Mr. K's College Knowledge

Hey Everyone, For anyone involved in college admissions whether it be high school counselors, college admissions representatives, or the students applying, we have all been frustrated with the issues College Board has had with making their SAT and PSAT scores available. High schools have still not received scores of their students from the October test, and many students had issues with getting their scores sent to colleges on time. Now, we just found out that the PSAT scores will be delayed! Usually, the PSAT scores are sent to high schools and students in early December. However, this year, sophomores and juniors will need to wait until January 7th.  Hopefully, College Board gets their act together soon, because I know we are all tired of this waiting game. Joseph D. Korfmacher, MA

As seniors are waiting for and receiving decisions for their Early Decision and Early Action applications for colleges, I wanted to share some tips to help when receiving admissions decisions from colleges. Ø    If you have been accepted to a school through Early Decision, you should withdraw your applications from any other colleges you have applied to or were planning on applying to. Remember, with Early Decision, you, your parent, and school counselor all signed an agreement, that if accepted this would be the school you would attend. Ø    If you have been deferred from Early Decision or Early Action to regular decision, do not get upset, as you still have a chance. For ED, you are no longer committed to attending the school, even if you are accepted through regular decision, so more options have just opened up. To be deferred means the college liked what they saw in your application, but they need a little more information and time before potentially accepting you. For th

Hey Everyone,  I honestly cannot believe it, but Thanksgiving is next week, which means two things: we will all soon begin to loosen our belt buckles, and many those Regular Decision deadlines are only a month away! As many students have applied Early Action, decisions will be coming soon, and there is always an opportunity to add a school or two through regular decision. One school students may want to look into adding for regular decision, is Franklin & Marshall, which I was lucky enough to visit earlier this week. I wanted to give everyone a brief look into F & M and what they are all about! Academics and General Information Let's get down to the basics. Franklin & Marshall is a residential, four-year liberal arts college located in Lancaster, PA. The school has about 2,300 undergraduates and the campus screams "classic college" with vast green space and beautiful buildings and facilities spread throughout. I haven't spent much time at all in Lan

Hey Everyone, Last Friday, I was fortunate enough to visit St. Bonaventure, in up-state New York. I will give my opinion on the school later in the post, but I wanted to jump right into the facts and figures about St. Bonaventure, so enjoy! Academic and General Information St. Bonaventure is a Roman Catholic, Franciscan school of about 1,800 undergraduates, in an absolutely pristine part of our country (yes it will snow there in the winter, but it is actually not in the snow belt, so not as much as you would think). The campus is vast, with a ton of green space and trees all around the perimeter. It is a different world there compared to New York City, but for many people, this is a welcomed change of pace. Walking around campus, students were happy, kind to others, and seemed to just slow down a bit...they were taking in the beauty of their surroundings, and were focused on their academics and involvement in school activities. Academically, St. Bonaventure has four main colle

Well seniors are all definitely in the thick of things right now, as we blow through October, and head into November. Many Early Action/Decision deadlines are November 1st, and Regular Decision Deadlines are right around the corner. There is no slowing down now, and I wanted to  re-post a blog I wrote a couple of years ago. My hope is this will help students and parents to make sure they have everything covered.  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 gam

Hey Everyone, I cannot believe it, but we are actually close to the end of July, and it feels like this summer is flying by! I hope everyone has been utilizing their extra free time and traveling to a few colleges. There is still time, as most colleges will have information sessions and tours throughout August. Also, for you Xavier students, classes start late this year because of a late Labor Day, so you have even more time to visit colleges. Be on the lookout for open houses at schools across the country, as many of those occur in September and October, and most of them you will need to sign-up for in advance. Okay, with that announcement out of the way, I want to talk about my trip to Elon University earlier this month. As many of you know, I visited seven schools in Virginia and North Carolina, however, there was one that truly stood out to me, and that was Elon University. I honestly was shocked by their campus and what they have to offer to students. This is a school that is

Overall Information The last college I visited on my tour, (don't worry I will be writing about the other schools soon enough) was Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. When you ask most people in the Northeast to say something they know about this college, most will say Steph Curry. Yes Steph Curry, who recently won the NBA championship with the Golden State Warriors, graduated from Davidson and dominated the national college basketball scene. However, what people do not know is that Davidson is home to one of the very best liberal arts educational institutes in the world. You do not hear about them too much, but Davidson is an incredible place to study and turns out some of the very best and brightest every year. The school has just under 2,000 students and is located in a quaint little town of just 18,000 residents. And for being a small school in the south, they have a large presence of students from all over the country, including 20% from the Northeast. For such a

Hey Everyone, I hope the summer is going well for you and all of you rising seniors and juniors are making plans to visit colleges this summer, as you know, I feel it is the only way to truly know if the school is a right fit for you. I am currently in Williamsburg, Virginia in the middle of a 7-college tour. Yesterday, I saw the University of Virginia and the University of Richmond. Later today, I will be going down the street to check out the College of William and Mary, then I am off to Elon, UNC, Wake Forest, and Davidson to round out my trip. I will pick a few schools to blog about during this trip, so please check out the blog over the next couple of weeks, and if you have twitter, follow the Xavier Guidance Twitter account for live updates and pictures from my trip @XHSGuidance. Overall Information Today, I want to spotlight, the University of Richmond , located in Richmond, Virginia. Richmond is home to incredible academics, the Spiders as their mascot, and my wife's a

General Information The second school from my New England college tour was Trinity College  located in Hartford, CT. Trinity College is located about 2 hours from New York City, set on top of the city of Hartford on a ridiculously beautiful 100-acre campus. Trinity is also in the NESCAC athletics conference, often referred to as the "baby ivies". It is a liberal arts and sciences college, but it does house an engineering school with multiple majors. There are just about 2,300 undergraduate students, which makes in an ideal size for students looking for an intimate, but not too small college. The student to faculty ratio is 10:1, the average class size is 19 students, and over 50% of their students complete at least one internship during their time at Trinity. The majority of students come from Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York, but they have a growing number of international students, which is at about 11% right now. Their main academic buildings surround an enormous

Many of you know that I recently traveled to six New England colleges and universities to better acquaint  myself with the schools' academics, student life, location, and overall environment. I was able to tour the schools, chat with current students, and connect with admissions counselors at each stop along my trip. This was a great experience for me, as I was able to dig deep into each school, and truly understand what they are all about, and this will hopefully allow me to better guide and counselor future students going through the college search and application process. I also believe that the connections I made with the admissions counselors at each school will be invaluable in the coming years throughout this process. I am looking forward to sharing with all of you some information, personal insight, and a few pictures from each schools over the next two weeks. During my trip I visited Yale University, Trinity College, Harvard University, Boston College, Dartmouth College,

As I am set to embark on a 3-day, 6-college tour of some of the more selective private colleges in New England, I came across this article from USA Today . Recently, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont officially introduced a new bill, titled the "College for All Act", which would eliminate undergraduate tuition at all 4-year public colleges and universities. Also, for all of those people who have graduated from college and are currently swimming in debt, the bill would also decrease interest rates on student loans, from 4.32 to 2.32%. This article describes how the bill would work, and the benefits for everyone. Please check it out, and let's all hope that this bill is a reality one day, or at least that the price of college gets under control. Enjoy the article, and as always, happy searching! Joseph D. Korfmacher, MA

As a reader of Mr. K's College Knowledge, you know that this blog is dedicated to helping each student find the school that is right for him or her based on a number of factors, including academic offerings, social scene, cost and more. Yesterday, MSNBC's Morning Joe featured Memphis high school student Ronald Nelson who was recently accepted to all eight Ivy League schools - and then turned down the opportunity to attend each one. In the interview, Ronald says that receiving his many acceptance letters was "just the next step in my analysis to figure out where to get the best education possible while making sure that it's financially reasonable for both me and my family." He went on to say that he was not only accepted into a "wonderful honors program" at the University of Alabama, the school he ultimately chose to attend, but also received generous financial aid awards - both important factors into his decision-making. In this case, Ronald will b

General Information Another stop on my college tour was at Fairfield University , located in Fairfield, Connecticut. Fairfield is a private, liberal arts school with just under 4,000 total undergraduates. It is located on an absolutely pristine campus with views of the Long Island Sound. The 200-acre campus is in the suburbs, but students are only minutes from city life and the beach, and only about 90 minutes from New York City.   The campus has green rolling hills throughout, which creates a perfect place for students to study, throw the frisbee, or just take a nap. When I was there, I even saw the archery club setting up for a practice. Also, it is hard to miss the turkeys that call Fairfield home throughout the year, so watch out for them when walking the campus! To me, it is a perfect mix of nature, wide open spaces, but the campus is in close proximity to downtown and beaches, for students to have fun during their time at school. Fairfield University is one of the 28 Jesuit Uni