Mr. K's College Knowledge

March Madness most commonly refers to that pretty big NCAA basketball tournament that catches our attention for a few weeks, but it can also describe this time of year in college admissions. The last two weeks of March is generally when most colleges send out their decision letters to anxious, yet hopeful seniors, dreaming about celebrating acceptances to their top choices. However, over the years, as more and more students apply to colleges with the ease of the Common Application and Coalition, not to mention an increase of international students, many colleges have become much more competitive. Schools that would have been a slam dunk admit in years past, are becoming as tough to get into as sinking a half court shot. Because of this, and looking towards the future, knowing that it will most likely continue to become more and more selective, it is essential to find colleges that are less selective, but still have everything you need in a college to be happy. When crafting a college...

Hey Everyone, A big part of the college process for most families is finding a way to pay for the cost of tuition, room and board, meals, books, travel, and other expenses. If the total cost of college isn't terrifying enough, the search and application process for scholarships certainly is daunting, to say the least. Most colleges will offer merit scholarships to students just for applying to college and getting accepted, but for the majority of students, there is still a gap that needs to be met, and financial aid does not usually cover all of that. So because of that, most students are forced to sift through hundreds of outside scholarships, find out which ones they are eligible for and then spend hours completing the scholarship application, often requiring a ton of personal information and writing samples. This hard work often can result in receiving free money to use toward's college expenses, but in general, the entire process is arduous, time consuming, and students...

With the Holiday Season upon us, so is the early admissions notification season. Students have begun receiving many acceptances, academic scholarships, financial aid packages, and students are finally starting to see themselves at one or two specific colleges…reality is beginning to set in! A percentage of students have even been accepted to their Early Decision (binding) school and now know where they will be attending in the fall of 2018...how exciting!  However, even though there are a ton of good things happening now, many students also received unpleasant decisions from colleges in the early round with either denials or deferrals. From my desk, the trend continues of schools becoming more and more difficult to get into, even for the most accomplished students. With more young men and women applying to college within our country and across the world, many college application numbers continue to go through the roof, meaning more students will be denied or deferred than ever b...

I graduated from high school in 2004, and while it is upsetting that the students I am advising in the college process now, were in diapers at that time, it really was not that long ago (or at least I keep telling myself that). I graduated from Westfield High School in New Jersey, a very competitive public school of about 400 students per grade. Myself included, pretty much everyone in the school applied to around six colleges, all of which were in the United States or Canada. Applying to international colleges was never a consideration, I mean why would it be...there are thousands of amazing schools in America, why travel across the ocean just for your college degree? The thinking was always that students from other countries are the ones who need to come to the American colleges, not vice versa. Well, in the past 14 years there has been a gradual rise in American students attending colleges and universities in other countries. Even more, in the past three years, I have personally s...

Seniors & Families, It is almost October 1st...and as a college counselor, that only means one thing. No not football, apple picking, or the leaves changing...it means deadlines! We have been talking about college admissions and the application process for close to a year now...and now the first deadlines are around the corner...we can see them, and for some, that can make us very nervous! But no need to worry, you got this!  You have your list of colleges, you are working through the applications, you are ready to send your SAT/ACT scores, and you talked to your teacher months ago in order for her to commit to writing your letter...right? Many already have a teacher committed to writing a letter, others are just learning they need a teacher recommendation letter as they are reading this. If you fall in the latter category, don't freak out, but right now is the time to find a teacher and ask (beg) for a letter.  You may be asking yourself, why do colleges need lett...

Hey Everyone, While summer break is almost here, the college news and updates never end! Since Penn State is a popular out-of-state public university for students in the New York/New Jersey area, I thought it would be helpful to share their latest application information. Penn State has always used their own college application, which has been pretty simple for students and counselors to operate, and they really have not changed much in recent memory. However, for the fall of 2017, Penn State will make two big changes to their application process. First, they will no longer request that high school officials send in the student transcript. Instead, students will be asked to self-report their grades. Other public schools do this, such as Rutgers and University of South Carolina, and is fairly simple. On the application, students will input each course and their grade received for all three years, and the senior year courses in which they are enrolled. Then if the student is accept...

As I look out my window at the snow, sleet, and freezing rain pummeling my sidewalk, I am wishing I was back in sunny California, on the top of a hill, looking at the city of San Francisco go on and on towards the ocean. The sky is a vibrant blue, with a slight chill in the breeze. Surrounded by eager college students on the move, I could definitely picture myself here as an undergraduate student at the University of San Francisco. USF has a beautiful and manageable campus with epic views of the Bay Area...with restaurants, shops, museums, and not to mention the countless tech industry companies within walking distance, University of San Francisco seems like an ideal place to study, grow, and prepare for a successful career. Here’s everything you need to know about University of San Francisco , plus my personal perspective below. Key Figures: University of San Francisco was opened in 1855, and was the first university in San Francisco. USF is one of the 28 Jesuit universiti...

Last week, I had the opportunity to travel to Northern California with about 50 other Jesuit High School, college counselors. We had a wonderful conference, talking about all of the updates in college admissions, and then we visited six colleges and universities (U of Pacific, U of San Francisco, Cal-Berkeley, St. Mary's College, Stanford U, and Santa Clara U). They varied in size, environment, program offerings, and rigor. Usually on big trips like these there are one or two schools that I am not a fan of...not on this trip though, as they were all awesome. I could honestly see many students from the east coast taking the 5 1/2 hour plane ride to either San Francisco or San Jose to any of the six schools I visited. Over the next few weeks, I will try to write about each college and give my feedback...and of course, add some of my pictures! The first school I want to discuss is probably the least well known of the six, University of Pacific, located in Stockton, California. He...

We are quickly heading towards February, and the college application season has been long, and draining. You most likely have put hours upon hours of your life researching, visiting, contemplating, and applying to colleges. This is a huge decision, and all the hard work will pay off. However, if you are not satisfied with your college list, you do not just have to settle with what you have now. There is still time to search for and apply to colleges across the country. Yes, January 15th was a big day for regular decision deadlines, but there are still hundreds of great colleges and universities that are still accepting applications. If you are not satisfied with your college list, or you have been accepted into a few colleges, but the the financial aid award letter doesn't offer as much as you like, keep looking. There are still a ton of schools that have deadlines in February, March, April, and even some that are rolling admissions and go into the summer. Below I will list a s...

During the last week of summer, I was lucky enough to be invited to Lafayette College along with four other NYC college counselors. I hopped into a minivan with the four counselors, and the Lafayette College admissions representative behind the wheel, and an hour and twenty minutes later I arrived in Easton, PA to Lafayette’s beautiful suburban campus.  I spent the day there, learning more about the school’s academics, admissions, and overall community. Here’s everything you need to know about Lafayette College, plus my personal perspective below. Key Stats: ·          Location : Easton, Pennsylvania (the first exit leaving New Jersey) ·          Type : Medium-sized, private liberal arts college with a very strong engineering program ·          Size : 2,500 students in a residential campus/suburban setting ·       ...

Hey Everyone, I hope you are all enjoying the last month of your summer! I wanted to share with you a past Xavier student's recount of his college process, to hopefully help you as rising juniors and seniors. Below is the college process of Sal LaRussa '15 and his advice for all students going through it now. Enjoy! When many students begin the process of applying to college they are nervous, confused, and do not know what they want to do with the rest of their lives which is completely acceptable. This was true for me as well, and I hope to explain my college process and advice that I have for students. My college process first began when I received letters sophomore year from many colleges and I was completely confused. I had just gotten comfortable at Xavier and now I felt I was being kicked out. I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life so I continued to keep up my grades and study. Junior year came by and I began studying for the SAT. Many of my friends were ...

Being on the waitlist at one of your top choice colleges is never a fun time. Students have worked so hard, and have already waited so long for a decision, just to hear that…they have to wait a little longer. However, if you have been put on the waitlist at your dream school, it is not the worse news in the world, as it is better than being straight-up denied. There are a few important things you should know about the waitlist, also known as the purgatory of college admissions… 1) Put a deposit elsewhere! You never quite know when or if you will hear that you have been taken off the waitlist. Often, you will not hear back from the waitlist until after May 1 st , as this is national deposit day. Schools will see what percentage of the students they have accepted will be attending their school. If the number reaches their goal freshmen enrollment, schools will not go to their waitlist. However, if they are low, they will move to their waitlist and start notifying students they have...

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

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...

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...