[0:03] there. Uh my name is Cozy Whitman and I am with College Inside Track and we're going to talk about four strategies for [0:10] a smarter college search. If you're unfamiliar with College Inside Track, uh [0:16] we've been helping families navigate the college search process for nearly 20 years. Our goal is the same for every [0:22] family to make sure students find right fit schools. And we would define that as the right academic fit for the student, [0:30] the right social fit for the student because your kids are people on a college campus too, but also the right [0:35] financial fit, meaning that the actual cost of attendance aligns with what your [0:41] family game plan is for paying for college. One of the things that we find to be true is that when we give families [0:48] really good information to make solid decisions by, it just naturally brings down that stress level that um sometimes [0:55] occurs around the college search process. All right, before we wrap today, uh you [1:01] will understand the use of the FAFSA, how it gets used, and how it might impact both acceptance and cost. We'll [1:08] talk about how the list of selective schools continues to grow. Um, we'll also discuss grade inflation and its [1:15] impact on both testing, acceptance, and cost. And then lastly, you'll understand [1:21] the different ways that you can apply to a school, including whether or not you want early decision to be part of that [1:27] process. I always think it's good though to start with a little um state of the state, if [1:34] you will. Today, if we look over the last 30 years, what we see is that our [1:40] public flagship universities, these are the main colleges in the state, um that [1:46] our flagship schools have outpaced in cost both their public peers and their [1:52] private peers. Private schools have actually only gone up about 415%. [1:58] When you compare it to our flagship schools, that's a pittance, if you will. Our very own University of Minnesota has [2:05] gone up 570%. Our neighbors right next door, University of Wisconsin, up 1,047%. [2:13] The highest I found so far, Yukon, University of Connecticut has actually increased their prices almost 1,400% in [2:22] the last 30 years. I sit down and chat college with [2:27] families. I do this every day of the week except Sunday. I probably meet three to 400 families a year. And one of [2:34] the things I ask the student is tell me some schools you're kind of sort of interested in. And I'm here to tell you [2:39] that your kids are bubbling up schools of interest that fall in the categories of these first four or five schools. The [2:47] thing I want to point out though are the bottom three. These are the flagship schools of their states. Um and you can [2:54] see that these are all over um $30,000 a year. And that's what we see nationwide. [3:00] The flagship schools really are somewhere in the 35 to 40,000. UC Berkeley an outlier there at 51,000. But [3:08] your very own University of Minnesota, the Golden Gophers, in 2026 will be charging $40,000 a year to attend their [3:17] university. All right, let's take a quiz. This obviously play along at home kind of [3:23] moment. What percentage of students do you think transfer at least one time? Is that [3:30] number 6%, is it 14%, 25, 38, or 42%. [3:41] It turns out today that the national transfer rate sits at 38%. So 38% of [3:48] kids go off to college, discover they've made a poor choice, and need to leave and go to another school. Of the 38% who [3:56] do that once, almost half of those kids do it yet again, 46% [4:03] of the kids that transferred one time transfer a second time, going on to a third school. Now, I bring this up [4:10] because this actually increases the cost of the student's degree. So, one of the [4:15] easiest ways to keep the price of college down is by making sure your student finds a good choice the very [4:22] first time. Which means you have to dive deeper into academic, social, and [4:29] financial fit than cool campus, love the sports teams, and I thought the dorms [4:34] were really cool, right? Or my boyfriend, girlfriend is going there, or my best group of friends is going to [4:40] that school. Um, we want to keep the price of college down. When your student changes schools just once, going from [4:46] one public institution to another public institution, it increases the cost of [4:51] that degree by about $14,000. We haven't even included private schools in this [4:56] mix yet. And when they go and do that twice, like that 46%, it increases the [5:02] cost of the degree by $24,000. [5:08] So, I want to kick this off by talking about financial aid. I meet a lot of families and they often kick off our [5:15] conversation by saying something like, "Well, we're not going to qualify for any financial aid." And what they [5:21] actually mean is that they're not going to qualify for needbased aid. But when [5:27] colleges talk about financial aid, they're actually not just talking about need-based aid. They are also including [5:35] their merit scholarship dollars. And guess what? Most of those schools are also looping in loans to this [5:41] conversation. Now, I don't know about you guys, I do not think about loans as aid. You have to pay those back. These [5:48] two need and merit are gifts. Loans are not a gift. You have to pay them back. [5:54] Right? So, um just know that the colleges are incorporating those on [5:59] their college websites when they say the average student gets about x amount of [6:04] financial aid on our campus. you should know that that's a combination of need, merit, and loans. So, if it's true that [6:12] your family will not qualify for need already, the number they're showing you [6:17] irrelevant. So, it's important to keep that in mind because sometimes the numbers you see on [6:22] a college campus as the averages, the average student on our campus pays X. it [6:28] is being influenced by all three of those things and likely does not reflect what you will actually pay on that [6:35] college campus. All right, we're going to start this off by talking about need-based aid. There [6:42] are two forms that your family might bump into to um see if you qualify for [6:48] financial need. And um I want to be clear here, some of you may qualify for [6:53] need-based aid from the federal government. I'm not going to cover that today because a whole bunch of families [6:59] in the country do not. And so when I'm referring to need-based aid, I'm actually referring specifically to the [7:06] aid you might get from colleges, which is different than what you would get [7:11] from the federal government. So there are two forms that you may bump into as [7:16] your students applying to schools. The first form is called the FAFSA form. Most people are at least familiar with [7:22] the terminology. it actually stands the letters FAFSA stand for the free application for federal student aid. [7:30] Some schools and these tend to be more selective um both public and private [7:35] though. So for instance UNC Chapel Hill, University of Texas, University of Michigan use these forms as do Chicago, [7:42] Rice, Stanford, Duke, all the um highly selective schools um use something [7:47] called the CSS profile. These two forms kick out something called the student [7:52] aid index or your SAI. The SAI goes off to the colleges and that's what they're [7:59] going to use to determine whether or not you qualify. So they will take their sticker price. they will subtract the [8:08] student aid index and if there is a positive number left over you have need [8:13] and then they will have a gifting philosophy that says we cover x percentage of need. [8:20] So what is the formula of the FAFSA that helps determine that student aid index? [8:26] Well, there are two groups of people that have to include their information on a FAFSA form. The first are parents. [8:34] When we look at the parent assessment, what we see is that your income is being assessed at 47% way the heck up here, [8:42] but your assets only being assessed at 5.64%. So, your income is much more likely to [8:50] kick you out of the need-based space, much more so than your assets. Now, if [8:55] you have 529 plans, those are actually counted at the parent asset amount, that [9:00] 5.64%. This is a good thing because this is much lower than the student as you will [9:07] see. And sometimes people complain that, oh, we did the right thing. We saved for [9:13] college. Now we're being penalized for it. I'm here to tell you, you are not being penalized for it. That 5.64% [9:21] assessment is teenytiny compared to the interest that college savings plan has [9:27] made for you over the years that you've had the money in there. The other thing I will tell you is when people don't [9:33] have savings for college, often that space has to get filled with loans and [9:39] the interest rate on loans will also far surpass this little teeny tiny 5.64%. [9:46] So you are not being penalized for saving. Saving for college is a good thing. [9:53] Students also have to include their information because of course it's their FAFSA form. This is not a family form. [9:59] it is a student form. And so when we look at the student assessment rates, what we see is that their assets at four [10:06] times higher assessment rate. They're up at 20% and then their income up at 50. [10:12] Good news. Most of your students don't have enough of either of these to really impact the outcome of your FAFSA. [10:19] If you have a third party, I've got grandparents here, but it doesn't have to be grandparents. It could be godparents. It could be an aunt, an [10:27] uncle, anybody who wants to help your student pay for college, they can do so. And their information is never included [10:34] in a FAFSA. And this includes any 529 plans that are not the parents. So if [10:39] grandma and grandpa have a 529 plan and they're going to help students pay for college, that does not get reported on [10:46] the FAFSA form. Now, um I've got uh four tips for you [10:52] today. This is the first one. you really can't manipulate a FAFSA, right? So, um even though I said on the previous [10:58] slide, Grandma Gramp's 529 plans um aren't going to get counted, that is not a good reason to suddenly shift all your [11:05] 529 plans into a FAFSA because remember, while their information is not getting [11:11] included at all, your 529 plan is only getting assessed at this tiny 5.64%. [11:17] So, don't worry too much about that. My first tip for you here um under not [11:24] being able to manipulate your FAFSA is one, you can't remove yourself as a parent. The status of independence, when [11:31] you look at the very specific criteria that makes a student independent, it is [11:36] intended for many other people, not typically an 18-year-old who's going off [11:42] to college. Don't include qualified retirement [11:47] accounts. So, if you have a 401k, a 403b, a Roth IRA, a regular IRA, none of [11:55] those get included in a FAFSA form, you also don't want to include your primary [12:01] residence, your home. Now, if you're lucky enough to have a vacation home somewhere, like a cabin, um you do have [12:07] to include that. You do not have to include your primary residence. [12:13] If you have divorce as part of your um family status, um only one parent is [12:20] going to fill out that FAFSA form. And the way you determine that today is based on who is financially supporting [12:27] that student the most. So, um [12:32] it's not based on um who's claiming that student is a dependent on taxes. It's [12:38] not based on custody. It is 100% based on who is financially [12:45] supporting that student. Now, what they didn't do at the federal level is to find support. [12:52] So, what I tell people is just be able to support in documentation whatever [12:59] decision you decide to make. If you have multiple kids in college at [13:05] the same time, this is not going to impact your need. So, when you fill out student A's FAFSA form, your income is [13:12] going to get assessed at 47%. And when you fill out student B's FAFSA form, [13:17] your income's going to be assessed at 47%. So, in essence, if you have two kids in college, the formula is going to [13:25] assume that you're able to spend 94% of your income on college, which I just am [13:32] imagining that's not the game plan, but uh it is the way the formula rolls. And [13:37] if you think this is unfair, as many people do, write the people that represent you. Why? Because it could get [13:44] changed. They did revise one of the 2024 changes that business owners thought was [13:51] unfair. So, um, the 2024 changes rolled out. Those rule changes said that [13:58] farmers and business owners did need to include their assets. This past summer [14:03] in the big budget bill that passed, they revised it and said, "Nope, that's not fair. Farmers and small business owners [14:12] with fewer than a 100red employees do not need to include their assets or the [14:18] value of their business. So again, if you want bullet four changed, just write [14:24] the people that represent you and let them know that you don't think that this formula reflects the fair impact to [14:31] families. Um, when you're filling out your FAFSA form, don't include sibling 529 plans. [14:39] So you only want to include the 529 plan for the student for whom you're filling [14:44] out the FAFSA form. And then lastly, one of the things I do want to say is um sometimes high net [14:51] worth families think like, "Oh, that FAFSA is going to be a waste of my time. I'm not doing that." Here's what I want [14:57] you to know. It is super common practice in the college industry to accept [15:04] students at a higher rate where the financial aid forms have been filled out over the families who did not fill out a [15:11] form. So, I highly recommend you fill out your FAFSA form. [15:16] The other thing that we know is true is that a lot of colleges around the country actually tie scholarship dollars [15:24] to people who filled out those forms, right? So, fill out your forms. You might be boosting your scholarship [15:30] money, not your need-based money, right? Maybe you're not need-based, but you are boosting your merit scholarship dollars [15:36] and you're likely giving your student a leg up. One question I get asked frequently is, [15:41] "When am I supposed to be filling this thing out?" October of your students senior year is the very first time that [15:49] you will fill out a FAFSA form. And then I recommend you just drop it on your calendar for the next three years. [15:55] You're going to fill it out in the fall every single year until your student graduates from college. Again, the first [16:01] time would be in October of your student's senior year of high school. [16:08] All right. Okay, I want to transition over now and start talking about pricing and how colleges price their products. [16:16] Um, you may not find yourself to be need-based. Lots and lots of families don't. And if that's true, that doesn't [16:23] mean necessarily you'd have to just shrug your shoulders and pay full price everywhere. So, I want to help you [16:28] understand how colleges price their product and then how you can be a little [16:34] bit more strategic in thinking about what you actually want to pay for a college education. The first thing we [16:42] need to do is get you playing on the 2025 game board of let's go to college. When I meet with families, one of the [16:48] things that I find is true is that most parents are trying to do college search [16:53] like it's 1995. So, they've got a 30-year-old notion of [16:58] how the college landscape works. And I'm here to tell you, it does not work like that anymore. The world has changed [17:05] pretty significantly in the scholarship space and the pricing of the product [17:11] space, right? Just like phone plans don't work like they used to work back 30 years ago. Um, this is also true for [17:19] college pricing. So today, I want you to get rid of thoughts that still say,"Hey, [17:26] if you leave the state, it's going to be more expensive. If you go to a private school, it's going to be more expensive." Right? That's how I started [17:31] my searches. I was like, "Stay in the state. Go to a state school." Because I just thought that was going to be less [17:37] expensive for our family. We have five kids. I had real concerns. I was the mom [17:42] up at 3:00 a.m. wondering how I was going to pay for college for five kids. So, I'm going to use my bottom three. [17:48] They were very traditional college searches. The top two less so. The bottom three students, one of my [17:56] kids went to our flagship school. I'm in Minnesota, so the uh University of Minnesota. [18:02] One of my kids went to a private school in another state. And one of my kids went to an outofstate [18:08] public institution. Of those three, [18:14] the least expensive was the private school. It was $10,000 [18:21] less a year than the University of Minnesota, followed by the outofstate [18:27] public institution. So, the out ofstate state school, it was $8,000 less a year [18:33] than the University of Minnesota. And the University of Minnesota was our most expensive option. [18:40] So, it's so important to get out of thinking about the world like we used to think about it. Now, schools are either [18:47] flexing their pricing or they're not flexing their pricing. And these are not good or bad. These just are. And you [18:53] just have to understand where the school stands. How do they price their product? Are they going to flex it for you? Or [19:00] when they show you the price, is that the price? Right? So, for instance, the University of Minnesota is not going to [19:06] flex their price. 35,000 a year this year. Your student might get a,000 bucks [19:12] over there. That's a lot of cash at the University of Minnesota, maybe two, but [19:17] you're not getting $10,000 out of them, right? So, it's not going to go from 35 down to 25 or down to 20. It's going to [19:25] go from 35 to maybe 33. So, that's pretty inflexible. Now, if that meets [19:31] your budget, that's a good thing. And maybe you don't care then that they are inflexible. And that's okay. Again, this [19:39] is not good or bad. It just is. Can they meet your budget numbers or no? Also inflexible would be all of the selective [19:46] schools, right? So, University of Chicago, $93,000 a year, whatever [19:51] they're charging over 90,000 today. That is also inflexible. So, if you are [19:57] not need-based at that school, you will pay every penny of their 90,000 plus [20:03] dollars. University of Michigan, $82,000 a year. If you're from Minnesota, you're going to pay every penny of $82,000 a [20:11] year. So sometimes people assume that public schools are always cheaper. They're not always cheaper, right? So [20:17] it's important to keep that in mind. They're also flexibly priced public institutions. I'll stick with Michigan. [20:24] If your students open to Western Michigan, those guys don't charge out of state pricing. Everybody goes for [20:30] instate pricing. Some of the mountain states autocon convert you into residents after a year. Those are all [20:37] public institutions that are flexing their pricing. Uh schools like a St. Thomas, a St. [20:43] Kate's, Gustavis, St. Olaf, Drake, Kraton, Quinnipiac, uh Puget Sound, there are all kinds of [20:49] schools like this show you one price, but if we went to those campuses and gathered up thousands of kids, we [20:56] wouldn't find anybody paying that price. So, it's important to understand if they [21:01] are flexibly or inflexibly priced. And you can't use the old norms of instate, out of state, public, and private. [21:09] Today, colleges are your single largest source of scholarship dollars. [21:15] I do not recommend going out on the internet and trying to find private scholarships that fit your student. That [21:22] will be by and large a waste of your time. Local scholarships, totally fine. [21:27] go out and and apply to all the local scholarships. So, your school will usually have your high school will have [21:32] a list of all the local private or excuse me, all the local sponsored um scholarship dollars. 100% apply for [21:40] those. Just don't go out on the internet looking at those scholarship aggregators. The average student has to [21:45] apply to between 50 and 80 of those. And the average award amount, [21:51] $1,900, right? Congrats. about books, but your students spent hours and hours and hours on the internet. So, don't do [21:58] that. Today, the way you control the price of college, but also acceptance, by the way, is based on the schools that [22:06] make it to the list in the first place. So, if you put a bunch of inflexibles [22:12] who have price tags of $90,000 on your list, but you're hoping to pay $45,000, [22:18] you're not going to meet your goals. There are not going to be scholarship dollars there for you. The key component [22:26] to a well-honed college list is that it meets your students academic and social [22:31] goals, but also can get you to the prices that you're hoping to pay for a [22:36] college education. And the school list is going to determine that. secondary [22:42] factors that certainly influence both acceptance and cost um are the decisions [22:48] your student makes in high school and then how they tell their story big picture. [22:55] So, what I'm really talking about here is being a competitive applicant. [23:01] What do I mean by that? I do not mean every kid's got to be a 4.0. That is not [23:06] what I'm saying at all. What I do want you to think about is what schools will [23:13] your students GPA, no matter what it is, get them into the put them, excuse me, [23:19] in the top third of the incoming freshman class for that [23:24] college. Not only will looking for schools that put you in the top third [23:33] increase your likelihood of acceptance increase your scholarship dollars. It [23:38] will also increase your students likelihood of success by 40%. [23:46] Students who are in the top third have a 40% higher likelihood of success than if [23:52] they go to a college where they are in the bottom third of their freshman class. I don't know why you would choose [23:58] one where your kids in the bottom third, reducing their likelihood of graduation from that school [24:05] by 40%. Right? Choose schools where they're in the top third. Quality of activities [24:12] over quantity. I don't need your student buried in um in activities to be [24:18] interesting to colleges. And we're going to talk more about that here in a little bit. Be demographically interesting. [24:24] This is so easy to do. And again, most of us cut ourselves off, right? I did the same thing. Stay in the state, go to [24:30] a state school. That was me. Um it turns out my kids and your kids way more [24:36] interesting out of our area than in our area. And this is true for everybody, [24:41] right? Um, St. Thomas in St. Paul does not need one more Minnesota applicant. [24:48] They get plenty of those, but Quinnipic would sure like them, right? U Puget [24:54] Sound would love to see them. So, it's important to keep that in mind. This is a huge boost. Every school wants to say [25:01] they've got one kid from all 50 states and 37 countries around the world. So, if your students want to go far away, [25:08] start checking it out. Don't automatically chop them down and say there's no way. [25:14] Demonstrated interest is an interaction between your student and the school. Big universities don't track this as much as [25:21] smaller universities. They are certainly tracking this at schools like Baylor, University of Dallas, um Lewis and [25:28] Clark. There are tons of schools where they are tracking this. Um and so um [25:33] interacting with the school is a big plus. Transcript rigor also matters. It [25:40] matters because at the end of the day, the schools want to bring kids to their campus who are going to be successful. [25:45] And one of the ways a student can demonstrate that success is by taking on a little bit of rigor while they're in [25:51] high school. This does not mean they have to be buried in AP or PSO style classes. They don't. But if they can [25:59] just dip their toe in just a little bit, that's a good thing. Demonstrating [26:05] collegiate level work while you're in high school helps the college feel better about bringing you on board. And [26:10] by the way, this brings a lot more money to the table. And then lastly, how your student tells [26:17] their story matters. The colleges do read essays. They are looking at the [26:24] applications. It's an important part of this process. We spend a ton of time with our students on their essays and [26:30] their applications. This is not just a check the box moment. [26:36] All right. My second tip for you is understand early decision. [26:41] Um I think that it is very confusing for families the different application ways [26:46] that you can apply. The biggest confusion is between early decision ED and early action EA. These are very [26:55] different things. So early decision it's right in the title. It's a decision. [27:01] It's a commitment to the college that says I am coming. If you let me in, my [27:06] answer is yes and I will withdraw all my other applications. For that reason, I [27:13] would love to see you use it strategically if you're going to use it. Make sure it's actually giving your student a boost to getting in. Some [27:20] schools may only accept 10 or 11% of their um freshman classes out of early [27:26] decision pools. Wake Forest last year took 58%. So obviously at Wake Forest that's a [27:33] huge boost. At uh University of Virginia it's 32%. Huge boost. 10% not so much. [27:40] And I'm not sure it's worth it for what you're giving up. Um using early [27:46] decision does not mean that you can't apply to other schools. You can. You just can't apply to them early decision. [27:52] But you could totally use early action. Early action says to the school or early [27:58] application, you'll see it both ways. Says to the school, I love you so much. I got my act together and got all this [28:03] stuff out the door, but I'm leaving my options open. Right? Um it is not a committed application. [28:11] Don't use early decision if you cannot afford full fair [28:17] at the school. So when you look at their total cost of attendance, [28:24] if you can't afford that, don't let your student apply early decision because at the end of the day, once you've [28:30] committed, you've in essence taken off the pressure of the school to worry [28:35] about whether or not you're coming. And if you put all your eggs in that single basket, they have no reason to give you [28:41] money. You've told them before you know your financial award that you're going to come. So there's no incentive for [28:47] them to give you any scholarship dollars, right? So just make sure you can afford full fair. Now, if you can [28:54] afford full fair at that school and it gives you a boost up, early decision is [28:59] a great tool to use. Um, if you can't afford the school, then my suggestion is [29:05] to use early action or EA. [29:12] All right. I like to give people an understanding of just how selective [29:17] brand schools are getting. Um, a lot of people think the highly selective schools are just the Ivy's. The Ivy's [29:24] are simply eight schools. The highly selective schools probably go to the top [29:30] 50 or 75 even schools in the country. These are schools that have acceptance [29:35] rates under 30%. And there are a ton of them. And every year there are more and [29:41] more. And it's not because more people are applying. It's because the same kids are applying to more schools. If we look [29:48] back a decade, the average student applied to between about nine schools. [29:55] Today, the average student is applying to 43 schools. 43 is a crazy number. Do not [30:03] let your student apply to 43 schools. It does not help them get in. The way you [30:08] get into highly selective schools is by having a high quality application, not by throwing a ton of pieces of spaghetti [30:15] against the wall and hoping someone sticks. That is not how you get into those schools. So, it's really important [30:22] to keep that in mind. And I also want students to just really think about this, right? Do you want to put your [30:28] energy and time into an application where you've only got a 6 and a half% [30:35] likelihood of winning? Right? And sometimes kids are like, "Yeah, okay." [30:41] You know, you can read it behind their ear, behind their eyes, so you're telling me there's a chance. Um, at the [30:47] end of the day, I want kids to think about it this way. If you invited somebody to go to a dance with you, and [30:53] they said yes, and then they quantified that by saying, "Well, there's about a [30:59] six and a half percent chance that I'll go with you to this dance." I don't think you're going to the dance with [31:05] that kid. Right? That's really important. It's the exact same thing here. The [31:12] other thing I want kids to know is that acceptance rate and rigor are not the [31:17] same thing. These are two separate things. A school is not automatically [31:23] more rigorous because they've got a low acceptance rate. All the low acceptance rate reflects is volume of applications [31:31] because guess what happens when a school gets more applications as is happening right now because so many of these [31:38] schools remain test optional and they're using the common app. So two easy ways to get your application out and if I'm [31:44] not a great test taker but I've got a crazy good GPA maybe I've got a chance. Right? So they apply to all these [31:50] schools. The more applications they get the lower their acceptance rate gets. The lower their acceptance rate gets. [31:56] Guess what happens? The more applications they get. Duke got 54,000 applications for 1,700 [32:04] spots last year. [32:10] Good news though, there are a ton of schools where um the acceptance rates [32:15] actually going up. Um and so take a look at this list. These are crazy good schools. These aren't the only ones, of [32:21] course. George Washington, what a great school on the East Coast. Uh, for the East Coast kids, Yukon, crazy good [32:28] school, great women's basketball. Um, Depal and Chicago, crazy cool school. [32:34] Marquette, Marquette used to be pretty stingy with their scholarship dollars. They're all the way up to an 87% [32:41] acceptance rate. Sometimes kids will go like, well, I don't want to go there. They take everybody. Nope. they take a [32:49] larger portion of the many fewer applications that they get because these [32:55] aren't as big a brand, right? Michigan State has to compete with their sister [33:00] organization, the University of Michigan. And guess what? They lose a whole bunch. And so consequently, [33:08] their acceptance rate is going up. And you would be very challenged to convince me that the degree coming out of [33:14] Michigan State is so much worse than the degree at University of Michigan. Both [33:19] these schools lever leverage their alumni like crazy people. These are both great schools except you'll find money [33:26] at Michigan State and your student has um a very good shot at getting in. Only [33:31] 17% shot at University of Michigan and you'll pay $82,000 for that privilege. [33:39] Um, I also want people to understand what average incoming GPA look like at our flagship universities. [33:46] Right? This is not unique to the private selective schools. Um, there is a [33:52] southern migration going on now. So, lots of kids heading south to go to college. Um, the big winner here, [33:58] University of Tennessee, Auburn and Clemson have gotten so hard to get into that kids have stopped applying as much. [34:05] They get a ton of applications, but um a ton of those kids don't get in because they've got acceptance rates now, both [34:11] those public institutions under 15%. And so consequently, the big winners, [34:18] Miss and University of Tennessee, your kids listen to Tik Tok all the time, and this is who kids are talking about. And [34:25] so, guess what's happened? University of Tennessee's average incoming GPA has started to climb. Pre-COVID, it was a [34:31] 346. They're all the way up to a 366 and climbing. [34:39] So, because some schools are a little bit more challenging, I think it's important [34:44] to understand that acceptance is actually more than grades and test scores. So, they aren't blindly grabbing [34:52] um out of the all the four point pluses, 36 on their ACT kids, right, at those schools. They're looking for students [35:00] who have done something more than just be smart. There's so many smart kids in the US. And so your student needs to be [35:06] thinking about if you want to go to the big brand schools, what kind of passion projects, this could be community [35:13] service, it could be research, um it could be fundraising, there are all kinds of things they can do, but they [35:18] have to be willing to step outside of the traditions and norms of a regular old high school student if they want to [35:24] go to those schools where the acceptance rates are lower and their average incoming GPA are higher. Now, lots of [35:31] you are thinking, cozy, I don't care about any of this because guess what? But my kid isn't interested in those [35:36] things. Well, guess what? They still need an activities list that matches who they are. I don't need kids to be [35:44] well-rounded. That is myth. What I need them to be is them. And just have them [35:51] go deeper. Those kind of extra booster projects are not just good for getting [35:56] in, they actually boost scholarship dollars with schools that don't have as high um or excuse me, have as low [36:02] acceptance rates. So when you start to get into the schools with 50 60 70% acceptance rates, those semiboosted [36:09] projects or semi- boosted applications bring on significantly more scholarship money. So um they don't need to go [36:15] crazy. They don't need to be doing cancer research. I do want them though to go deeper in the areas that they [36:22] love. If you're building an orchestra, which is what college campuses are doing, they're trying to build a [36:28] combination of people on their campus. I can't build an orchestra if everybody's a flute, right? So, I don't need your [36:34] kids to be well-rounded. Let them take the things they love and are passionate about and then just go deeper. [36:43] Another quick quiz. In 2002, there were 134 perfect ACTs. How many were there in [36:50] 2022? Was that number 306,585, [36:56] 1257, or 2542? [37:01] Turns out the answer is 25,542. [37:07] So my last tip for you, testing does still matter. Plan appropriately. [37:12] Colleges do care about the test, but they don't care which one. Not anymore. It's not regional. there isn't one of [37:19] these is seen as more um um as a stronger test. Um today your student can [37:26] choose between the ACT or the SAT. The colleges do not care which one they choose. [37:34] Um schools are accepting students with a score at higher rates than kids who do not submit. Now don't worry if you're if [37:42] the tests are not your student's shiny moment. Then we go back to activities, right? It's okay. But if your student is [37:48] fine, I mean, too many students are like, "Oh, the schools don't care about tests anyway." Yes, they do. They very [37:55] much care. So, I want a student to get prep that fits them. They are competing against kids who have. And candidly, [38:02] this investment in test prep will pay off because the test scores are also aligned with scholarship dollars. And [38:10] then you can make decisions about sending the test score when you know for a fact you're all done. I don't [38:15] recommend putting in the actual schools when you're registering for your tests. [38:22] So, one last thing, search for success, not brand. What do I mean by that? I [38:27] mean, think about academic fit. All schools are not the same academic environment. Some have different [38:33] teaching formats. So, if your students a better hands-on learner, seek out colleges or programs where hands-on is [38:40] the learning style. 80% of kids change their major. Plan for [38:46] that. Give them some elbow room. Let them change their mind about their degree without having to change their [38:52] school, which means they've got to have some elbow room and you've got to dive in a little deeper to learn more about [38:57] that teaching format. And then um I always want students to know that college is sometimes the first [39:04] time even really smart kids fall down and scrape their academic knees, right? So talking actively in the search [39:12] process about things like tutoring and how common that is. Small group study, [39:17] how common that is. The writing center, what a great place to get feedback on your writing before you hand it into [39:24] your professor. Talk about all the services available to students. And if your student has an IEP or a 504 in [39:31] college, um, then they have the opportunity to transition that into something called a [39:37] college accommodations plan. So, here is a little bit about us. Um, [39:45] college is an industry. It is changing all the time and today it feels like it changes by the week. Uh, somebody's got [39:51] to keep track of that stuff. That's what we do so we can free you up to not worry about it. We do help families navigate [39:59] the entirety of the college search process. That 38% transfer rate drops to [40:05] less than 4% when we work with families. We can ensure that you know the price of [40:11] schools before the uh before they ever make it to the list and your student falls in love with that school. But this [40:17] is my favorite thing we do. Um I have five kids. I mentioned four are girls. They have all mastered the eyeball role [40:24] and I never get to be the smartest person in the room. So, uh, we get to be [40:29] that neutral third party. We can chat with your kids about things that they just simply won't listen to you about. [40:36] All right. So, here's the coolest thing I want to offer to do. I do free consultations. I mentioned that already. [40:41] Um, we sit down and I just answer your questions about your college search with your student. These are great tips. They [40:48] don't fit everybody. So, we would sit down for um for some um one-on-one time [40:56] with your student and with your family. We'll walk through academic fit, social fit, and financial fit. And I'll give [41:03] you some strategies. I can help you understand your FAFSA outcome so you'll know, are we going to be a need-based [41:09] family or no? So, uh use this QR code if you want to take advantage of that [41:15] family consultation. I would love to meet your family. I think those are so fun. It's bar none my favorite part of [41:21] my job. If you have a sophomore or junior, you can use the QR code to request that time. It'll take you out to [41:27] a Google form. Um, get a copy of this deck if you want it. We're happy to send it to you. You can use the QR code for [41:33] that. If you have your own group of people that you meet with on a regular basis who also have high school students [41:40] and you're wishing all those parents had heard this, you can do that for them. I'm happy to do that. My presentations [41:46] are free. I'm always happy to share and then do follow us on Facebook. We put a [41:51] ton of free content out there. Um, use the QR code to take advantage of any of [41:57] that. Um, on behalf of the team at Norex and myself, thank you for listening to [42:03] the video and I hope to get to meet you sometime very very soon. Take care.