It has stuck with me because they illustrated the common mistakes students and parents are making that ultimately cost students their opportunity for admission or cause them to pay more for their college degree than is absolutely necessary.

Here’s what happened:

It was the beginning of the workshop and I asked the audience if anyone had a strategic plan for the college admissions and financial aid process and if so, what was that plan.

Two brave people raised their hands, one a student and one the mother of a student. Both of their plans sounded eerily similar.

“Wonderful. What is your plan?” I asked the mom first.

“Well,” she replied confidently, “we’re currently looking at different colleges trying to decide which ones we’ll apply to. Then, we’ll apply. My son plans on interviewing, as well.”

The minute she started outlining her plan, I recognized the mistakes she was making already.

“Okay, you’re looking at colleges. What is it that your son wants to be, career-wise?”

“He’s undecided.”

“How do you know the schools you’re currently looking at will be the best place for him once he decides what he wants to do?”

Silence.

The student with a plan, on the other hand, had zeroed in on a career goal. But, she admitted that money was a huge consideration for her. She, too, was looking at colleges.

“Do you know your Expected Family Contribution? What the schools will expect you to pay?”

“No.”

“Then how do you know if the colleges you’re considering actually have money to help you pay the bill?”

Again, silence.

Both were making the mistake of looking at colleges as the first step of their plan — and they were completely WRONG!

They were confusing the steps in the process for an actual plan. A plan guides your actions when taking the steps of choosing colleges, creating your application strategy, and so on. The steps of the college admissions process are not a plan of action. They are simply the things you must do to complete the task.

If you’re serious about winning at the college game, you need to create a master plan that will guide your actions. Your plan will ensure you have a purpose behind the steps you must take to complete the college admissions and financial aid process.

Your first steps to creating a plan should be:
1. Set Some Goals: College is not the end game. It is a stepping stone that helps you get to a larger goal – such as a particular job or career. If you don’t have some idea of what your goals are, how do you know if a particular college is going to be the place to help you achieve them?

2. Know Your EFC: Your expected family contribution (EFC) is the minimum amount of money the schools and the federal government will expect you to pay. If you don’t know what you’ll be expected to pay, how on earth can you be selecting colleges?

3. Know the Rules: Like any other game, Admissions and Financial Aid operate under their own sets of rules. If you don’t know the rules, how do you expect to win?

Stop right now and evaluate your current college plan. Do you actually have one or are you mistaking the STEPS you need to take for the plan itself? If so, you need to fix that and FAST!

Failing to do so will cause you to make costly mistakes when it comes to choosing colleges. Choosing the wrong college can cost you or your student:

• Loss of Self-esteem if you don’t get in OR you get in but it’s not the place for you.
• Loss of Time: Transferring or changing majors cost you more time AND more money.
• Loss of Money if you end up paying more than is absolutely necessary for the college degree.

Seniors, you’re almost out of time to get your college plan together.
Juniors, it’s time you start creating your plan.

Don’t wait, because lack of a plan or the wrong plan will cost you – cost you opportunities for admission and opportunities for financial aid to help pay the bill!

Jeanmarie Keller, is an Admissions and Financial Aid Strategist who has advised hundreds of students and their families on how to get NOTICED, get IN and get MONEY to help pay the college bill. She publishes the weekly email newsletter, ‘The College Oracle’. If you’re ready to jump-start your college search, get money to help pay the bill, and have more fun while planning your future success, get your FREE tips now at http://www.kellercollegeservices.com

Author: Jeanmarie Keller
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Guest blogger

That’s often the most difficult part for parents to understand. Just because your child has great grades and good SAT scores, doesn’t necessarily mean he or she is Ivy League material or a shoo-in at every college. So, when strong grades, solid SAT scores and tons of activities are the norm, your problem still remains: how to stand out from the crowd.

The solution is to have a compelling message to deliver to the schools and a plan to communicate it consistently to the right people. It’s going to help you stand apart from the rest of the crowd! And, the key to a good college admissions strategy is your message.

College admissions folks love anything that can help them identify your strengths and communicate them quickly and easily. Your message should make you more “memorable” to the college admissions representative who reads your application. If you have really zeroed in on the right message, it will likely be supported by others — such as your teachers who will be writing your recommendations!

Done well, your message and the strategy you use to deliver it can be powerful tools to get you noticed and in at a particular college, as it did for one of my students, Anita.

Anita’s dad asked me to work with his daughter because she wanted to get in to a highly selective school that had a top-notch reputation in the medical sciences. Exactly the kind of place that fit in with her career goals of following in her physician-father’s footsteps. Anita was a strong candidate for for the school, but she and her dad didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

Anita and I worked together to develop her message to the schools so she would stand out as much as possible from the thousands of others in the admissions office. Together, we developed her strategy to reinforce her two unique qualities — her love of and desire to study math and science plus her extraordinary accomplishments in classical Indian dance.

Her message boiled down to how she was equally at home on the stage and in front of a Bunsen burner. It was concise and, most of all, it was memorable.

She was able to incorporate this message into every part of the college admissions process — as part of her main essay; she was able to integrate it into her interviews. The clarity and consistency of her message made a great impression, as evidenced by comments made by the admissions officer after she was accepted!

Having a comprehensive plan and a strong admissions strategy kept Anita in control of the admissions process rather than letting the admissions process control her. Isn’t that more appealing than “throwing together your applications’ and “hoping for the best”? So, get started taking control…

Your Get NOTICED, Get IN, Get MONEY Assignment:

1. Create your message.

2. Identify who you will communicate your message to.

3. Start communicating that message — consistency is the key!

Jeanmarie Keller, is a college admissions and financial aid expert and creator of the Get NOTICED, Get IN, Get MONEY System, the proven step-by- step program that shows you exactly how to get NOTICED in the college admissions office, get IN at the colleges right for you, and get MONEY to help pay the college bill. To claim your F.R.E.E. audio CD: “Finding Cash For College” and receive weekly admissions and financial aid tips and strategies, go to http://www.JeanKeller.com

Author: Jeanmarie Keller
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Cool mobile gadgets

You’ve completed your college application.You breathe a sigh of relief as you click “Submit” or drop the envelope in the mail. Your application and all of your supporting materials work their way to the desk of the admissions officer at your number onechoice school. Where it is added to the stack of, depending on the school, 450, 700, 1000, maybe even 1500 or more applications.

How do you intend to stand out? How will you make yourself memorable in the average 7-9 minutes the admissions rep spends to review your application? Your message – some call it a “hook” – as part of a college admissions strategy will make the difference in getting NOTICED.Done correctly at the right schools, will get you IN and get you MONEY to help pay the bill.

Now I know you’re thinking… “my friends aren’t doing this” (they should be) or “is this really necessary?”

You can get through the college admissions process without a strategy – it’s possible. Yet, every year, you hear the stories of students who didn’t get in to a choice college. They had the GPA, the SAT scores, a laundry list of activities but they are left scratching their heads wondering why they didn’t get in. With few exceptions, the one thing that could have made the difference for a student was a strategy that helped them organize and present themselves better to the colleges.

Your College Admissions Strategy should be part of the larger, longer range plan. College is a stepping stone, not the end game. It is part of a plan to get to a particular career or a particular goal you have set for yourself. Your plan guides your actions when taking the steps of choosing colleges, creating your application strategy, and so on.The steps of the college admissions process are not a plan of action. They are simply the things you must do to complete the task.

If you’re serious about winning at the college game, you need to create a master plan that will guide your actions.Your plan will ensure you have a purpose behind the steps you must take to complete the college admissions and financial aid process. Your admissions strategy, as a piece of this plan, will help you put your best foot forward with the colleges.

So, yes, you could choose not to do this and realize your mistake if you don’t get in or you miss out on a scholarship – but, there will be nothing you can do about it at that point. You’ll just be one of the students saying “But I thought I would get in…”

Jeanmarie Keller, Admissions and Financial Aid Strategist who has advised hundreds of students and their families on how to develop their strategies to get NOTICED, get IN and get MONEY to help pay the college bill.

She publishes the award-winning, weekly newsletter, ‘The College Oracle’. If you’re ready to jump-start your college search, get money to help pay the bill, and have more fun while planning your future success, visit her on the web at http://www.jeankeller.com

Author: Jeanmarie Keller
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Mobile device news