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Applying For Financial Aid

If your son or daughter is going to college, then you already know that you need to apply for financial aid. What you may not know is that there are two different financial aid applications.

First, let’s talk about the application everyone needs to fill out before we talk about the application some of you will need.

The FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It’s the application that is required by every college in order to consider and then award financial aid to your son or daughter. The FAFSA is free and while it will take some time to fill out, if you organize yourself ahead of time it will be much easier.

The FAFSA is a smart form which you will find very helpful. Based on the information you enter, the FAFSA customizes the questions so that you only need to answer questions that pertain to your individual situation.

While everyone needs to fill out the FAFSA, based on colleges you are applying to, some of you may also need to fill out the CSS Profile.

The Profile is only required by a couple hundred private schools in addition to some scholarship programs. Unlike the FAFSA, the Profile is not free. It will cost you $16 to register and then an additional $9 per school for each school to which you send the form.

Starting your Profile application is a two-step process. First, you must register. And you must do this in one shot. There’s no saving and going back, so get your documents and information together first, register for the Profile, and then complete the applications.

To help yourself out with the FAFSA and the CSS Profile, you will want to collect the following before you get started:

Student’s social security number
Student’s driver’s license number
Statements for checking and savings accounts
Copy of last year’s tax return and W-2’s
Statements for any investment accounts
Current mortgage statement (Profile only)

Both applications go live on October 1^st so it’s important to start your financial aid application planning now. While the college admissions process is about to take center stage for the next couple months, it’s also time to think about the financial end of things. It can get complicated with college visits, prepping for the ACT and SAT, completing applications and looking at the financial picture.

If you want some help and guidance to make sure you’re doing it right, set up an appointment today for a free consultation.

Eric Aug 28, 2013 College Admissions, College Advising, College Board, College Costs, CSS Profile, Dobler College Consulting, EFC, Eric Dobler, FAFSA, Financial Aid, how to pay for college, Net Price Calculators, Paying For College, Tuition No Comments

Blog, College Admissions, Experiential Learning

Four Ways To Explore Careers

Considering I went to college with no idea of what I wanted to do, I spend a lot of time talking with my students about how they will make the most of college. I don’t expect them to have their life’s plan mapped out and ready to be laminated, but I do expect that they are ready to talk about their VIPS and how they can help direct them toward a major and, ultimately, a career path.

However, talking about career ideas will only get you so far.

So, here’s a few ideas on how you can get past talking and actually get into trying on mode:

Informational Interviews

Let’s say you’ve been thinking about being a lawyer but you don’t know what kind of law you would like to practice. Well, there’s no shortage of lawyers in any town or city so start calling up law firms and ask if any of the lawyers would be interested in being interviewed about what they do. Go in with a lot of great questions and you can learn a lot very quickly.

Job Shadows

While an informational interview can help you gather information, a job shadow is a great way to try on a profession for a day or two. Staying with the lawyer example, reach out to your family and friends (otherwise known as networking) to see if they know any lawyers. Then, ask for an introduction where you can ask about shadowing for a day or two to learn more about what they do.

Volunteering

If the job shadow goes well and you find yourself even more interested in being a lawyer than you did before you started exploring, volunteering some of your time now to help out around the office can be a great way to learn more and, ultimately, earn an internship, or part-time job later on. As a volunteer the tasks will be small, but the overall experience, interaction and networking can be incredibly valuable.

Summer Programs on College Campuses

They don’t come cheap, but some colleges host summer programs for high school students to explore career paths more in-depth. For aspiring lawyers, the Penn Pre-Law Summer Program lasts for an entire month and includes tuition, housing, meals, materials and weekend trips. A program like this should only be pursued if the previous three options have been exhausted.

Want some help navigating the college admissions journey? Give me a call now at 203.525.4096 or email me at eric@doblercollegeconsulting.com to schedule a FREE 60-minute consultation to discuss your college counseling needs.

Eric Aug 04, 2013 College Admissions, College Advising, Dobler College Consulting, Eric Dobler, Experiential Learning, informational interviews, job shadows No Comments

Blog, College Admissions, Essays

How To Write Your Essay For Common App Prompts #3, #4 And #5

If you’re trying to work through your Common App Essay, you’re in the right place. Last week I talked about How To Write Your Essay For Common App Prompts #1 and #2. Today, I’m going to cover prompts #3, #4 and #5.

Prompt #3: Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?

This prompt is a tricky one because it only works for you if you actually challenged something AND it affected you in some way. With multiple keywords here, REFLECT ON A TIME, PROMPTED YOU TO ACT and WOULD YOU MAKE THE SAME DECISION AGAIN you have to make sure you hit on all three. Just wishing you had acted on something or not really knowing why you acted on something isn’t going to cut it.

This prompt gives you a chance to talk about your VIPS and can show that you have the ability to think critically about things that are bigger than you. Admission counselors like it when their students can demonstrate qualities like this.

Prompt #4: Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?

I really like this prompt because I think it allows for so much creative freedom if, and I stress if, the story is told well enough. The first set of keywords, PLACE OR ENVIRONMENT leaves a lot to interpretation. Is this a place you physically go to like your living room couch or somewhere less tangible than that? Your relationship to God, for instance? Either way, you have to tie into the remaining keywords which ask WHAT YOU EXPERIENCE in this place and why it’s MEANINGFUL TO YOU. And this is the key to this prompt – you need to talk about why this place is so important to you, what happens to you when you’re there and why it helps you in your life.

Prompt #5: Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

This prompt allows you a lot of flexibility because the keywords are so broad. We’ve all had at least one ACCOMPLISHMENT in our lives and, depending on what’s important to you, you get to define whether it was FORMAL OR INFORMAL. The last set of keywords, CULTURE, COMMUNITY OR FAMILY are also very broad and left open to interpretation. Having said that, it’s the middle set of keywords, MARKED YOUR TRANSITION FROM CHILDHOOD TO ADULTHOOD that are important here.

Because while we’ve all had accomplishments, not each of them has helped us to think and act more like an adult. And that’s the key here: you need to show that whatever it was that you achieved, completed, performed or produced was an important event in your process of becoming an adult.

Going to college is a major transition in your life and one that will rapidly draw you into adulthood as you face critical decisions about your immediate and long-term future. An admission counselor will be pleased to see that you’ve gone through other transitional phases in your life and that you are on your way to becoming the person you were meant to be.

Eric Jul 28, 2013 College Admissions, College Advising, Common App, Dobler College Consulting, Eric Dobler, Essays No Comments

Blog, College Admissions, Essays

How To Write Your Essay For Common App Prompts #1 And #2

Last week I introduced you to the new Common App essay prompts. If you missed the post, here it is.

At the end of the post, I said I would share some tips on how to approach each of the prompts. Without further ado, let’s talk about prompts #1 and #2 and in my next post we’ll talk about prompts #3, #4 and #5.

Prompt #1: Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

This is what I call a “big-picture” prompt because it’s about you and your identity. It’s a topic that you can completely whiff on if you don’t pay attention to the keywords. First, whatever background or story you are going to share has to be CENTRAL TO YOUR IDENTITY. This means the story needs to be something big, something that has shaped you as a person, something that sits at the very core of who you are.

The second set of keywords, YOUR APPLICATION WOULD BE INCOMPLETE WITHOUT IT, is just as important. This means that, without telling this story, colleges aren’t going to understand the full picture of who you are and why they should admit you.

So, write down the prompt and then start making notes on everything that makes you who you are. What are your VIPS and how did they come to be that way? Has anything happened in your life – again, big-picture ideas here only – that an admission counselor should take into consideration? Remember, you’re trying to let them in on something about you that will help them say “Yes!” to your application.

Prompt #2: Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?

This prompt is all about making lemonade out of lemons. So let’s keep keywords in mind here as well. First, AN INCIDENT OR TIME WHEN YOU EXPERIENCED FAILURE. Here, you’re being asked to talk about a time that you took a risk or tried something and failed at it. However, it’s the second set of keywords HOW DID IT AFFECT YOU and WHAT LESSONS DID YOU LEARN that form the foundation of what you are going to try to do with this prompt.

Because what you’re not going to do is go on and on about the failure itself. In fact, you should briefly introduce the failure and then spend the bulk of your essay talking about how it affected you and what you learned from it.

I like this topic because who hasn’t failed at something in their lives?

Just don’t dwell on the failure itself. Instead, focus on how something positive came out of it. Again, you’re asking an admission counselor to say “Yes!” to your application and an essay that is focused on a negative outcome isn’t necessarily going to help your cause.

Next week I’ll talk about essay prompts #3, #4 and #5. Stay tuned…

Eric Jul 21, 2013 College Admissions, College Advising, Dobler College Consulting, Eric Dobler, Essays, Personal Statements No Comments

Blog, College Admissions, Essays

The New Common App Essay Prompts

In case you haven’t heard already, the Common App has revamped their essay prompts. Gone are the six prompts that have been around forever and, in their place, are five new ones. Moving forward, the prompts will be rotated and changed so that each year, there will be new options.

First, let me introduce you to the new prompts. Then I’ll tell you why I don’t think they’re anything you should be stressing over:

Topic #1: Some students have a background or story that is so central to their identity that they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.

Topic #2: Recount an incident or time when you experienced failure. How did it affect you, and what lessons did you learn?

Topic #3: Reflect on a time when you challenged a belief or idea. What prompted you to act? Would you make the same decision again?

Topic #4: Describe a place or environment where you are perfectly content. What do you do or experience there, and why is it meaningful to you?

Topic #5: Discuss an accomplishment or event, formal or informal, that marked your transition from childhood to adulthood within your culture, community, or family.

As you read through these prompts, you can see that each one asks for a specific moment, situation, place, event or story that reveals something important about the applicant. Please note the emphasis on the word, “important.”

I didn’t say incredible. I didn’t say amazing. And I definitely didn’t say Earth-shattering.

Because let’s be honest – at 16 and 17 years old, very few people have had incredible, amazing and Earth-shattering experiences in their lives. So take the pressure off yourself to write something that has never been written before. Instead, focus on a story you can tell that helps an admission counselor learn something new about you.

And while you may not be able to come up with something for each essay prompt, I’m sure you can come up with a story that relates to at least one of them.

So, take a deep breath, relax and think about the things you’ve done in your life. The places you’ve visited. The experiences you’ve had – both good and bad. Start writing down some notes on how each of them might apply to the prompts above. Don’t worry about whether the ideas are stinkers or the seeds of a truly great essay right now. Just brainstorm and get some ideas on paper. Talk to your parents, friends and relatives. Let them help you brainstorm – chances are, they may think of something really interesting about you that you, yourself, didn’t think of immediately.

Writing is a process that involves steps and time. If you take the time to go through the steps, the finished product will be so much better for it!

Next week, I’m going to share some tips on how to approach each prompt. Stay tuned…

Eric Jul 16, 2013 College Admissions, College Advising, Common App, Common Application, Dobler College Consulting, Eric Dobler, Essays, Personal Statements No Comments