Sometimes, I'm not exactly tactful.

Case in point, last week I was sitting with an 11th grader, reviewing his grades, PSATs, extracurricular activities and preliminary, highly selective, college list.

I told him that his record was pretty strong. But..."Don't take this the wrong way," I offered.

When you throw your hat into the ring with thousands of kids with equal or better accomplishments, you become something else:

A Dime a Dozen

Colleges are businesses, they sort, exclude and choose kids for acceptance based on their own internal desires and guidelines, some of which have nothing to do with an applicant's qualifications.

A LOT of which, actually.

So if you agree that colleges are actually in business (despite their non-profit status - hah), you might see why I implore my clients to understand things a bit differently about themselves:  

They Too Are in Business 

They're in the business of getting into the colleges they want, and to win scholarships. 

I...

This August, a Class of 2024 client, Sally (not her real name) told me that she had just met with her guidance counselor. They chatted about her essay topic. The counselor was alarmed.

“Don’t write about death, you’ll depress your admissions officer!”

Sally (still not her real name) and her mom asked me what I thought.

“STUPID!” I offered, tactfully.

"Oh this is fun," Sally's mom said. "I have to come to these meeting more often!"

The back story is that Sally had attended five funerals in a span of four months. Not only is that unusual for a high school senior, it seems like it might be kind of important in her young life, don't you think?

“If this was a big deal, it’s something to consider writing about. Actually, it might be weird to NOT write about it”, quoth the college advisor.

The essay doesn’t have to be about “death,” I said. 

I continued, "What if you used the services and eulogies as a lens...

I usually keep this type of comment to myself, but late in the office last night, I unloaded.

I was meeting with a prospective client, talking about how we help with everything relating to getting into and paying for college, including essay writing.

Somehow, the tone and subject morphed into how BAD some essays are.  

I'm talking two page, one paragraph drafts. 

Utter absence of capital letters at the beginning of a sentence.

Or for proper nouns.

Sentences that run on longer than the Iditarod. 

But those aren't the worst transgressions, sadly.   Grammar and punctuation are easy fixes.  

What's harder to pull off is the Big Idea of the essay. What personal quality or qualities do you want to convey?   

What is the before and after, Hero's Journey or other tale you have to tell?

It's not just the essay that tells your story, incidentally.  Your entire application, including the Activities Section, teacher letters of...

For Frustrated, Worried Class of 2024 Parents...

I'll be quicker than Senator Fetterman's morning grooming routine, because the clock is a-tickin...

If your high school senior son or daughter hasn't made the progress on their essays and applications  you hoped for this summer, we might be able to help.

I say "might" because

• We have only a tiny handful of spots currently open
• We're pretty picky about whom we work with;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Here's the scoop -- my team and I are finishing up the application and essay writing process with a bunch of our 2024 private clients.  What that means for you is that we have limited capacity to help your kiddo bring the applications and essays over the goal line, if they have October, November and December deadlines.

We call this program The November Sprint, and it's designed exclusively to relieve the blood pressure of moms (and dads) who are ripping out their hair over their kids' looming Early Action, Early Decision and other...

It's back to school time, which also means it's college ranking season. 

I think ranking colleges is a pretty silly exercise, but I understand that we humans are wired to compare A to B to C and so forth.  And I read them too.

To me, one of the most striking things about the various and sundry rankings is what they leave out.  Probably because it is unrankable:

Student effort

A couple of the Big Rankers measure average salaries, post-graduation, at each college.  Fine. But here's what does not go into those rankings, as far as I can tell:

• Elite colleges generally get the highest marks.  But elite colleges are heavily populated by kids from wealthy families.  It's great that Chip graduated from Princeton (and Exeter/Andover/Choate/Fieldston) and is pulling down $125K in his first year in consulting, but is that really because he went to Princeton? Or that Chip's old man (also Chip) called in a favor for his boy.
• The aforementioned effort.  What...

GM, just letting know that we posted the recording of Sunday night's SAT and ACT walkthrough, to help you figure out Which Test is Best.

Watch it here, I'll keep it up and available tor the rest of the week:

WEBINAR RECORDING

- Andy Lockwood

P.S.  We're temporarily offering a $115 off "scholarship" on all of our prep courses, online and in person.  Use coupon code PREVIEW23 on our test prep website, LockwoodCollegePrep.com

Free SAT/ACT Webinar

I'll be faster than and almost as powerful as a speeding locomotive with this message:

Tonight, our head tutor, Marissa U, will host a live walkthrough of each of the sections of the SAT and ACT, in order to help you figure out Which Test is Best...

...to help your kiddo multiply his odds of admission to his Dream School...

...and get his mitts on the scholarships you deserve to help combat the ridiculous cost of college!

The whole thing will be over in order an hour, but there will be plenty of time for Q&A.

Sign up here, and you will discover

• Which test is best for kids good at math
• Which test is the "faster one"
• The hidden "science section" on the SAT
• More

SAT/ACT PREVIEW

See you in class.

- Andy Lockwood

P.S.  There's no charge to attend, but the information you learn could save you dozens of stressful hours, not to mention thousands of donuts in wasted tutoring fees for the Wrong Test.

P.P.S.  Here's the sign up page one...

If you've been on my email list for a little bit, you won't be shocked to learn that I was a big Mad Magazine fan back in the day.   

One of my favorite features was the Spy vs. Spy cartoon, which depicted outlandish battles between one faceless spy, dressed all in black, the other, identical but in white attire.

To the best of my recollection, there was hardly ever a clear winner, which was satisfying to some people, I guess.  But not to me. I always wanted to know which spy was better.

A lot of parents, and kids, feel the same way about the SAT or ACT.  There's an assumption that one is "better," meaning one that colleges prefer, or is better in some other, undefined way.  Possibly because those of us who grew up in the 80s on the East or West coast may never have heard of the ACT, which was largely a midwestern thang until it grew, and eclipsed the SAT 7-8 years ago.

Here's the deal...

Colleges are agnostic.  They accept either test.  So the...

Earlier in the week, a client said "Danger, Will Robinson!" to me, evoking a popular show people our age grew up with, Lost in Space.

That was a black and white adventure series about a family of space travelers, who bounced around from planet to planet, adventure to adventure, always trying to find their way home, but never quite getting there.

Reminds me a lot of how college planning works, including standardized testing. 

Parents (and kids) bounce around all over the place, getting conflicting, "adventurous" thoughts and advice form other parents, kids, guidance counselors, maybe even (artificial intelligence) robots about standardized testing, like:

• Don't take either the SAT or ACT, colleges don't need them
• Don't submit your scores
• You have to submit your scores if you're not a minority applicant
• You have to submit your scores if you want to get scholarships
• The SAT is better for kids good at math
• If you're bad at science, don't take the ACT
• Study for both the SAT and...

I uploaded last week's webinar on the New Rules of Financial Aid  to our podcast,  The College Planning Edge. 

(Yes, I too have a podcast.)

The changes affect families applying for aid next year, who have more than child in college at the same time, as well as divorced families and small business owners.  

I'll be blunt:  most of the new rules are pretty sucky.  But some of the other ones ain't all bad, like the ones covering grandparents who help pay for college, and parents who contribute to their retirement accounts.

I also predicted delays and confusion surrounding the entire process.  That will be fun.  Not.

Here's where you can listen to this episode, and the tips and strategies I offered to cope...

...and get your hands on the financial aid and scholarships you deserve to take a bite out of the insane cost of college!

POCAST EPISODE

- Andy "Long Time Listener, First Time Caller" Lockwood

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