Mr. K's College Knowledge

If you are a student who doesn’t mind a small school…and I am talking about a very small school, you may be interested in a college that is offering free tuition for all four years, for the incoming freshmen classes of ’12, ’13, and ’14. The college is Antioch College in Yellow Spring, Ohio, and estimated at $26,500 a year for tuition; students will be saving $106,000 in college tuition over four years! What’s the reason for the free tuition? Well in 2008 Antioch closed its doors due to financial problems and poor management. However, alumni were appalled with the closing, so they put big bucks up to re-open the doors. The school now believes their finances are settled, and are offering free tuition as an incentive for students to apply. Right now, Antioch is offering 12 majors, and they still offer a strong co-op program for many of their majors. Last year their freshmen class had a total of 35 students. Moving forward they are looking to accept 65-75 students within each freshm...

As we near the end of the year, many of the students who applied early decision or early action are hearing back the decisions from colleges. This is a very exciting, yet anxious time for students and families. Students in the same high schools are applying to the same colleges, but will all hear different decisions. It’s essential for students (and parents) to be mindful that friends and classmates may not be hearing the great news of being accepted. Being accepted into your top choice colleges is an incredible feeling, in which students and families should celebrate. However, it is not appropriate to brag about the acceptances, especially in areas (such as schools) that are populated with individuals who may have just heard they were deferred or denied from that very same school. So, use your private space in your home to jump around and shout with your parents, but when it comes to the school halls or cafeteria, keep the information to your close friends and the teachers and couns...

As of now, the majority of students have applied to at least one college, and many will hear decisions in the next couple of weeks. The waiting game can be extremely nerve-wracking and happens during senior year, which is already stressful all around. At the beginning, students scramble to complete their applications while balancing busy extracurricular and academic schedules. They worry about their choice of college essay topic, their list of schools, and whether or not their applications have arrived safely in the admissions offices. As second semester begins, though, most of the applications are out, midterm grades are finalized, and a period of waiting ensues. Many schools will not send out decisions until April, and so students wait, in a state of uncertainty about the vast next step of their lives. There is so much activity and so many stressors during senior year that we sometimes forget that it is a crucial period of transition, not only for students, but for parents and ...

Whether you are a potential DI/D2 student-athlete, a parent of one, or you know someone who might participate in college sports, this information will be important for you. In order to play a sport in college (D1/D2 only), the student must be eligible. Eligibility is measured by a sliding scale, with the lowest possible GPA being a 2.0. With a 2.0, the student must achieve a 1010 (Math and CR only) on the SAT's to be eligible. From there, the higher a student's GPA, the lower their SAT needs to be in order to be eligible.  However, starting with high school class of 2015 (current sophomores), it will get just a little harder to become eligible to participate in Division 1 sports right out of high school. The NCAA eligibility center has decided to increase their eligibility standards for Division 1 athletes. These new rules will go into effect starting August 1, 2015. Whereas students prior to 2015 needed a minimum core GPA of 2.0 and 1010 SAT (Math and Critical Reading) or ...

As many seniors have applied to schools for early action, early decision, or rolling admissions, a big question is what should they be doing now…besides waiting and waiting. For seniors who have applied to all of their schools, a few of their schools, or none of their schools, take a look at the following list of what you can be doing now for the college admissions process: ·          Revise your college list: Take a look at your college list and make sure you have 2-3 safeties, targets, and reaches in each category. Hopefully you have done your research on these colleges and visited some of them. It is imperative that you are happy with all of the colleges you apply to, not just the reach schools! ·          Be on top of your testing game: Hopefully you have taken your SATs or ACTs by this time. Make sure you know which test dates you will send to the colleges, or if you will not send test scores...

The first of November is usually an exciting time with Thanksgiving right around the corner, and the rest of the holiday season not too far behind. However, for many seniors, Thursday, November 1 st , 2012 is a day they have had circled on their calendar for many months, for an entirely different reason. This is the Early Action deadline for many of the competitive colleges and universities across the county. Another popular Early Action deadline is November 15 th and you many see a few schools that have Early Action a little later than that. Since the Early Action season is near, I thought it would be appropriate to explain early application plans, and everything that goes into them. First, it is very important to understand that applying under Early Action, will NOT improve a student’s chances of admission. Since EA is non-binding, it does not benefit a school to accept a student who is on the border, as that student is not committing himself to the college. Additionally, th...

People often say that death and taxes are the only two things we can be sure of in our lives. Well for high school students, you can add one more to that list, and that is ‘standardized testing’. For some this is no big deal, and for others, this can be a very scary thought. There are tests to get you into high school, college, graduate school, professional schools, and tests to keep you enrolled in these schools. After that, there are tests to gain professional certificates and then to keep those certificates. As someone who was never a good test-taker, I wish tests  didn't  exist, but they do and we all better get used to that fact. For high school juniors and seniors, the SATs and ACTs are a very important part of the college application process. Although some schools have started going test-optional, which means they do not consider a student’s standardized test scores for admission, there are still many questions about the effectiveness of this option. This is a ver...

Football season is well on its way, the weather is getting cooler, and the leaves are beginning to change. This means two things…the November 1 st early action deadline is right around the corner, and there is still tons of time to visit college campuses! Unless you are accepted into an early decision plan for your college, you most likely will have 7 months to decide where you want to go to school. You should be visiting colleges now and once you receive your acceptance letters, if you still haven’t decided, make sure you get back to the campuses and do your due diligence in deciding which environment is the best for you. Remember you will be living at your college for at least 4 years, so you want to make sure it is the best all-around fit for you! Visiting colleges and universities is one of the most important parts of the college search process. Obviously academics, majors selection, internship opportunities, and reputation are important factors to selecting the right school...

It’s only September, but it’s never too early to start thinking about paying for college and financial aid options! Many private colleges cost around $35,000 in tuition and another $10,000 in room and board (and don’t forget about additional fees, including books). All of this equals a cost of attendance (COA) of $45,000+, which is certainly not rare. When financial aid reports come in, students and parents may be happy to see that they received $5,000 per year in merit scholarships and another $5,000 in financial aid. $10,000 a year is great…but that leaves $35,000 per year to possibly pay out of pocket, which comes to $140,000 for a four year education. For most families, this is a very scary sight and if a student is in love with a school, many parents will do whatever it takes to make sure their son or daughter is able to attend. Loans often come into play, either through the school, federally, or privately, and although this is certainly not ideal, in many cases this is the ...

Although I am sure that the parents out there with children in high school have heard of all of the college search websites including CollegeBoard, Naviance, and College Prowler, and you may not want to see another option with even more information, but part of my job is to get AS MUCH information out there as possible…so here is another extremely helpful college search resource:   U-CAN . U-CAN stands for University and College Accountability Network. What makes U-CAN different from other college search sites is that it is exclusive to the nation’s private, nonprofit colleges and universities. Since there are far fewer schools this resource concentrates on, they are able to provide much more detailed and up-to-date information on independent colleges and universities. On the profiles for each college, U-CAN provides parents and students information points across the following areas: ·           Admissions ·  ...

‘The importance of fit’, when it comes to choosing a college to attend, is an expression that students and parents will be accustom to hearing during the college search process. But what does ‘fit’ really mean and why is it so important when choosing a college? As students in the college search process, you all want to find the   right college, but this is often harder than it sounds. There are a multitude of elements and factors that should go into choosing a college, but often students and parents will look over some or all of the factors that need to be addressed. Instead, students may choose a college purely based on ranking, how good their sport teams are, if there significant other attends the school, and many other reasons that should not be a part of a very important decision. 1 in 3   students who enroll into college will transfer at some point during their time at college. This is an alarming statistic and although in some cases this cannot be avoided, many tim...

Testing season is just around the corner…for seniors you are taking final shots at the SAT or ACT in hopes to raise your scores, and juniors you most likely are just beginning to plan your attack on which tests to take and when. Although there are many schools that are   test-optional   (meaning they   do not   require SAT or ACT scores for students to apply—please    click on the link to see a list of these schools), the majority of colleges do need to see a score report from one of these tests. Later in the year, I will be discussing the reasons these tests exists, and the pros and cons, but for now, I think it is helpful to give a few more helpful tips about each test, so you can decide which will be the best representation of you when it is time to apply to college! As you will see the main differences between the two tests deal with format, timing, and scoring. SAT    ( http://sat.collegeboard.org/home ) Length:   Standard t...

     Welcome everyone to the recently established Mr. K’s College Knowledge Blog! I hope to provide you with knowledge on everything to do with college admissions. The target audience for this blog is anyone going through the college search and application process. The blog is here to assist students and parents during the process with college admissions trends and updates, reminders, leading research on college admissions and just overall helpful information. I also would like to use this blog as a place to assist students and their families on the emotional and psychological transition into college. Leaving home for the first time and being away from family can often be a stressful time for everyone involved, and I hope to provide helpful tips and strategies to aid the entire family in dealing with this change. The goal of this blog is to simply get as much information out to you as possible on a weekly basis.      Before you start reading ...