During this COVID-19 pandemic, our priority must be to take care of ourselves, loved ones, and larger communities. Still, clients are asking how to navigate amidst cancelled campus visits, college fairs, and admissions testing. With school buildings closed, high school seniors may face college enrollment decisions with limited access to teachers and counselors. With colleges Read the full article…
This past summer, I visited Muhlenberg, Lafayette, Vassar, Bard, and Skidmore colleges in Pennsylvania and New York. During these visits, I met officials, toured campuses, and spoke with students. I want to share with you what I learned and include a short video about each college for you to learn more. Why visits to these Read the full article…
Message from Valerie 3-14-19: I am deeply dismayed by news of college admissions scams involving criminals and families pretending to serve students. I want to assure you that my work involves serving students across a wide economic spectrum in improving the trajectory of their lives through higher education. Adolescents often need guides to help them Read the full article…
Adults naturally draw upon their college admissions experiences when talking to teens, even if those events are from a time before smartphones–and a lot has changed since then. So, it is important that I inform families about how college admissions processes operate today compared to a few years or decades ago. Today, college admissions officers Read the full article…
Storytelling plays a big role when adults talk about college financing from earlier eras. Many of us have heard these messages in the stories told: I paid for college myself by working full time and going to school year round. I was awarded so many scholarships, the college had to pay me. I arrived on Read the full article…
Today many colleges until recently required strong credentials for admission, now appear to be accepting only students who possess outstanding qualities. Students who might have been admitted a year earlier, now are being offered a spot on a waiting list–or worse. So, while elders tell stories of getting into these colleges with average credentials, current Read the full article…
Recent events and news stories have illuminated horrible and even criminal behavior on college campuses involving college students or employees. Presently, nearly 100 colleges including some highly selective ones are under investigation by the US Department of Education (USDOE) for Title IX sexual violence issues. If you are considering whether to apply or enroll at an Read the full article…
Applying for college admissions and scholarships requires that transcripts be sent to evaluate the academic achievement of student applicants. Student grades are issued typically in the form of grade reports. Students and families may cumulatively save these reports but rarely do they see a full transcript. Recently, I reviewed clients’ transcripts and found errors that Read the full article…
When my son and his peers graduated recently after 4 years of college, they faced student loan debt that averaged $30,000 nationally. By contrast, when I graduated from college three decades earlier, my student loans totaled less than $3,000. This begged the question: Where Has the Financial Aid Gone? My accompanying article entitled, “Financial Aid Trends During Read the full article…
I support our nation’s focus on students graduating on-time from college and being prepared for a world that is changing quickly. With college students, I like to create a plan to guide them in earning their college degree by their expected graduation date. These plans show them how to finish on-time while incorporating the requirements and credits Read the full article…