How to finish college applications without going bonkers? The family chimes in.

Via Wikipedia.

After the frenzy of the past few weeks, our house is relatively calm. There will be more college-related tension to come, but for now, the pressure has lifted.

In a quiet moment, I cannot help thinking about the students — and their families  – still working their way through the ridiculously obtuse elements of the Common App, some college supplements, and some college websites. Once you’ve added the roller-coaster dynamics of the parent-teen relationship, the high emotions involved with the entire process, and the impending deadline for regular admissions:  yikes.

Just in case this might help:

For questions about the Common App, start with their Common Questions for Applicants here.

With questions for a particular college, take a look first at its admissions blog, if it has one. For example:

• Johns Hopkins University provided Q&As a couple of weeks back with this post: 2011 Coming to a Close, Regular Decision Deadline is Here!. That post also references JHU’s admissions FAQ.
• UVa‘s Dean J has made a number of recent posts to the University of Virginia admissions blog, Notes from Peabody. See Deadline definition, Some last minute application information, and Regular decision deadline is around the corner for great information, including how to reach Dean J directly with questions (Twitter, GoogleChat, email, etc.).

Still polishing essays or short-answers? Parents cannot write anything for you, but they can proofread, read essays aloud, double-check word- or character-counts.

Sometimes, the most helpful step is to walk away from the job for five minutes. Here’s what people in this house would do…

From Mod Squad Julie:  “I would go outside and shoot baskets for five minutes. The only thing is, I would probably stay longer than that.” Parent response: “What, you’d shoot until someone asked you to come back in and get to work?” Julie: “No, I usually say to myself I’ll go back to work after I make the next shot. Then once I’ve made it, I think: that felt good, let me do that again.”

From Mod Squad Linc:  “Take the dog outside and chase her around the house a few times. Wait. Pete’s done, right?”

From Mod Squad Pete:  “Take a music break, especially if you have a record player. Put an album on. I would recommend On Green Dolphin Street, by the Miles Davis Quintet.” [Whoops, there go ten minutes.]

From Mod Squad Dad:  “Get some exercise and fresh air — take a short, fast walk.”

From me:  Take a quick food break — make a smoothie, grab a handful of nuts to munch on. Then sit back down and plow through to the finish line — that will bring lots of positive energy.

Good luck to all!

Related articles

• College Admissions Secrets. (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)
• How to Apply to College… and When. (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)
• Tackling colleges’ Common Application (cbsnews.com)

Counting Words, Counting Characters: Editing the Essay and Short-Answer Questions

DickBlick.com

In the final (!) push toward completing all college application submissions, here’s what it came down to at Camp StrangeCollege (where, yes, the parents and the senior are still talking to each other and still laughing):  counting words and characters to get that essence of brilliance to fit within the conscribed space.

Here’s a quick view of the writing assignments involved with applications.

1.  The 2012 Common App provides a choice of six essay topics — five specific prompts and one ‘topic of your choice.’ The app specifies 250-500 words and that these should not be customized for any particular college; customization should be done on a supplementary app.

Submitting this main essay (‘the Common App essay’) requires uploading a Word or Notes document; the doc ends up looking like an attachment to the application.

It is possible to submit a Common App essay with many more words than the recommended count.

So:  must one comply with the word limits you ask? Read the arguments from students who don’t see the need to cut their excellent essays here. Read the response from Alan Gelb, essay-writing advisor and author of Conquering the College Admissions Essay in Ten Steps, here, including examples of how to cut. [Pete has done his best to comply:  "Why would you want to irritate the people who have to read your essay?"]

2.  The 2012 Common App provides a second opportunity to write, “Please briefly elaborate on one of your extracurricular activities or work experiences in the space below.” This response, limited to 1000 characters, is submitted by keying (or pasting) copy into a window provided on the online app.

It is not possible to submit a response longer than 1000 characters:  the window will not allow it.

3.  Many colleges accepting the Common App also require their own supplementary application, which should be found on both the Common App site and the college’s admissions site (but sometimes is on one or the other). Most of these supplements provide the opportunity to write a response to another topic. Or two. Word limits set by each college.

Please note that any time you are provided the opportunity to respond, most advisors will recommend you do not view this as optional. Write.

4.  A number of colleges — in their efforts to get a more personal view of the student than strict numbers (GPA and test scores) allow — also offer the opportunity to write answers to a series of short questions. These are often limited to 25 words or less. One of Pete’s applications specified fewer than 25 words or 175 characters.

Many of these short answers must be keyed (or copied) into a window that will not allow more than 175 characters.

5.  A number of colleges offer an additional supplementary application related to athletics or arts. Yes, those, too, sometimes offer the opportunity to write a few words. One of Pete’s most frustrating experiences was writing, re-writing, and polishing an essay until he and both parents were satisfied… to find out it was 3600+ characters and the space only allowed 2000. Yes, it would have been nice if the college had specified how much space was available. Since this was a copy-and-paste window, Pete only learned the limit when he pasted in the completed (or so he thought) essay.

Was the essay better at its original length or the cut-to-fit length (approximately 340 words)? Who knows. It certainly was more tightly-written as edited.

Hmm, I think I may be missing an opportunity or two.

6.  Some colleges read all applications with an eye toward their Honors programs; others require a separate application with an essay as part of that app.

There may be others I’ve not thought of.

Mod Squad Pete drafted a few first drafts during the summer. He wrote more — and through practice, better — essays when he worked on early admissions applications. By the time he got around to regular admissions responses, the writing and editing came more easily. Or at least accompanied by fewer complaints.

Pete on cutting to fit:

“Words [counts] are definitely different from characters.”

“It’s so much fun when you’re almost there:  only ten characters left to cut!”

Related articles

• Is it OK for Someone to Proofread Your College Application Essay? (usnews.com)
• What Parents Can Do To Help (agelb.wordpress.com
• Still Working on College Application Essays? (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)

Congratulations, Pete! Next: Shifting Gears

Image via Wikipedia

First, we celebrate:  Friday afternoon, December 23rd, Mod Squad Pete submitted his last two regular admissions applications. Happy dance, no more Final Jeopardy theme song playing in my head, and Merry Christmas in one fell swoop!

A day later Pete completed a couple of letters to professors he’d met during college visits, reminding them of his interest and that his application was submitted.

Then he looked a bit stunned: “Really? It’s hard to believe all that’s finally done.”

It is.

Second, we switch gears:  Onward to the world of FAFSA and scholarship applications. Some students and parents may have been able to dual process, working on college and scholarship applications at the same time. Last spring or summer I thought we might be doing that here.

Nope.

We’ll work together to try to find the best opportunities and then, lucky Pete, he gets to write more apps.

Continued best wishes to all the seniors working on applications!

Related articles

• Wednesday Weekly Reader: 13 Key Items to Know About Financial Aid. (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)
• Waiting for Admissions News: Are we there yet? (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)

Early Reports on Early Admission: Tougher Than Ever

The first early admissions news we heard came around the beginning of December. Mod Squad Pete received news from two colleges on December 15 (email from one) and 16 (snail mail from the other). Pete has mentioned he might write about receiving college news for this blog, so I’ll leave it up to him for now.

A couple of reports came out this week on how the early admissions numbers look:  tough.

The NYT‘s The Choice provides a spreadsheet, periodicially updated, here. Screenshot below; the spreadsheet is downloadable from the link.

Click to enlarge.

The Daily Beast offers a report, including a slideshow with numbers, here.

“This is one of the toughest years we’ve seen in a long time,” said Mike Muska, the dean of college relations at Brooklyn’s Poly Prep, and a former senior admissions officer at several top colleges including Brown and Oberlin. “I’ve heard from colleagues all across New York about kids with 750 SAT scores across the board who were getting deferred or denied if they were unhooked.” (“Unhooked” is admission-speak for kids without a special skill or niche.)

The report included this speculation on why there were so many more early applications:

Not surprisingly, several deans said they’ve heard consistent concern over paying for college throughout this admission season. “People wonder how they are going to manage to pay for four years,” said Jim Miller, admissions dean at Brown. “Just a few years ago they could be confident about home equity loans or an intergenerational transfer; in short, help from grandparents. That is no longer the case.”

Money, or the lack of it in some state university systems, has triggered an increase in early-decision applications from students on the west coast, particularly from California. Several private colleges noted an increase in applicants from California high school students. “These are kids who would otherwise attend the first-rate colleges in the University of California system,” noted one dean. “But with higher tuitions and reductions in services, private colleges are looking much more attractive.”

Pete’s waiting to hear from one more early admissions application; regular admissions apps still in the works. [Drumming my fingers on the desk.]

Related articles

• Waiting for Admissions News: Are we there yet? (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)
• How to Apply to College… and When. (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)

11 Mistakes I Don’t Want to Make on the FAFSA

Here we go again:  the last time this household faced down a financial aid deadline, I submitted the CollegeBoard CSS Profile on the day it was due.

The federal aid application, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, goes live January 1, 2012. Before we can submit the online application, we need to register for the FAFSA PIN, complete our 2011 tax returns, and complete the FAFSA worksheet.

Ok, this is going to be another pain in the neck and I want to do it right. So posts like this one:  The Top 10 Most Common FAFSA Mistakes are sure to catch my eye.

The mistakes are worth reading and protecting against, sure. But here’s the 11th potential mistake:  Don’t confuse FAFSA phishing sites with the real thing.

Take a moment and look at that link again. The website URL = http://freefafsagov.com/

Freefafsagov.com. Click to enlarge.

There’s a screenshot of that home page, and the fine print at the bottom reads:

freeFAFSAgov.com is NOT associated in any way with fafsa.ed.gov, the U.S. Department of Education or Federal Student Aid. Copyright © 2011 FAFSA.gov. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy

The real FAFSA website URL = http://www.fafsa.ed.gov/index.htm

Fafsa.ed.gov. Click to enlarge.

Here’s a screenshot of the real FAFSA home page.

The imposter also states in the About page that it is not affiliated with the government site and warns against paying any fee to file the FAFSA.

Hmm. So why mimic the page and include “gov” in the address? This site provides information from the official FAFSA site, presented in a manner somewhat consistent with the official site, providing links to the official site. Are the Google ads worth enough money to make that effort worthwhile?

Don’t confuse me now, I’ve got work to do. Here’s the information I really need, straight from the source:

Important notes on how to answer questions

• The words “you” and “your” always mean the student.
• The words “school” and “college” mean a college, university, graduate or professional school, community college, vocational or technical school, or any other school beyond high school.
• For dollar amounts, round to the nearest dollar and do not include commas or decimal points.
• For dates, type numbers that correspond to the month, day, and year. Do not use slashes (/). For example, for August 17, 1959, enter 08171959.
• References to the “school year” mean the school year from July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013.
• Do not mail in notes, tax forms, financial statements, or letters.
• Contact the financial aid office at your college if you have unusual circumstances.

Related articles

• Wednesday Weekly Reader: 13 Key Items to Know About Financial Aid. (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)
• ‘Tips for Using Net Price Calculators’ (costofcollege.wordpress.com)
• How Do I Pay for College? Part 1. (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)

3 Things High School Seniors Need To Do Right Now.

December 2011. Calendar by Mod Squad Emma.

Believe it or not, the important December countdown for most high school seniors is not:  “how many days til Christmas.” Most U.S. colleges set the regular admissions deadline for January 1. Eleven days away.

For any senior, like Mod Squad Pete, who just happens to not be done yet with college applications, here are the three things he or she should be doing right now…

1.  Finish the darn thing(s). Pete might have been 98% done on his regular admissions since before Thanksgiving. Each one has just one or two little things that still need doing. Get it over with already. (And yes, Pete, I’m talking to you.)

If there are questions stopping you, tune into the live chat the NYT‘s The Choice is hosting tonight, Wednesday, and Thursday. Here are the details:

The first night’s chat will take place tonight, on The New York Times’s main Facebook page: facebook.com/nytimes. The two chats thereafter will be staged at The Choice blog’s Facebook page: facebook.com/nytimesthechoice. All of the exchanges will be from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern time, and the counselors will answer questions in real time.

By the way, if you or your senior has all applications done, great! Skip ahead to task number 2. If you or your senior received acceptance via an Early Decision program, congratulations!! No more college applications! Skip ahead to task number 2.

2.  Sign up for the student and parent PINs for FAFSA. The first step in applying for financial aid is to apply for a PIN. Do that here. The steps are clear:

The PIN Application Process consists of 3 steps:
Step 1: Enter Personal Information
Step 2: Submit Your PIN Application
Step 3: Receive Your PIN

The online application goes live January 1, 2012, but the FAFSA on the web worksheet is available now.

3.  Take a deep breath and relax. 2011 may have been a big year with junior-year courses, SATs, college visits, becoming a senior, and writing applications, but just wait. The new year will bring the final semester of high school (requiring stick-to-it attention through the AP exams and finals), additional deadlines for financial aid and any scholarships (requiring more collaboration between student and parent), the emotional experience of receiving regular admissions results (some of us have had a glimpse of that with early admissions results), and making a commitment to one college.

Oh, right:  that’s just the first five months.

As always, good luck to all with those applications!

Related articles

• Wednesday Weekly Reader: 13 Key Items to Know About Financial Aid. (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)
• The Skinny on College Financial Aid Process and Terms (thecareercloset.com)
• College Prep – Timeline for Seniors (commonwealthmgmt.com)

Waiting for Admissions News: Are we there yet?

Admissions building, Tufts. Image via Wikipedia

Now is the season of winter admissions results. Blog posts and tweets from admissions departments loom like the colored smoke above the Vatican: What does this mean? How does this affect his chances?

See CollegeSolved’s blog, How Much Admissions Transparency is Too Much?

“Mr. Einstein! Mr. Einstein! Tufts has already admitted thirty-three students!” shouted a nervous ED applicant. “No, that’s not right. They haven’t released their decisions yet,” responded a confident and seasoned counselor. True enough, Tufts has not yet notified early decision applicants of their decisions But my anxious senior was, nonetheless, moved to near-panic status after reading this.

The New York Times blog on college admissions, The Choice, provided Field Notes From This Year’s Application Season:

While our survey was unscientific, it brought into focus some themes, including increased applicant interest in public colleges – both in and out of state – and an apparent rise in the number of students who have been filing applications early this year, sometimes at the prodding of the colleges themselves.

From the same post, in a report from a counselor…

Mr. Evans of Penn Charter reported that the heightened early application activity had increased the need for “expectation management” and counseling regarding how to navigate the complex web of restrictions surrounding early applications for those filing a mix of early decision, early action and rolling applications.

In December the emails began to arrive. One of Mod Squad Pete’s classmates heard in early December. News of more emails trickled in.

Pete sent three early admission applications, one to each of the holy trinity of college categories: reach, fit, safe. Luck of the calendar dictated that the reach response would arrive first, in December. The other two, not til January.

The email will offer one of three responses:  acceptance, deferral, or thanks but no thanks. Spring decision emails may offer a wait list.

StudentAdvisor provides advice on whether to share your results: Posting Your College Acceptances on Facebook? Some Do’s and Don’ts.

Once upon a time, when students received the big envelope from their dream college, they called their friends. Now, students rely on social networks to break the news. All of a sudden, your feeds are flooding with acceptance posts. Not only does social media make it faster to share good news, it makes it easier to act in ways you wouldn’t in “real-life.”

Here are some of the stories we hear:

• A student receiving news while in class, walks out of the classroom without a word to the teacher. He got in to his Early Decision choice, just needed to leave the room before he screamed. After he found a teacher in the hall to hug, he returned to the classroom of seniors to report his result (to their cheers).
• A parent reads an admissions blog and knows the significance of the email’s confusingly vague subject line and must wait. The student has to read far into the email to understand he got in.
• Another parent cries the day after her child’s rejection.
• Meanwhile, the parent of an underclassman asks cheerfully, ‘How’s that college thing going?”
• Another parent of an underclassman asks, “So where is Pete applying?”
• A parent of a senior shares her daughter’s acceptance and scholarship offer: “It’s fun to start hearing the good news.”

From the College Solution, Lynn O’Shaughnessy reminds us, “Only 2% of schools reject more than 75% of applicants.”

Related articles

• How to Apply to College… and When. (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)
• College Admissions Secrets. (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)
• ‘Gotta love rolling admissions’ (costofcollege.wordpress.com)

Say there, Community Colleges: How’s your graduation rate faring?

Photo: Texas Association of Business

It’s a tough world today, out there in higher ed.

Each college has to balance the needs of the students, the faculty and staff, state and federal governments, the ranking agencies, alumni, and more — all with higher scrutiny and lower funding.

What happens when one of those audiences is unhappy? Sometimes private action is taken:  a student drops out, an alum stops sending donations, a tenured prof departs for greener grass. Other times, such as in Texas this year:  a stakeholder publicly declares dissatisfaction.

The Texas Tribune reported in Graduation-Rates Campaign heads to Dallas,

A new billboard that will tower over Dallas’ North Central Expressway on Monday offers a startling message: “8% OF DCCCD STUDENTS GRADUATE IN 3 YRS. IS THAT FAIR TO THE STUDENTS? TX ASSN OF BUSINESS.”

DCCCD is the Dallas County Community College District. The Texas Association of Business is an advocacy group for Texas business owners that has made lagging graduation rates at the state’s higher education institutions a pet issue.

In October, the group put up a similar billboard in Austin for one day that took on Austin Community College, saying “4% OF ACC STUDENTS GRADUATE IN 3 YEARS. IS THAT A GOOD USE OF TAX $? TX ASSOCIATION OF BUSINESS.”

Austin Community College President Richard Rhodes responded that the measurement doesn’t match what students come to the community college for, since the rate is based upon first-time, full-time students, which is 5.5% of the student population. The President’s response can be seen here in a six minute video. [Thanks to the Chronicle of Higher Ed blog for the story.]

Meanwhile, The Aspen Institute honored top community colleges in a ceremony this week, awarding the top prize ($600,000) to Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. Four other community colleges received $100,000 each and five more were recognized as finalists. The criteria:

• high completion rates
• employment of graduates
• commitment to low-income and minority students
• record of transfers to four-year schools

According to the story in College Bound, Education Week‘s blog,

Valencia President Sandy Shugart said while the college had a long commitment to access, it is transforming its promise from “volume to value.” The emphasis is on graduating more students, through rigorous programs so they are prepared not just to serve, but lead in the workplace, he said.

Student performance improved once the administration let go of its assumptions about the way the institution should run and focused on the perspective of students, said Shugart. “The college is what the students experience, period. That’s the only thing that counts,” he said, after accepting the prize.

Valencia’s website provides the details on their graduation rate, as well as the national average:

In selecting Valencia as the best community college in America, Aspen officials noted that over half of the college’s full-time students graduate or transfer within three years of entering the school, a rate significantly higher than the national average (51 percent versus 39 percent).

Both of these articles — the College Bound blog post and the Valencia College press release — provide an interesting look at the initiatives community colleges have pursued to better serve their students and their communities.

Our local CC, Piedmont Virginia, posts its consumer information here. In a downloadable pdf from that link, PVCC quotes a 67% fall to fall retention rate for full time students, and a 22% graduation rate (first-time, full-time students, within 150% of normal time to completion). In a separate document, available for download from that pdf, PVCC reports on employment of CTE graduates (another important role the CC provides to the community and the Commonwealth of Virginia):

82% of AAS, CERT, and CSC graduates (659 graduates in the past five years) were employed within the first two full quarters following graduation.

PVCC is experiencing record-breaking enrollment, attributed by the President, Frank Friedman, to growth in online and dual enrollment courses.

One final thought from the Valencia President, via CCWeek:

The award, Shugart said, proves that community colleges have come of age and that “excellence (in education) is not defined by exclusivity or expensiveness.”

Related articles

• Wednesday Weekly Reader: Community Colleges and more (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)

Looking at the SATs: prep, cheating, why take them anyway?

I think Mod Squad Pete’s SAT days are now over, after taking the PSAT sophomore and junior years, taking the SAT junior and senior years, and taking the SAT IIs (subject tests) at the end of junior year. Pete is still working on his regular admissions applications, but he has had the SAT scores sent to the remaining colleges on his list.

Next month, Mod Squad Julie will get her first PSAT results, as she begins the entire process.

The College Solution offers a few facts about the SAT, including averages and averages for the subject tests.

Students who completed a core curriculum in high school scored an average of 143 points higher on the SAT than those who didn’t. The College Board defines a core curriculum as including at least four English, three math, three natural sciences and three social sciences/history classes.

Knowing M.S. Julie, she will have her own responses to the PSAT results and how much she will want to prep for the SAT. One thing I’m fairly certain of:  she won’t be asking for money to hire a test-taking impersonator, as was done on the Gold Coast of Long Island.

The SAT cheating scandal broke in September; more students were charged in November. Meanwhile,

Bernard Kaplan, the principal of Great Neck North, said he believed cheating was pervasive. “I think it’s widespread across the country,” he said Tuesday. “We were the school that stood up to it.”

New York Time’s the Choice chats with the ETS director about testing security here.

A recent survey found that 59 percent of high school students reported cheating on a test in the last year, and one in three admitted using the Internet to plagiarize an assignment. We find such behavior appalling.

Why the pressure for high scores? Take a look at the infographic to see where SAT or ACT scores rank in college admissions decisions (from StudentAdvisor, full infographic can be seen here).

Click to enlarge.

Yet, FairTest would argue that standardized test scores are not good predictors of college success.

On the contrary, despite all the differences between courses and grading standards, high school grade point average (GPA) is still the best predictor of first year college grades — which is all the SAT claims to predict. As a student moves through college, SAT scores become even less accurate predictors, with high school GPA and rigor of courses trumping the SAT in forecasting bachelor’s degree attainment. This shows just how inaccurate the SAT really is.

A number of colleges have made their admissions process test-optional:  850 Colleges Don’t Require SAT or ACT Scores.

FairTest keeps an up-to-date list of the colleges and universities that do not require SAT or ACT scores. The current number stands around 850 institutions, and every year more schools join the test-optional movement. This is good news for students who feel that standardized test scores fail to measure accurately their preparedness for college. The recent flurry of test cheating scandals gives even more energy to the push towards test-optional admissions. While most of the country’s top-ranked colleges and universities don’t appear on the list, more and more selective colleges are making the move to test-optional admissions for example, Wake Forest, Pitzer, Bowdoin, DePaul, and Mount Holyoke are all test-optional.

Finally, the New York Times Room for Debate has taken on SATs:  Why Should SATs Matter? Five informed writers offer their opinions on the topic. Interesting:  one debater says the SAT is essentially an intelligence test, another argues that it isn’t.

Here’s another thing I know for sure:  I won’t be taking it. Did you read about the Florida school board member who took his own state’s standardized 10th grade math and reading tests?

“I won’t beat around the bush,” he wrote in an email. “The math section had 60 questions. I knew the answers to none of them, but managed to guess ten out of the 60 correctly. On the reading test, I got 62% . In our system, that’s a “D”, and would get me a mandatory assignment to a double block of reading instruction.

No, thanks!

Related articles

• 4 Reasons to Listen in on the College Board Forum (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)
• Five things to know about the SAT (schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com)
• Should You Apply to SAT-Optional Colleges? (satdude.wordpress.com)

Grading Financial Aid Award Letters

We won’t be seeing any financial aid award letters for a while; we cannot complete the FAFSA until it’s released at the beginning of January, letters would be expected sometime around the 1st of April. However, given what I’ve been reading about aid letters, I’ve started to think about how to compare apples and oranges (and, say, monkeys). Through a College Solution post on confusing financial award letters (referenced in point #11 here), I found an incredibly resourceful site:  Financial Aid Letter.

Financial Aid Letter has not been updated in a while, but what’s there is “choice.”

1. Most entertaining and interactive bit:  see actual aid letters before and after decoding and grading by financial aid evaluators. Here’s a look at a grade B- letter and a grade D letter. Please note these are from 2007, so the ‘true costs’ would be higher today.

Click to enlarge.

A few financial aid officers objected to the one-size-fits-all evaluation; those objections can be found at the bottom of this page.

Click to enlarge.

2.  Most Valuable Financial Aid Glossary I’ve yet run across. Go see this now. Bookmark or Digg or Evernote it. Here’s a clip:

Georgia Hope: The state of Georgia’s Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally program gives scholarships to Georgia students with good grades. For the official Georgia HOPE website, click here.

Gift aid: Money that students can use to cover their educational expenses that does not have to be repaid. See scholarships or grants.

GPA: Grade Point Average: The number reflecting a student’s grades (where an A is counted as a 4, a B = 3, and so on) divided by the number of classes taken. GPAs are used to award many merit scholarships.

Grace period: The length of time a lender has agreed to wait for payment on a loan or bill. Different educational loans have different grace periods. Perkins borrowers must start repaying their loans within nine months of leaving school or dropping to below half-time. Plus borrowers must make their first payment within 60 days. Stafford borrowers must make their first payment within six months of leaving school or dropping below half-time. Private or Alternative loans typically have much shorter grace periods.

Grant: A gift of money. Much of the free money handed out to cover educational costs is in the form of grants. The federal government hands out to undergraduates Pell Grants, Supplementary Educational Opportunity Grants, SMART Grants, Academic Competitiveness Grants and more. States hand out Cal Grants, North Carolina Student Incentive Grants, etc. Charities and schools also hand out many grants. The word is often used interchangeably with scholarship. See also gift aid.

N.B., Financial aid funding laws and regulations are subject to change over time. I don’t know if the glossary has been updated to reflect any changes; double-check information with current resources.

3.  Sensible Action Advice with multi-point answers to these questions:

• Can’t figure out how much school is really going to cost?
• Having trouble estimating yoru true cost of a degree?
• Has the school overestimated your ability to pay?
• Has your favorite school awarded less aid than other schools?
• Can’t afford your true costs?

Credit goes to Kim Clark and Paul Jaegersen who developed this as an experiment in conjunction with Ohio State University’s Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs. Ms. Clark used to write for US News & World Report; she now writes about college financial aid for Money magazine. Here’s a recent article, What you can do to save on college costs. [See link to slideshow mention of Piedmont Virginia Community College here.]

Related articles

• Take First Step to Apply for College Financial Aid (usnews.com)
• College Financial Aid Myths (drstrangecollege.wordpress.com)