Musings on the start of the college hunt
A mailer from Roosevelt University, featuring the 'Cloud Gate' in Chicago's Millennium Park.
My wife and I recently realized we wouldn’t be talking about anything else for the next eight months but college admissions and financial aid. Those of you who are parents: Remember when the kids were born and you couldn’t talk about anything but poop and sleep? This is the next self-absorbed stage of our lives, now that our daughter is starting the college search in earnest.
- I am flabbergasted at the amount of money colleges spend on marketing. They don’t even know if my daughter is interested in their program. They don’t even know if she’s academically qualified for admission. We have received extraordinary, glossy, four-color publications from universities that, frankly, I don’t think would accept my daughter.
- How do you like that mailer from Roosevelt University? See the name in the clouds, and (improbably) reflected in the Cloud Gate in Chicago’s Millennium Park? Well, that’s my daughter’s first name. Amazing.
- Thanks to my friend Scott Anderson, here’s a link to Mashable’s 10 Ways to Use Social Media to Pick a College. So far, we’ve just started to scratch the surface.
- Facebook, of course, is the go-to site for my daughter. She’s found and quizzed current students and alumni at several schools she’s considering.
- I’ve registered on Scholarships.com and filled out all the information about my daughter. So far, I’m not impressed with the results.
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http://www.fastweb.com is a better search engine for private scholarship searches. That being said, these private scholarships are a SMALL part of the money available, contrary to popular belief. Your time would be better spent developing a strategic college plan that includes not only helping your daughter find colleges, but also the financial aid aspects. Waiting until it's time to file for financial aid will be too late. There are strategies you could be employing right now that can yield better results. But, you need a plan.
Kurt, please feel free to check out our website at http://www.CollegeWeekLive.com . We are a virtual college fair, actually the biggest college fair in the world, online or offline. We work with over 225 colleges and universities, from the United States and abroad, to bring together all the critical information for college admissions in one convenient location. These institutions range from Yale, Dartmouth and Stanford to Georgia Tech, Florida State and HBCU's like Spelman and Alabama State. While our events are 'live' prospective students can chat with admissions or financial aid reps and get the answers to their important questions. Save yourself, your daughter, and your family some stress by going online to help narrow down the list of schools before you begin visiting.
I remember thinking the same thing about the slick marketing pieces. Wait till you endure the same speech during six different college tours. Ugh. By the way, unless you plan on making scholarship research a full time job, or Sarah is committed to writing a LOT of additional essays and filling out paperwork, don't waste your time on the scholarship sites. Been there. Done that.
Thanks, Marijean. Yeah, you're probably right about the scholarships. And Sarah's dance card is already filling up pretty quickly.
I remember thinking the same thing about the slick marketing pieces. Wait till you endure the same speech during six different college tours. Ugh. By the way, unless you plan on making scholarship research a full time job, or Sarah is committed to writing a LOT of additional essays and filling out paperwork, don't waste your time on the scholarship sites. Been there. Done that.
Thanks, Marijean. Yeah, you're probably right about the scholarships. And Sarah's dance card is already filling up pretty quickly.
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