Mr. K's College Knowledge

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...

Key Stats: ·           Location : Santa Clara, California (about an hour from San Francisco, and right next to San Jose) ·           Type : Private, Catholic Jesuit University, in a defined campus with a suburban surrounding ·           Size : Just about 5,500 total undergraduates ·           The total  cost of attendance  is just over $64,000 per year, but SCU does offer a good amount of financial aid and merit based scholarships .  Admissions Stats: Santa Clara University is a top ranked university in the country, and is a fairly selective school to get into. Last year, SCU had almost 16,000 applications and accepted about 7,600 students for an acceptance rate of 48%. Their average SAT score range for accepted students is: 1270-1450 and the average ACT score range for accepted ...

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...

Hey Everyone, Visiting colleges is the single most important part of the college decision process. It is so important for students (and parents) to get on campus, walk around, see the people, and experience the environment...both physical and social. Whether you are a senior trying to figure out which college is best for you to attend from the ones you were accepted, a junior beginning to visit colleges on your list, or a sophomore/freshmen just beginning to get a taste for college, visiting schools is a must. Almost all colleges allow for visits throughout the school year and summer. When scheduling a college visit, you will want to try to attend an information session and a campus tour. This can be done by going to the college website, and to their admissions page. Most of the time you can select from a set of dates and times that work best for you. Then all you have to do is show-up on time and let the college take care of the rest. You can learn a lot about a school from thei...

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...

January is a great time in college admissions. Most of the Early Decision and Early Action decisions have come in, and seniors’ college landscapes are starting to be filled in. The majority of students have finally finished all applications, and will be patiently waiting for those regular decisions to come in, most likely in March or April. Many students are 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! 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 competitive students. With more students applying to college within our country and across the world, many college application numbers are going through th...

Hey Everyone, This is a post from last year that I thought would be good to recycle...enjoy! 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 lik...

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 ...

For the past decade, there has been two main avenues to apply to college: the Common Application and applying through the college website. Well, it's about to time to add a third option in there, as the Coalition Application has opened for business for the 2016-2017 college application year. In this post, I want to help students and parents understand what the Coalition is all about and how/when/if it should be used during the college process. We will all know much more as the fall approaches, but as of June, 2016, this is what I know... What is this Coalition: The official name of the Coalition is " The Coalition for Access and Affordability ". This idea was put into motion two years ago when the Common Application infamously crashed during the peak application season, causing students, school counselors, and admissions professionals to basically panic. It was not a pretty scene, and a few top colleges began thinking of new ways to improve the entire application proces...

Most people associate USC with the University of Southern California, but people in the south will tell you the real USC is the University of South Carolina . I mean it was founded 79 years before Southern California, so I could see why some people get fired up about who gets to call themselves USC. Regardless, the University of South Carolina is one of the finest and oldest public institutions in the nation, founded way back in 1801. U of South Carolina is located in the Capitol City of Columbia, South Carolina and educates just under 25,000 students. When I toured the school a few weeks ago, I was extremely impressed with the layout of the campus, and the very strong academic profile of the school. This is a place we are seeing more and more students go to and I can definitely understand why it is so appealing to our students. Academics and Cost The University of South Carolina is growing at a rapid pace, with new buildings popping up all over campus, such as their brand new, sta...