By CampusCompare

Early decision (ED) is an increasingly popular choice for college applications. The reason? Well, actually there are a couple.

First of all, by applying early, students get their admissions notifications early: try around December 15, the same time that regular decision applications are due. This can be a huge relief, knowing where you will be attending college an entire semester before your fellow students.

Another advantage, and a hotly contested one, is that there is evidence that applying early increases your chances of being admitted in the first place, especially among elite colleges. Schools like Amherst College and University of Pennsylvania boast significantly higher acceptance rates for students applying early—almost double that of their regular decision counterparts.

But beware: early decision has some serious pitfalls. For starters, you are locked into admissions should you be accepted. So if you are just starting your college search, you might be jumping the gun by committing to one school. Some schools have, instead, an Early Action deadline which gives you the same early admittance but without being tied down to that school.

Although the acceptance rates for ED can be significantly higher, you should take into account the competitiveness of the application pool. Early Decision applications need stellar junior year grades, as colleges won’t get to see any senior year transcripts. Applicants also tend to be very motivated, as they have already done a lot of college research early. While ED can help you if you are already a competitive applicant, it is not a miracle for mediocre students looking for admissions into a competitive college. Look at your college admissions chances objectively: if you are already competitive applicant, but could use a boost than early decision might help.

Another problem with being locked into ED is that you have no freedom to compare financial aid offers. If finances are even a minor factor in your decision, you should seriously rethink applying Early Decision. By applying to multiple schools, you are able to compare offers from different schools and even use them as bargaining chips against each other.

Basically, unless you are positive that you want to go to a college, and positive that you can afford 100% of the tuition (or the school promises to meet 100% of all demonstrated financial need), early decision college applications might not be for you.

CampusCompare is a free college search engine with tons of interactive tools and blogs that help you find your best-fit college. Check out more at http://www.campuscompare.com.

Posted: under College Applications, College Classes, College Search, Standardized Testing, Uncategorized.
Tags: college admissions

Comments (0) Oct 20 2009

By Kevin Ladd, Vice President, Scholarships.com
05/21/2009

Each year at about this time, I see students, desperate for financial aid of any kind, begin to despair juuuust a bit. “This scholarship is due in two days… I can’t put together a application/winning essay that quickly!” or something along those lines.  Others complain that the deadlines have passed for many of the scholarships for which they might have applied. There is only really one solution for this and that is for you to begin searching for scholarships earlier in the year.”

I wrote this article for Campus Compare. You can read the rest here!

Posted: under Back to School, College Costs, College News, FAFSA, Financial Aid, Scholarships, Tips, Uncategorized.

Comments (0) May 21 2009

by CampusCompare
5/21/2009

Every year, high school students across the country rip open the fat admissions envelope from their first-choice only to be thrown a curve ball. Their dream school may have let them in, but they got bubkiss, zero, and zilch in financial aid. Then, just when they thought they were out of luck, they get a hefty scholarship from one of their safeties. Now they are forced to decide between the school of their dreams, and the scholarship of their dreams.

Unfortunately, this is an all-too common scenario. Students often receive more aid from their safety schools than from their first choices. This is because they are generally overqualified, and thus more desirable, to the admissions committee at the less prestigious school. Admissions counselors aren’t foolish. Stats like class rank and SATs are reported by the school, and help make up their reputation. They want to boost their school’s stats by having students at the top of their high school class attend. To lure those top students, they often offer large merit scholarships and grants. And the first-choice schools? They are often much more competitive, so it can be hard to stand out from the crowd and win an award.

So what can you do if you’re stuck between your dream-school and being debt-free? Is it better to attend your 2nd (or 3rd) choice school and not have to take out loans, or to hold out for your no. 1? There’s really no one answer. In general, it’s wise to not borrow more money than you will be making your first-year out of college—this means (for most people) no more than 30-40 thousand dollars for all four years of college. This can easily be done in low interest federal loans. If going to your dream school means taking out $100,000 in private loans, you’ll probably be better off going to a less prestigious school and staying out of debt. Try to compare costs of both colleges side-by-side to see if the difference in aid really tips the scales. Maybe after seeing what both schools have to offer, you’ll decide second-best is actually pretty good. Most colleges offer a good education, and even if it’s not their first choice, most students grow to love their school once they’ve moved in and made friends.

Don’t give up just yet. If you really believe that you’ll be better off at your dream-school, you can make it happen. Try and make up for the lack of financial aid with some private scholarships. Search for corporations, non-profits, and local scholarships designed for students like you. Even if it’s just $500 here and there, in the end it will all add up to the difference between going to your 1st choice and settling for second-best.

CampusCompare is a free website that helps college-bound students find the right school for them by offering free college search tools, like the Financial Aid Calculator, information on 15 categories of college life for over 3,000 colleges, and expert, hype-free college admissions advice.  Check us out at http://www.campuscompare.com

Posted: under Back to School, College Costs, College News, College and the Economy, Financial Aid, Scholarships, Tips, Uncategorized.

Comments (0) May 21 2009

Earlier this week, we blogged about new financial aid opportunities for unemployed adults returning to college. What we didn’t mention were all of the forms of financial aid that adults returning to college can already receive. An article in USA Today discusses a number of these options, but we’d like to highlight a few that may be especially useful to people using the recession as an opportunity to return to school.

Federal grant programs have gotten a boost in recent years, and thanks to changes in the way unemployment is treated, more adults returning to school may find themselves eligible for larger grants sooner. If you worked full-time in 2008 but are attending college full-time in 2009, talk to a financial aid administrator after you’ve completed the FAFSA. You may qualify for more aid than you’re initially awarded.

Older students also qualify for more in federal student loans than traditional undergraduate students. Since adults who have dependents, are married, have served in the military, or are over the age of 24 are considered independent, they are eligible for larger federal Stafford loans. Freshmen alone can borrow up to $9,500 through this program, and amounts increase with grade levels.

Finally, a number of scholarship opportunities are available specifically for adults returning to college. In fact, one of the awards offered by Scholarships.com is available to students over 30. Interested parties can read more about the Resolve to Evolve Scholarship and then conduct a free college scholarship search to see what else is out there.

Posted: under College Grants, FAFSA, Financial Aid, Scholarships, Student Loans, Uncategorized.

Comments (0) May 13 2009

It seems Sallie Mae wants nothing to do with PLUS Loans and it’s possible many other lenders will be reticent to bid on the graduate student and parent targeted loans at the upcoming “auction”. Supposedly, the government is not allowing lenders to make enough money on these loans for it to be sufficiently profitable so they are opting to invest their capital elsewhere.

Some are claiming this is a ploy to get a larger cut than what the government currently allows. This certainly isn’t out of the question, and it seems likely that Sallie Mae would participate if the “price were right”, but this is likely beside the point to those seeking financial aid for college. They just want to know how they are going to pay for school if nobody wants to underwrite their PLUS Loan.

There is no question it’s difficult to get a loan for education these days and getting more so by the day. Naturally, it would be ideal if every student attending college next year could find sufficient scholarships, grants and other “free” money to pay for their entire education but we are all well aware that is fairly unlikely for most. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. It is rare that those who do, somehow, find a way to get through college without taking out loans are not quite surprised themselves. The key is to search for scholarships and to do so with the belief you can win. Because you can. You probably won’t win them all, but you might win some of them, right? Improve your odds by applying to as many as you can from now until every deadline has passed! You may not get all of your tuition paid for (some of you will, though!) but that’s no reason not to try, right? Some of you will be able to pay about half, or even more than half and that’s huge. Even if you were able to get $3,000 a year? Or even $2,000? Maybe go to state school instead of that pricey private college you were going to attend. Now that $3,000 is much more substantial, isn’t it? Consider all of these things and conduct a free scholarship search today and see what’s available out there before you start looking at loans.

Back to PLUS Loans and Sallie Mae’s absence from the upcoming auction. The idea is that lenders actually have to “bid” on the loans by stating their lowest acceptable federal subsidy rate they are willing to accept to make the loan. They have to give their absolute best offer in competition with other lenders, which should, in theory, benefit those taking out the loans. This “auction” format began just a couple of years ago and may already be on its way out, as President Obama has called for the elimination of the entire guaranteed-loan program. Naturally, this puts further strain on those still trying to move forward with the auction, which will now be without Sallie Mae, who makes 40% of PLUS Loans in the guaranteed-loan program. It is difficult to know how big an impact this will have on the event, but you can rest assured it does not bode well for students counting on PLUS Loans to fund their education.

Posted: under College Costs, College and the Economy, Financial Aid, Graduate School, Scholarships, Uncategorized.
Tags: loans, PLUS Loan, Scholarships

Comments (0) Mar 13 2009