Despite Tuition Increases, University of Washington is Still a Bargain

On Thursday, the Board of Regents voted to increase tuition by 20% at the University of Washington, bringing the cost to $10,574 for undergraduate students. It is the largest tuition increase in the history of the school and has many people worried. However, putting the tuition into perspective on a national scale, the UW is still a bargain.

The U.S. Department of Education also released its College Affordability and Transparency report on Thursday, which lists colleges that are most expensive to least expensive, both in the public and private categories. The highest tuition at a public university in the nation is Penn State University at $14,416 (this number does not include room/board and fees). Rounding out the top five are University of Pittsburgh ($14,154), University of Vermont ($13,554), Saint Mary’s College of Maryland ($13,234) and New Jersey Institute of Technology ($12,856). UW does not even make the list of our nation’s most expensive public universities.

The Affordability list also ranks colleges with the highest increases in tuition, with Northern New Mexico College leading the pack with a 51% tuition hike. Once again, UW does not make the list.

It is good to consider this too – if you were to attend some of the nation’s most expensive private colleges, you could be paying upwards of $50,000 (tuition and room/board which is not included in the above amounts for the public universities). Many private colleges award fantastic merit and need-based scholarships, so don’t rule them out, but the cost is something to keep in perspective when reading about UW’s tuition hike. The top five most expensive privates are Bates College in Maine ($51,300), Connecticut College ($51,115), Middlebury College in VT ($50,780), Union College in NY ($50,439) and Colby College in Maine ($50,320).

Where are the other bargains? For private colleges, you can look to Puerto Rico for the best bargains, starting as low as $4,000. Berea College, Embry Riddle University and Brigham Young University all fall under $10,000 for tuition. For 4 year public universities, in-state tuition is a bargain at the various branches of the University of Puerto Rico, as well as local options Seattle Community College, Bellevue College and Lake Washington Technical College.

Spring 2011 College Receptions

There are some colleges that are on the road this spring, hosting presentations for prospective students. While many of these events will be big, it still can be a great way to get an overview of the admissions process and learn more about each school.

If you are interested in any of the following schools, please visit my website, where I have links to each event.

Whitman, Colorado College, Oberlin and Occidental
in Seattle, WA
May 16th – 6:30pm – 9:00pm

Jesuit Excellence Tour – Jesuit colleges and universities
hosted at Seattle University
May 17th – 6:30pm – 8:00pm

Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Penn, Stanford
Exploring College Options Tour
in Bellevue, WA on May 22nd
in SeaTac, WA on May 23rd

Brown, Rice, University of Chicago, Columbia, Cornell
Exploring Educational Excellence Tour
in Seattle, WA on May 26th

Boston College
hosted at Seattle Prep
May 26th at 7pm

Northwestern University
in Seattle, WA on June 12th
in Bellevue, WA on June 13th

Carnegie Mellon University
hosted at Lakeside Academy, Seattle, WA
June 14th at 7:30pm

Colleges That Change Lives (CTCL) – a group of small liberal arts colleges from across the U.S.
in Bellevue, WA on July 30th

Changes Announced to the 2011-12 Common Application

Today the Common Application announced changes to their 2011-2012 application. While most of the changes were small, they will help to make the application process more user-friendly to both students and admissions counselors. The new version will ask more detailed questions about language proficiency where students can check one of five options to describe their ability best. The application will once again have a word limit for the personal statement. Students will be asked to submit an essay that is between 250-500 words to help keep the process fairly consistent. Students will be happy to know that the Secondary School Report has changed a bit too – now your guidance counselor can add a letter of recommendation from some other school official who can better describe their strengths.

48 schools have joined the Common Application this year, including University of Southern California and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. That brings the total amount of participants up to 460 schools.

High school students who want to preview the new version online or see new member schools can do so now, however, they cannot fill out anything until it goes live on August 1st.

High School Seniors: Wise Words of Advice

I would like to share with you an article written by Detroit Free Press Columnist Mitch Albom. In his March 20th column, he shares his thoughts on college rejection letters and how these denials could actually be doing you a favor.

Dear High School Seniors,

I know you weren’t expecting a commencement address. It’s still March, and you haven’t even gotten to throw up at the prom yet.

But you are at a crossroads. In a matter of days, you will get letters from colleges you applied to. Some will be thick. You will like those. Some will be thin. You won’t like those so much.

I am here to say: Don’t fret if that letter is thin. You will survive. You may even prosper.
It seems incredibly hard to get into colleges these days. You wouldn’t think so, given what they charge. You can run an airport on their room and board bills.

Yet last year, places like Princeton and Brown had nearly 20% increases in applicants from the year before. The University of Chicago jumped 42%. You’d think they were giving away diplomas, instead of asking for your house, your keys and your firstborn.
But even worse than the financial burden on your parents is the implied standards they are setting for you kids. Today, excellence isn’t enough. Gandhi would be put on a waiting list.

When we were applying to college, you needed good grades, a decent test score and one teacher willing to forget the time you pulled the fire alarm and write you a recommendation.

Today, you need to cure cancer.
Preferably before your junior year.

The mythical cream of the crop?
As an uncle to 15 nieces and nephews, I have been seeing my share of these applications. I have to say, I don’t know how you do it.
First of all, when do you have the time? Your nightly homework is as much as we got the entire ninth grade.

And the application itself? Some universities use the “common app,” which permits millions of kids to stuff their credentials into the same essay question.
But let’s talk about those questions. They ask you to write about an experience that changed or influenced you. And instead of writing what really comes to mind (a first kiss after soccer practice), you feel compelled to write about saving manatees from extinction off the gulf coast. Even if you never did save manatees. Because you heard about some kid who actually did save manatees, and he also carried 100 pairs of pajamas to victims of Hurricane Katrina, and he also plays jazz bass (upright) and in his spare time finished a sequel to “Catcher in the Rye.”

Oh, and he scored 36 on his ACT.

I’m not sure such über-students really exist. But people talk about them. You hear about them getting in to Harvard, Princeton, Stanford. So much so, that good, intelligent, ambitious kids don’t even want to apply to those places, because they don’t feel “special” enough. It’s as if schools today put out a vibe: “What, you don’t know how to reconstruct a hydraulics system? You should have studied harder — in grade school.”

Never too young for the fast track?
So it was no surprise this past week to read of a New York City woman who is suing a private preschool academy for putting her 4-year-old daughter with younger kids and therefore affecting her chances at an Ivy League education. Never mind that all 4-year-olds should be covered in orange paint. This mom is already thinking about the day you seniors are about to face. And she’s terrified.

Well, relax. Because here’s the thing: When you get older, you realize college doesn’t make you, you make college. Many an Ivy Leaguer is now lying on a couch, and many a community college grad is running a profitable company.
Ironically, just as elite universities have become so precious in their selection, they are being debunked as the only way to success. The Internet has changed everything about information flow.

Remember Matt Damon’s character in “Good Will Hunting” who taunts a Harvard student by saying in 50 years he’ll realize he “dropped a hundred and fifty grand on a (bleeping) education you coulda got for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library”?
Of course, you don’t remember. You were 4 years old. But there was truth in those words, more today than ever.

So believe in yourself. You can springboard from any decent school. Open those mailboxes. And if choice No. 1 doesn’t come through, just remember, even Michael Jordan watched two players picked ahead of him in the NBA draft.
What’s that? … Who’s Michael Jordan?

Thank you, and good day.

Forward Thinking: Summer Plans

Don’t shriek in horror when I say that you should be thinking about summer plans. No, not the laying on the beach type of summer plans, but the ‘let’s do something meaningful’ experience. There are many different approaches to cultivating a meaningful experience and it will certainly vary depending on who you are and what your goals are, but there are a few things to keep in mind. First of all, you should never participate in a summer experience because you think you should for college applications. If it doesn’t impress you, it won’t impress anyone else. If you are doing something to pad your extracurricular resume, it is probably also a bad idea.

What can you do? Well, the first step is to set up a time to talk to me and we can develop a plan specific for you where you will not only be involved in something this summer, but you can continue to grow in this area of passion. You can also read this great article that recently ran in the New York Times – Does Helping Help You Out?

Gap Year Fairs are Springing Up

If you feel a bit tired after the college application process, you might want to take some time to recharge your batteries. Gaining in popularity, more and more students are taking a year off after graduating from high school to explore the world and their goals, and to prepare for that next academic step in college. Gap Year programs are plentiful and they are either academic in nature or focus on personal growth through service and discovery.

First and foremost, a gap year does not replace going to college. A high school senior would still go through the process of applying to colleges, and then depositing at their college of choice on May 1st. They would then defer their admission for one year. As a matter of fact, colleges such as Harvard, Princeton, Tufts and NYU encourage students to consider the option of pursuing a gap year. William Fitzsimmons, Harvard University Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid, is a strong proponent of the gap year and has said that “many speak of their year away as a ‘life-altering’ experience or a ‘turning point,’ and most feel that its full value can never be measured and will pay dividends the rest of their lives.”

Want to know more? You might want to explore the Seattle Gap Fair on February 13th from 1 – 3:30pm at the Northwest School. To find out more information about locations across the U.S. and gap year programs in general, visit USA Gap Year Fairs.

Is Tiger Mom influencing the way college admissions counselors view Asian American applicants?

By now, everyone is familiar with Tiger Mom and her structured approach to parenting. While some might applaud her efforts, others continue to cringe. Insider Higher Ed posted this yesterday about the continued controversy.

Debate continues over Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (and the op-ed summary of its ideas, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior”), by Amy Chua. The parenting covered in the books — while clearly aimed at eventually landing the author’s daughters in top colleges — takes place well before the application process begins. But Mitchell J. Chang, a professor of education and Asian American studies at the University of California at Los Angeles, is arguing that the debate may end up hurting Asian-American college applicants. The image created by Chua “contributes to an already problematic stereotype by suggesting not only that most Asian Americans are high-achieving, but also that their achievements are due to overbearing parents,” writes Chang in an essay. “Her characterization can further tax Asian American college applicants by reducing the chances that they will be viewed as self-starters, risk-takers and independent thinkers — attributes that are often favored by admissions officers but rarely associated with Asian American applicants.”

Be Mindful of Your Language

Lisa McLaughlin published an article in the Costa Mesa Daily Pilot recently about how tinkering your works can improve your outlook. I think that it is a nice article to share and to remind parents to be aware of the language they use when describing college options for their children.
I have a New Year’s resolution that we can achieve together. It’s really quite simple: Let’s be mindful of the language we use to describe colleges and the college admissions process.

First, let’s be conscious of our use of pronouns. Saying, “we won” might be an acceptable way to describe your favorite sports team’s amazing victory, in which you only played the role of spectator. However, using the pronoun “we” to describe “your” child’s college admissions experience should be avoided. This is not “your” experience — it’s “his” or “hers” and actually you are kind of a spectator in this process as well. Stating publicly, “We want to apply to Stanford” speaks volumes to your child about whose process this really is.

Second, let’s avoid the terms, “safety” or “back-up,” when talking about colleges. Years ago, I consciously stopped using the word “safety” to describe specific colleges on a student’s radar screen. Same with the word “back-up.” These terms imply those institutions are not good and the only reason one would attend is “if all else fails.” A better nomenclature is to use, “good bet” meaning a student’s chance of admission is high and that particular college is a good fit for the student regardless of its name recognition. Along those lines, keep in mind that your child’s “good bet” is another student’s “reach.” Always know your audience, mind your manners, and remember your P’s and Q’s.

Third, when considering your child’s college selection, avoid exclaiming to all that you want him to get in to the “best” school. Instead, let’s all work together to help your teen figure out what makes a college the “best” one for him or her. We need to trumpet the fact that finding that “right fit” college is better than the one whose name looks good on a bumper sticker.

Finally, let’s be mindful of how we communicate about your teen’s college plans. Limit what you share with other parents about your child’s college admissions experiences. But, if a nosy acquaintance or friend riles you up, assert yourself and don’t feed into the competitive college talk on the sidelines, at dinner parties, or anywhere else parents are gathered. Create a “No College Discussion Zone” around you and within your home, to give your teen a safe haven from all the banter and outright bragging that goes on amongst students.

We may not achieve world peace, or lose 10 pounds by staying true to this new year’s resolution, but if we choose to pay attention to our choice of words, the nature of our discourse, and how we communicate with each other about the college selection process, we might just feel some inner peace and communal harmony as we gain some much needed ground over a process that is seemingly spiraling out of control for students and parents.

Kiplinger’s 2011 Best Values in Public Colleges

Kiplinger’s has announced its 2011 best values in public college report and the news comes as no surprise. Despite sweeping budget cuts at state universities across the United States, the magazine asserts that there are deals to be had while still receiving a quality education. Editor Janice Bennett Clark offers this advice to prospective students:

Look for schools that deliver an outstanding, affordable education in good times and bad. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ranked Kiplinger’s number-one best value for public colleges and universities for a remarkable ten times running, is a prime example. Carolina’s admission rate remains among the lowest on our annual list; its students are among the most competitive; and its in-state cost, at $17,000, is not much higher than the average price ($16,140) for all public universities. For students who qualify for need-based aid, the total price for this top-tier university drops to an average of $7,020.

Don’t Wait Until Your Due Date

Most seniors like to wait until the last minute to get things done. Sometimes working under pressure produces the best work – in my experience it doesn’t. And in the case of waiting until the last minute to apply, you may be faced with some computer issues. It isn’t uncommon for many students to apply on the actual deadline, which can cause the system to jam up, and there is always that chance that you will not get your application submitted in the final hour. The other thing to keep in mind is that if you are paying by credit card, it can take 1-2 days for processing and a college does not consider your application complete unless it has its money. If you have an upcoming deadline – for example February 1st – you should aim to apply to later than January 30th.