Mr. K's College Knowledge

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...

S o you are officially a senior...this is exciting right? Only one more year of high school and then you are off to pursue the major of your choice at hopefully the college of your choosing! Although many students would like the college application process to be over already, you still have many months left. Some of the more important months throughout this process are June, July and August. The summer is a crucial time to prepare, search, and begin to formalize your college application plans. It is definitely not a time to sit around and do nothing. So look at these following tips on ways you can best utilize your summer days to best prepare yourself for the fall when you finally apply to college! Get Involved:  Depending on the selectiveness of the colleges you are applying to, admissions counselors are looking for applicants who have done something positive during their time off. Whether it is traveling, taking a pre-college summer class, volunteering, or working, make sure...

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 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 ...

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 ac...

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...

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...

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,...