Good morning!

Two non-political announcements today:

1 .We're hitting the airwaves this morning -- 10:00am EST --  for College Coffee Talk, our live show about college admissions and financial aid news that you can use!  

Today's topic:  "Hidden" Common Application Tips.  Here's where to join us at 10am EST (recorded if you can't make it).

2. Tonight, our head tutor Marissa is conducting a live test prep strategies presentation, 5 Score-Killing SAT and ACT Prep Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.  Here's where to sign up for tonight's free class

Grab a cup of joe and we'll see you at one or both events today (each will be recorded)

- Andy "Two Times the Fun" Lockwood

Good morning!

We're hitting the airwaves this morning -- 10:00am EST --  for College Coffee Talk, our live show about college admissions and financial aid news that you can use!  

Here's what's on tap for today:

*Mistakes to avoid on the Common Application Activities section, and

*More FAFSA problems expected this fall. (Ugh.)

Tune In!

Grab a cup of joe and we'll see you at 10am EST (recorded if you can't make it)

- Andy Lockwood

Hi Ajay,

The Common Application opens tomorrow, August 1.  Senior year of high school for 2025 graduates is only a few weeks out.

If your kiddo's college essay writing efforts are, ahem, less than stellar and/or less than productive, you may want to do something about it before it's too late.

Otherwise, you're in for a month of three of stress, high blood pressure and fighting with your child over the d-mn essays and applications. 

Not fun.

We currently have five (5) spots left for the College Essay Lab, our service that is focused on helping your son or daughter write an essay that "sells".

An essay that advocates, persuasively, why he or she should be picked out of the "sea of sameness" of tens of thousands of near-identical (on paper) competitors.

The personal statement, and supplemental essays, are your child's last, best chance to make the case why he or she deserves to get in.

The Invisible Question

You won't find it anywhere on the Common Application, but this...

I'm going to go a bit negative this morning, if you'll indulge me.

This time of year, it's rare for a day to go by without having to break bad news.  We get several calls and emails per week from Class of 2024, high school senior families, looking for help with appealing wait lists or rejections from colleges.  And more requests for help negotiating financial aid and merit aid offers.

We have to turn down 9 out of 10 of these requests.

The worst part is that an alarmingly high percentage of inquiries come from moms or dads who have followed us -- reading these emails, attending our webinars and in-person workshops, even speaking to us 1:1 -- since last year, or longer.  Had they retained us a year or two earlier, we could have helped them avoid the pickles they're currently in.

It all could have been avoided.

Tonight, I'm doing one of my last presentations of the year for Rising Seniors -- yes, that means current 11th graders, but not for long -- to help you...

Good morning!

We're hitting the airwaves this morning -- 10:00am EST --  for College Coffee Talk, our live show about college admissions and financial aid news that you can use!  

Here's what's on tap for today:

*How college protests affect families' decisions

F*AFSA mistakes continue

Tune In!

Grab a cup of joe and we'll see you at 10am EST (recorded if you can't make it)

- Andy Lockwood

Tutoring | Appeal Your Award

I never do this, but I wanted you to look over my shoulder for this client conversation about the anti-Israel protests.  Actually, this is a mash up of three-four similar conversations I've had in the past few days with Class of 2024 families.

The gist of the conversations:  I'm reluctant to put down a housing deposit at [college] because of the out-of-control, anti-Israel, antisemitic protests.  What do you think?

Obviously this is guesswork, but I'll share my thoughts.

First, I hope and suspect that, as the academic year winds down and ends and college kids return home, the protests at most colleges will organically peter out.   I would guess that the summer reprieve will give college administrations time to discuss and implement actions to ensure order on campus in the fall, unlike what's happening at Columbia.

This may be a bit of a leap, but I don't think we'll see as much strife on campus next year. But of course...

12 College Application Tips Webinar 

Today I read how Vanderbilt University is apparently a few bucks shy of being the first college to cost $100,000 per year, all in (tuition, room and board, fees).  Officially.

Unofficially, this happened a few years ago, if you count unofficial expenses, such as Ubers, reasonable travel expenses, beer money, Door Dash etc. that kids spend Ma and Pa's money on (note to my three college kids:  there's nothing wrong with peanut butter sandwiches once in a while).

Like the college admissions process, there's no apparent rhyme or reason to a lot of this process.  Why should a non-Ivy college in Tennessee run you more out of pocket than an Ivy League school located in insanely high cost of living Manhattan?

I'm sure someone from Vanderbilt could explain that, but they'd be twisting themselves into knots to do so as far as I'm concerned.

Incidentally, it's not just Vandy that's pushing the 100K envelope:  it's virtually all...

12 College Application Tips Webinar

We're scant days away from the "final" college acceptances, denials and waitlists for this year's crop of college applicants in The Most Confusing College Application Season ever.

Which means that I now have enough intel to share the following tips with Class of 2025 families, in a brand new webinar, Thursday night:

• How to get into a decent college, today
• How to construct a strategic and balanced college list
• How to avoid "Admissions Armageddon"
• How to answer one of the new supplemental essays about diversity even if you don't feel or look particularly diverse
• How to earn a 30K per year merit scholarship even if you didn't cure a pandemic or single-handedly build a village in a third world country
• Test-Optional:  To Opt or Not to Opt (yeah I know that one doesn't quite make sense but you know what I'm trying to say)
• The New Digital SAT:  right for your kiddo?
• Merit Scholarships:  how to get 'em without spending six months on stupid...

Nary a week goes by without a question about a summer program, service trip opportunity or other similar queries.  Here are my thoughts:

The world of extracurricular activities is divided into two parts:  Typical and Atypical.  Nothing against typical activities, but they won't move the proverbial college application needle.  Examples:

Playing a sport is great for many reasons, but unless you're a recruited athlete, it will not help your kid get in anywhere.  He doesn't have to step up his private tennis or fencing lessons to six times per week for college application purposes.

Being a member of National Honor Society is nice, but if your child qualifies, she will be joining the rarefied air of the top 70% of her peers.  Not a game changer for the college apps.  It's a participation trophy.

Enrolling in a service trip to Hawaii, the Dominican Republic or some other tropical paradise requiring travel by air -- instead of offering your...

Tutoring | Bootcamp

Hello my College Planning Amigo,

During College Application Season, it’s unusual for a month to go by without a parent asking me whether they should check the “yes” box on the Common App, to indicate that they want to be considered for financial aid.

What do you think?  Will it hurt your odds of getting in?  Or…

Is that the right question?  Here are my thoughts.

Most colleges are “need aware.”  Meaning, they consider whether you need financial aid as ONE of the 25 ish factors that go into a college application.

So whether you need aid or not isn’t a make or break question across the board.  However, it definitely is one of the considerations that could get you in or keep you out when it comes down to the wire, when admissions committees are making their final cuts.

On the other hand, a relatively small number of colleges, typically Ivy and other elite private colleges, purport to be...