Mr. K's College Knowledge

Key Stats: ·           Location : Macon, Georgia (about an hour southeast of Atlanta) ·           Type : Private University, in a defined campus surrounded by the small city of Macon ·           Size : Just about 3,300 total undergraduates ·           The total  cost of attendance  is just over $51,000 per year , but Mercer University does offer an abundance of financial aid and merit scholarships.  MU awards nearly $20,000,000 to incoming students each year, with more than 90% of the entire school population receiving scholarships. Mercer has also recently been recognized as a Top 25 "Best Value School" in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Admissions Stats: Mercer University  is a medium sized selective university, whose students represent 39 states and 36 countries...

It is great to write that New York has become the first state in the country to offer free college tuition for middle-class residents. Middle-class students can now attend State Universities and City Universities, both 4-year and 2-year colleges, tuition free beginning in September 2017! For this upcoming year, students who are in families that make under $100,000 per year are eligible for free tuition, and by 2019 that amount will go up to $125,000 per year. Besides meeting the financial requirements, students must also enroll full-time at their college (30 credits per year) and they must live and work in New York state for as many years as they received the scholarship. If they do not, their scholarship will be transferred to a loan. Also, it is important to know that this scholarship just includes tuition , students who choose to live on campus, will still be responsible for paying for room and board. This is a step in the right direction to make college more affordable for ...

Last weekend, I flew to Boston, and took a bus 30 minutes to Easton, Massachusetts to visit Stonehill College . I spent two days there, learning about their community, academics, and meeting students, administration, and faculty. It was a wonderful opportunity to truly engulf myself and get a true understanding of what Stonehill College is all about. While there, there were a few key values about the school that became very clear; the Stonehill community is a family, where students receive an incredible education, are friendly to others, and truly want to help others, while improving themselves along the way. Stonehill has a quintessential New England campus on over 400 acres, where students are genuinely happy to be and receive a top notch education. Here’s everything you need to know about Stonehill College, plus my personal perspective below. Key Stats: Ø   Stonehill is a Catholic, Private, Holy Cross institution (same as Notre Dame) Ø   Stonehill opened in ...

Hey Everyone, As November 1st nears, seniors (and counselors) are officially in the thick of it all...sending out applications, getting back the latest SAT and ACT scores, and finalizing the college lists. It is a very exciting time, but a little scary as well...take a breath though, we will all get through it! For juniors, you are just beginning to think about potential colleges, and starting to line up your own SAT and ACT schedule...the possibilities are endless right now, so enjoy this time! I think at times we imagine admissions counselors to be these mythological people that live in a far away play, deciding the fate of our youth. In reality, admissions counselors are real people, with similar lives to all of us...some even have their own children going through the college application process! The New York Times recently interviewed a few admissions counselors from colleges across the country to ask them the type of advice they are giving their own teenagers who are applying ...

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 ·       ...

Here we are...October 4th, and the applications are flying and the confusion is intense. With so many different college deadlines, application types, writing supplements, and forms that need to be completed, I'd imagine students and parents are already wishing the college application process was over! Well, while the college process will not be official over until May 1st, I do have some good news. For the first time, the FAFSA is now open well before January 1st. You may be wondering why this is a good thing...just more paperwork right? Well that is true, but in the long run, this should be a benefit to students and families...hopefully. For the 2017-2018 college academic year, families can now complete the FAFSA using their 2015 tax return. In the past, families would need to wait until after January 1st, file their taxes, then use that year's information to complete the FAFSA. This would only give school's a month or so to receive the information and send families a ...

Hey y'all, I recently took a trip to Texas to visit 8 colleges and universities. I have never been to Texas, and was very excited to see what the environment was like there, and to learn more about some of their excellent landing spots for higher education. I honestly loved each school I saw, but today I want to briefly talk about my visit to TCU in Fort Worth. On Monday, I will write about my visit to St. Edward's University in Austin. These are two very different schools, but both are places I would feel more than comfortable sending future students. So I don't like playing favorites, but if I had to do it all over again (sorry Saint Joe's), I think I would enroll at Texas Christian University , most commonly known as TCU. It's important to know, that even though the 'C' in TCU stands for Christian, TCU is an independent school and is no longer governed by a Christian denomination. However, TCU does still maintain a strong relationship with the church ...

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...

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 ...

Last week, I visited 10 colleges and universities in Connecticut and New York. Over the next two weeks, I will discuss my thoughts on these schools, share valuable information, and post a few pictures from each school. The first school I want to share with you is Marist College, located in Poughkeepsie, New York. Located only 2 hours north of New York City, it is situated on a beautiful 200 acre campus on the banks of the Hudson River. As soon as you pull off the main road onto their campus, you are struck by the beauty of their surroundings. Lately, Marist has put a lot of time and money into their campus and buildings, and it shows. Most of the buildings are a similar color of gray stone, all of the Division 1 sports fields are located throughout the campus, and their center of school is a gorgeous lawn on a small hill facing the Hudson River. General Information Marist College has just under 4,800 students, which is a really nice size, and boasts a 16:1 student to faculty rati...

I wanted to share with you this very powerful and well written New York Times article on college admissions at the most selective colleges and how this can be a damaging process to students across the world, but it doesn't need to be. It explains how ridiculously competitive it is to gain admission to the top colleges in the country, but how students should not feel as if they have to attend the top 25 colleges in order to be successful. It shares personal stories about young men and women who were denied admission to the most selective colleges, went on to "second tier" schools, and were extremely successful at school and in their careers. These students turned the rejections into a learning experience and propelled them into taking full advantage of all of the opportunities that the school that did accept them offered. I personally am a strong believer in finding the right fit of a college for each student, and the name of a college really does not mean much to me. S...

We are all familiar with the high costs associated with pursuing a college education. But remember, there are many options out there to collect scholarships and financial aid. And some are more out-of-the-box that you may expect. Take Raise.me for example. I recently had the opportunity to meet with a Raise.me rep, a new organization that is partnering with colleges across the country to help families rack up "micro-scholarships" against the astronomical costs of higher education. Starting in 9th grade, students can accrue these small, conditional scholarships from colleges for accomplishments such as getting an 'A' in science class, making the Varsity swim team, being involved in community service, partaking in various extracurricular activities, and much more. If you wind up attending a school you've selected through Raise.me, the micro scholarships you've built up will be applied to your tuition. The process is very simple; go to their website , creat...

Bentley University - This is a fantastic school right outside of Boston, which specializes in Business, but is not just limited to this concentration. Bentley has an extremely high-tech campus with seven officially high-tech buildings and they even have a 3-D printer accessible for student use. The student population of 4,200 allows for small class sizes and personal relationships with professors. Bentley is a very active campus with 80% of the students participating in varsity or club sports, and 80% of students choose to live on the beautiful green campus all four years. Their top three majors are management, marketing, and finance, and business students have access to one of the nation’s best trading rooms on a college campus. Business students are given real money from the college to trade with and learn from. With career preparation and readiness at the forefront of Bentley’s mission, they are happy to report that 98% of seniors in the past few years have been placed in jobs or a...