Mr. K's College Knowledge

Two weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to visit Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. To ensure I stay on top of the world of college admissions, I often visit universities across the country, but this was my first ever international college trip. International college admissions has been increasing in the United States in recent years, and after this trip, I began to truly understand why this was happening. Bocconi University is a large urban university in the heart of Milan, which is a European business, financial and cultural hub, where history merges with modernity, and tradition with innovation. Bocconi reminds me of NYU, except the students are dressed better and the gelato is unbelievably tasty! Bocconi students have the luxury of a beautiful urban campus, located right next to an expansive park, and they are only 10 minutes from center city Milan. Walking around campus, I could easily tell that the students were serious about their academics, and had...

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...

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...

Hey Everyone, Boy, it is cold out there, but the class of 2018 is really heating it up with their college acceptances (corny I know, blame it on the cabin fever)! If you missed the latest addition of the Xavier E-news, one of the articles highlighted the early college acceptances for our seniors. I wanted to re-post the article here, for all to see. Take care, and enjoy the read...hopefully under a blanket! Class of 2018 Shines in Early Round of College Admissions In this year’s early round of college admissions, Xavier’s Class of 2018 distinguished itself with great success. "With early admissions in the rearview mirror, the Class of 2018 now has their eyes set on regular admissions, where decisions most often come out in March and April,” said Director of College Counseling  Joseph Korfmacher . “In the meantime, it is important to celebrate the early successes of this talented class. Our seniors have already reported over 400 college acceptances and close to $9,000,000 in...

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...

Hey Everyone! With Thanksgiving only two days away, the Christmas music will be starting in just three days. It is hard to believe, but we can now see the end of the college application season, with January 1st being one of the biggest college deadlines. January through the end of April will be filled with a lot of joy as acceptance letters roll in, and seniors begin making their plans for collegiate life in the fall of 2018. January, into the early months of spring also mean another thing in the world of college admissions: the cycle begins again for current juniors, as this will be the time the majority of juniors begin taking the standardized college entrance exams: ACT and SAT. Although a growing number of colleges are going test-optional , which means they do not require (really!) SAT or ACT scores to be considered for admissions or scholarship money, the vast majority of colleges still use scores as a major part of the admissions process. Below, I will first give you a f...

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...

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 ...

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, I had the pleasure of speaking with a representative from the University of East Anglia yesterday, and it sounds like a great opportunity for students potentially looking to study abroad. University of East Anglia is a medium sized university in the relatively small city of Norwich, England. For many, it can be tough to imagine going to college anywhere but in the United States, but it is important to have an open mind, and consider options outside of the states. For one, it can be CONSIDERABLY cheaper to study abroad, and it is a great opportunity to be immersed in a completely different culture and environment, and students can get some of the best education in countries outside the U.S. Below you will find a few highlights of the University of East Anglia and their website, so take a look, give it some thought, and truly imagine yourself completing your undergraduate years in another part of the world! UEA is located in a quintessential English city, very cozy,...