For the newly initiated, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) has traditionally become available at 12:00 am ET on New Year’s Eve. And completing one by the time college game day kicks-off the next day is a long-standing College Pete New Year’s Day tradition. Cheers to him! The FAFSA is not only the […]

Last week we got two very critical and telling sets of data that give us a lot of insight both into this year’s college applicants’ chances and into the impact that the changes afoot in Admissions and Financial Aid will have on future applicants. The first set of information comes from a higher education symposium […]

A few week’s back, fresh off taking the new Oct 14 PSAT, our 11th grade daughter brought a few friends home to dinner. All had college on their minds; none really wanted to talk about it. Neither did we. And here’s why. Talking college with your teen is a lot like giving or having a […]

The talk we gave last week in Doral was an eye-opener, both for the more than 100 people who attended, and for us. Here’s why. The class was held on November 5th… exactly 3 weeks after FSU’s early (and frankly, more important) Application Deadline and 4 days AFTERthe University of Florida’s one and only Deadline. The workshop was full […]

I love the end of October in Florida!  While it’s getting cold everywhere else, we get the good Heat back (as in the team). Stone crab season starts. The first crisp, sweater weather morning (theoretically, at least) emerges.  And everyday, more and more of our 12th graders are confidently pressing submit on what once seemed like an endless pile of ‘almost perfect’ college […]

October is a VERY busy month in the college planning world. Not only is it crunch time for 12th graders trying to get their applications in early, with the CSS Profile opening on October 1 (and the FAFSA to follow suit next year), but also Financial Aid planning goes to Def Con 1 for their […]

In yet another ‘never a dull moment’ moment in higher ed, President Obama announced yesterday some pretty broad-sweeping changes to the Federal financial aid system.  Though these changes will not afffect current 12th graders – at least for this year — they will have a pretty large and fairly IMMEDIATE impact on many current 11th and 10th graders and the parents who […]

It’s Jill today, with a sideline report from the ongoing battle for market share between previous-upstart turned powerhouse and the current front-runner ACT and its soon-to-be-re-tooled rival and former market leader, The SAT. And.. me thinks the ACT has taken round 1… because.. They’re able to implement.  You see, the SAT continues to struggle with a rather messy roll out of its new and completely overhauled version (scoring scales were […]

What You Can Do To Prevent The Market From Making A Mess of Your College Plan! Well I’m not sure where to start today because there is A LOT that I had wanted to talk about this week – like the fact that the College Board finally released scoring tables for the newly designed SAT, […]

It’s an odd juxtaposition that just as the summer season begins to cool down (in most of the country anyway), college ‘application season’  and its accompanying application anxiety heats up everywhere else.  This particular dispatch is coming to you from way above sea level, at the University of Colorado, in beautiful Boulder, Colorado, where Peter and I had a great visit with Taylor Stratton, the Admissions Counselor […]