More College Craziness
Partially in tribute to the late Richard Lewis, I'm dubbing this year's college application cycle the College Year From Hell.
Things have been stressful and crazy for the 21+ years I've been in college advising, and probably longer, but this year takes the cake.
Yesterday, the Department of Edu-macation announced that it "discovered"yet another glitch on the brand spanking new "simplified" FAFSA. This one affects 330,000 financial aid applicants.
Gee, pretty soon we'll be talking real numbers!
5% of the 6.6 million FAFSAs contain errors that caused reductions in eligibility for aid.
10% had errors that mistakenly INCREASED eligibility for aid.
The FAFSA has had errors relating to calculating assets, and problems importing income from tax returns filed with the IRS.
Other than that, things are going pretty smoothly!
On the college acceptance side, I'm seeing clients getting into Ivy and near Ivies, as well as slam-dunk students getting denied and waitlisted by their so-called "Safety Schools." There seems to be no rhyme or reason sometimes, but I usually chalk up the majority of these surprises to parents' and kids' lack of perspective about how they stack up against their competition.
Despite the delays, stress and confusion, I find overall that almost everyone ends up in the "right" college for them, surrounded by many like-minded and similarly qualified students.
But it's not always a smooth, straight-line process!
My advice to Class of 2025 and younger kiddos (and moms): buckle up! And take deep breaths.
And self-medicate when necessary. Trust me, I'm a college advisor.
Local Workshop
I'm back at the Bryant Library in Roslyn NY next Thursday April 11, conducting a college planning workshop that will attempt to help make sense of it all and cover strategies to improve odds of admission to Ivy and other competitive colleges, as well as financial aid and merit aid tips. The program director graciously allowed me to invite families on my email list (that's you). We can't stream it online, unfortunately.
There's no charge and nothing to buy (not a time-share presentation) but there is one catch:
The room is relatively small, the invitation list is capped at 20 people. Seats are first-come, first served.
Here's where to get all details:
Speak soon,
- Andy Lockwood
P.S. I've significantly cut back on 15 minute free consultations, but I can offer you something much more thorough and arguably better:
A 45 minute meeting, in-person or Zoom, after which I deliver a written, easy-to-read Competitive Analysis and Positioning (CAP) Report that -- objectively -- tells you how your child "stacks up" to his or her competition your odds of getting scholarships or other financial aid and answers all of your questions.
It also covers specific recommendations for your student, and for you re: financial aid and merit aid, strategies to optimize your child's odds of admission and more. Here's the page that describes it all:
P.P.S. Here are other ways we can help:
Tutoring and Small Group Classes
