Are There "Safety Schools" Anymore?
Summer is a good time for rising seniors to finalize their college list. But this is easier said than done.
Most kids are in the dark about how to create a BALANCED list of colleges. This happens for two reasons:
1. Kids and guidance counselors rely on misleading software like Naviance or SCOIR, neither of which take into account the 20-25 factors admissions officers consider beyond GPA and standardized test scores (and compare you only to others in your high school, when your TRUE competition is across the country, even out of the country)
2. Kids and parents typically aim high, filling their list with Ivy League and near Ivy colleges, without understanding their TRUE chances of acceptance, when compared to actual data based on ALL of the students admitted in the previous year, across 25 academic and non-academic factors.
Related: there's an assumption that, if your son or daughter manages to get into an Ivy or equivalent, they're all set and the rest of their lives will be smooth as silk.
The only thing wrong with that assumption is that it's completely false and unproven.
OK, back to the topic at hand: the college list. One of the big benefits of our Get College Ready Bootcamp, as expressed by past attendees over 10 years, is help handicapping each student's TRUE, ACCURATE odds of acceptance -- using a tool that analyzes how they stack up in 25 areas -- such as rigor of schedule, whether applying Early Decision, whether majoring in Engineering or Computer Science (harder majors), race and ethnicity (yep, still) -- in comparison against EVERYONE admitted by each college.
Once you get accurate information, you can take action to ensure your child has plenty of college choices next Spring.
And that they avoid "Admissions Armageddon.," my term to describe the unfortunate situation when kids get denied by all or almost all of their colleges, including the ones they felt were "safeties."
We can also help identify which colleges are likely to offer merit aid. That alone can make the price of the bootcamp meaningless, when you look at the ROBI (Return on Bootcamp Investment).
Finally, just yesterday (did you miss it?), I announced a brand new bonus, hot off the presses:
Free Preparation of Your FAFSA
This may sound too good to be true, but it's not. However, there is one catch:
Registration shuts down this weekend. To get this bonus and all of the other valuable advice, you must enroll in the bootcamp before the countdown clock expires.
If you're interested, and you want to avoid a near-certain summer of your child's analysis paralysis about what to write his essays about, your screaming at and threatening him to just do his applications already and other inevitable tension and hyper tension, my best advice is to not make this a buzzer beater.
Let us take over this important project. Enroll now and feel better instantly.
10% Off Scholarship: Use the coupon code BOOT-10 or BOOT-10EZ for the 1-pay or 5 pay options, when you click on the blue button, below (just wait for the shopping cart to update).
- Andy "Last Call" Lockwood
P.S. Let me talk to Class of 2025 families personally, not so much as a college advisor, but as a parent of four. Like you, Pearl and I did a TON of stuff for our kids before they hit 12th grade: countless dollars and hours of our lives driving and sometimes flying them all over for their sports, performances, camps, tutors and other "enrichment" activities.
Now your child is about to enter the most stressful, critical juncture of their young lives: college.
This isn't the time to drop the ball. It's not the tie to let them wing it.
Things are far more complicated than when you and I went to college. If you're in a position to be able to help them, you should take a long look at all of the valuable help we offer in the bootcamp.
And our private 1:1 consulting, if you prefer, or have a younger child (grades 9 and up).
P. P.S. You can read up on everything covered at the bootcamp, but here are the highlights:
*15 sessions from the end of June through the beginning of August to give your kiddo EVERY OPPORTUNITY to get the essays and applications D-O-N-E and out the door (every opportunity, meaning no excuses not to)
*Work with me and our highly trained, highly overeducated essay editors from Ivy League colleges brainstorm, strategize, edit and polish their essays
*Work with an actual real life admissions officer from a competitive New York metropolitan area liberal arts college who has personally reviewed more than 10,000 applications over his career...so your son or daughter doesn't have to guess what admissions officers are looking for.
There's more. Check it out here.
