are the equivalent of …well, something.

Be forewarned: many thoughtful people – those without an axe to grind or a place on the list to explain or defend – think the rankings are just plain wrong. Edward Fiske, the long-time Education Editor of the New York Times and creator of the best-selling Fiske Guide to Colleges probably makes the clearest case. He says, “There are two fundamental problems with the rankings. First, they lead parents and students to ask the wrong question. Instead of asking, ‘What’s the best college?’ students and parents should be asking, ‘What’s the best college for me?’ Second, the rankings are compiled based solely on inputs; really they are just a measurement of institutional wealth. And this works against the entire public sector. Although U.S. News separates public from private colleges, you would never get the sense from their rankings that the University of Michigan or Berkeley were among the great universities of the world. And that’s a disservice.”

So should these rankings make a difference to where you go? Or at least to what schools you consider?

The honest answer is: probably. And there are two reasons for this.

First, some of the rankings – the Princeton Review’s for example – give a pretty good insight, from students’ perspective, of what a place is really like. These subjective assessment and candid comments can be useful.

Second, you will be paying a lot of money for college. No, modify that: you’re not just paying, you’re investing a lot. And, after four years you will want a return on your investment. Part of that ROI will be a function of what you put into your college experience: how hard you work, what courses you take, what experiences you take advantage of, and what friendships and connections you make. But part of it is also “brand” equity. When, after graduation, you say, “I went to X College,” does that statement elicit recognition or a blank look?

Here’s the not-so-secret “dirty little secret”: some colleges do open more doors – at least initially – than do others. If you don’t think that having a Harvard-Yale-Princeton-Stanford-or-other-“prestigious”-college degree makes a difference, you are being naïve. More doors are opened more quickly. But they don’t guarantee anyone a job. And not having a degree from one of these “top” schools certainly doesn’t reduce one’s chances of a successful, fulfilling career. But as a first step along the career path, they can provide a bit of a head start.

Brand recognition should not be the determining factor in where you choose to go to college. But we’d be fibbing if we suggested it shouldn’t – or won’t – be a factor.

One important reminder: do not get hung up on whether a particular school is number 17 versus its cross-town rival which is number 14. Don’t get into the minutia; try to keep a big-picture perspective.

With these textbook problems in mind, Chegg.com came up with a revolutionary way to help student save money on textbooks through an innovative rental service that saves you 65% to 85%.  Renting textbooks with Chegg is easy and with over 16 million books to choose it’s no wonder why students at more than over 6,000 campuses use Chegg.com.

As a part of their ongoing commitment to help college students, Chegg.com launched the Chegg Scholars Program–a scholarship program that rewards student achievers by alleviating them from the high cost of textbooks by awarding them textbook scholarships.

Chegg.com has partnered with Zinch to bring you these textbook scholarships live from the Zinch site.  To learn more and apply, high school seniors can go here, and college students can go here.

Jane K, Burlington, Vt.

Answer: Welcome to the bizarre world of college visits.   The college students who conduct the tours will have an enormous impact – whether fairly or not – on your child’s perception of a college.  You may be visiting your alma mater; or your child may be setting foot on the campus she has always dreamed of; and they can be turned off completely by the tour guide.

There is no easy remedy to this inevitable problem.  It is going to happen.  And the school that either you or your child thought was the perfect fit may be thrown into the discard pile.  Unless you’re prepared for the War of the Roses, don’t dismiss your kid’s first impression. Tour guides often convey their personal biases or agendas during the tour.

Sometimes it is intentional; often it is not.  But you’ll hear comments that are anti-athletic or anti-arts; pro-Greek life and anti-frat.   Mike — our resident counselor — always tells students beforehand to not judge a school by the tour guide.

Our recommendation is keep visiting schools.  The more places you visit – even if you are unlikely to apply to a particular place – the better frame of reference you and you son will have.  If, after seeing more colleges, you (and his guidance counselor) still think that first college is a good fit, you should probably suggest visiting it one last time.

But be forewarned: choosing a college is about 80% your son’s choice and 20% everyone else’s.