National School Counseling Week: Advocacy

What would happen if there were fewer school counselors available to work with students?

Sadly, we have first hand knowledge of what happens.  Philadelphia is a prime example, having cut school counseling positions prior to the start of this school year.  As recently as last month, there have been discussions about how this has disenfranchised students as it relates to the college and post-secondary process.

As school counselors who work tirelessly advocating for students' academic success, social-emotional well-being, and college and career readiness skills, we know that without our services being offered at reasonable ratios, it is the students who stand to lose the most.  There is much work to be done at the state and national level with regards to education about our role in student achievement and how that role is vital in supporting the whole child, the family, and the community.  However, the real work begins at the local level.  Schools are primarily funded and guided by the communities that they serve.  Thus, I was impressed when I came across the video series below (many thanks to the Virginia School Counselor Association for sharing this via social-media), as it is a prime example of a local community examining the loss of school counseling positions and how that directly impacts students and schools.  Yes, they interchangeably use the term "guidance" and "school" counselor, and they refer to ASCA as the "American Counseling Association" (a fine organization of which I am a member, but not the organization to which they are referring in these news segments).  What I find particularly amazing is that in this community, the loss of school counselors was seen as a story of such importance that it was given two nights, not just one.  Take a look at the segments below:

Part 1: Guidance Counselor Crisis: Growing Ratios in Michigan and Indiana

Part 2: Guidance Counselor Crisis: The Stress of a Heavy Workload

Wrong Question and Quick-Fixes

This past week, educational leaders met here in the Washington D.C. area to tackle the problem of assisting low-income students with the college process.  There were concerns ranging from students not understanding that they would be able to attend college at all, students not having enough support to navigate the lengthy college application and acceptance process, and students who are "under-matching," meaning that academically strong students are applying to and attending colleges and universities that are not perceived to be rigorous enough for the level of student.  Heavy issues, indeed, and ones to which all of us in education, in fact in society, should be giving thought.

However, from here the conversation and solutions seemed to have taken a course that has me concerned on a variety of levels.

As reported in this Washington Post article, one of the major solutions is to expand a program known as the College Advising Corps, a group of recent college graduates who go into identified low-income schools to serve as mentors and supports to students through the college selection, application, and admissions process.  Here is a link to the Virginia College Advising Corps, which includes program details as well as frequently asked questions which share information about the training and commitment expectations of the program.  In short, those selected to go into schools will be given a four-to-five week training, as well as continued professional development throughout the year.  The commitment for the program is two years.  One of the major points brought up in both the Post article as well as on the VCAC website is that the members of the corps are close in age to the students they serve in the schools:

"...students are 'more willing to listen to us than to a guidance counselor or teacher who is 30 or 40 years their senior.  Honestly, it's true.  We look like them, we talk like them. We kind of dress like them.'" (source: www.washingtonpost.com)

Further, the Post article shares that the College Advising Corps is being expanded because:

"The corps aims to supplement what high-school counselors do.  Often those counselors have huge caseloads and are unable to give individual students enough attention." (source: www.washingtonpost.com)

Additionally, to coincide with this education summit, the radio program Marketplace did a story about school counselors and college advising.  This report again highlighted the high counselor-to-student ratios as a barrier to more individualized student attention through the college admissions process.  However, it also brought in the concern of counselor training to support students in the college admissions process:

"'So by and large, most counselors are leaving their master's degree programs with no formal training at any level of depth about how to help student...' That means they're often unprepared to advise students on things like financial aid, or finding the right fit." (source: www.marketplace.org)

This is further emphasized by an anecdote that Michelle Obama has been sharing about her own experiences with her former school counselors:

"...counselors warned her that she was too ambitious.  'They told me I was never going to get into a school like Princeton...I still hear that doubt ringing in my head.'" (source: www.washingtonpost.com)

Based on this information, if we work backwards, we find that the question being answered here is:

Because school counselors lack strong training as it pertains to college advising and opportunity gaps and have limited time to work with individual students because of large case-loads, what new program and new personnel do we need to bring into schools to make sure our low-income students, and all students, are aware of the pathway to a college education?

I would challenge you to read that through a second time, because I am about to offer a different question.  To me, there seems to be an inherent disconnect in the question above.  Should the question not rather be:

Because school counselors lack strong training as it pertains to college advising and opportunity gaps and have limited time to work with individual students because of large case-loads, what can we do to insure better training both at the graduate level and school-district level as well as make sure that counselor-to-student ratios fall more in line with those recommended by the American School Counselor Association (1:250 at the high-school level), insuring more time for one-on-one academic and college advising and support?

These are very different questions in my mind, but perhaps not in those of others.  Why not have college advising taken on by groups of younger recently-graduated college students?

Why not, indeed.  First, let's compare the training of a College Advising Corps member to that of a certified school counselor.  Most states require that school counselors have around a 48 credit Master's degree that includes coursework in counseling theory, strategies, groups, assessment, ethics, etc.  This also includes a school counseling internship that typically lasts one full year where school-counselors-in-training are receiving almost daily supervision and advisement from supervisors within their school as well as at the university level.  Overall, school counselors, at a minimum, spend about two full years training to work independently in schools.  Additionally, ask any school counselor and they will tell you that their strong counseling skills and knowledge of ethics come into play on a regular basis as part of the college advising process, which can often involve social-emotional and family concerns beyond simply sharing college resources.  It is hugely important to see students within the context of many systems that intersect: college admissions, family, high-school, social-emotional concerns, etc.  College Advising Corps members have a four-to-five week training focused on college advising.  Secondly, according to their website, College Advising Corps members are in for about a two-year commitment.  As this New York Times article highlights, high-teacher turnover within schools offers diminishing returns over time.  It discusses how programs such as Teach for America, a program that trains young college graduates for five weeks and then places them in a school, with high-turnover, are a short-term solution to a long term problem.  School counselors often put down roots in the school communities that they serve.  They not only know a student for two years, but they may have known a student for four or more years.  Over time, school counselors get to know whole families, and are able to incorporate that knowledge and use those strong relationships built over time to better support students through the college-advising process.  Further, they have knowledge of the student and family within the context of their entire community, which again adds to the depth of understanding that they bring to the table as they explore post-secondary planning.  Third, College Advising Corps members, at least in Virginia, serve in high-schools.  Yet, we have come to know that the college exploration, advising, and planning process is one that begins prior to high-school, with recommendations even being made to start at the 6th grade level.  This is vital.  As students move from elementary to middle school, they begin to make choices about courses in math and world-languages that will have a direct impact on their high-school course sequence and transcript.  This in turn has a direct impact on their college admissions pathway.  College advising is not simply a two to three year process.  Rather, students and families need information, resources to include financial planning, and individual attention well before they enter 9th grade.  School counselors, because of their relationships within schools and communities, are well poised to provide that information and guidance.

This is not to say that I do not support the idea of groups such as the College Advising Corps working with students in schools.  There is always value in students being able to hear from and work with those who have recently been through the process, and who may have similar stories and backgrounds to theirs.  However, I worry that there are those that will come to see programs such as this not as a supplement to the work of seasoned and highly-trained school counselors, but eventually as a replacement.  There is a large difference between a program that is meant to support the work versus replace the work.  I would also challenge the notion in the Post article that students are less likely to listen to the thoughts and receive assistance from those who are older than they are.  I have seen school counselors in their sixties have strong relationships with students from all walks of life, and who bend over backwards to help low-income students access higher-education.  Those students, because they have had a relationship with their school counselor over many years, and because the counselor has built a strong reputation over time within the community, trust and value their expertise.  Further, there is a level of knowledge about the college admissions process that one gains the more years you support students and families and the more years that you interact with colleges and universities.  You begin to see trends.  You begin to see some of the nuances with particular schools.  You begin to build a network of trusted contacts at universities and in the field that can give you and your students straight-forward information in the moment so that families can make more informed decisions.  School counselors like Jeremy Goldman, quoted in the Marketplace segment, even visit college campuses as part of vacations in order to bring that information back to their students.  All students from all backgrounds and in all schools should have access to highly trained and experienced school counselors who are invested in their communities and students' post-secondary success.

Thus, we come back to the question I posed earlier, the one I think we should be asking versus the one that is being asked:

Because school counselors lack strong training as it pertains to college advising and opportunity gaps and have limited time to work with individual students because of large case-loads, what can we do to insure better training both at the graduate level and school-district level as well as make sure that counselor-to-student ratios fall more in line with those recommended by the American School Counselor Association (1:250 at the high-school level), insuring more time for one-on-one academic and college advising and support?

Here are some thoughts as to answers:

• Training:  The time has come for CACREP, school counseling graduate programs, and school-districts to have serious conversations about the training school counselors receive in the post-secondary planning and college admissions process.  Given that this information is important at all levels of education, elementary through high-school, all school counselors would benefit from coursework that provides them with solid theory, resources, and considerations with regards to the needs of low-income and first generation students.  If graduate programs are unable to or unwilling to require and/or provide this training, then school districts need to look at their offerings and professional development to insure that school counselors are properly informed to support all students with post-secondary planning.  For example, in our district we provide opportunities to take coursework about college admissions, offer internships that place school counselors in college admissions offices from a variety of schools, and incorporate the goal of post-secondary planning into our regular professional development offerings.  In fact, a few weeks ago my co-resource counselor and I focused on "Closing Opportunity Gaps" as part of the academic advising process during a session with our new K-12 school counselors. This was an effort to get them to consider students who are "undermatching" with regards to coursework or college options and then provide appropriate guidance and resources to support their decision-making process.
• Advocacy:  We are a maligned people, school counselors.  Sadly, Michelle Obama's story of being told she would not get into Princeton is similar to other stories I have been told by friends, colleagues, and families.  Additionally, from shows like Glee to movies like Easy A, we are consistently portrayed as incompetent, unethical, lazy, or worse.  Often, it is drawn from experiences and images of school counselors from one or two generations ago.  We must take charge and change this narrative.  In my new role, I am witness daily to the powerful work that school counselors are doing.  School counselors do not just have an impact on individual students, they are now having an impact on schools, academic success, and in communities as they use their training and the ASCA model to support student achievement and close gaps.  Where are the stories of school counselors who have helped low-income or first generation students navigate the college process?  Where are the stories of school counseling teams who have collaborated to tackle issues like "summer melt" or "opportunity gaps" with strong results that are supported with data?  They are out there, and yet we rarely hear of them within our own community, let alone the larger public.  Our ratios are high across the country, which does limit our ability to support students individually through the college process.  This will not change unless we are more able to demonstrate our effectiveness on a district, state, and national level.  I think of the counselors in Philadelphia, one of whom presented at the ASCA conference last summer.  She had done extensive work in supporting undocumented students through the college admissions process, with strong outcomes.  Her position was cut, and overall the students in Philadelphia are suffering as a result in this current admissions season.  On a micro-level, every school counselor needs to continue to find ways to share the work they are doing with their stakeholders--students, parents, teachers, administrators, and community members.  This is especially important as it relates to post-secondary outcomes. On a macro-level, we need to explore ways to begin to share our strong work with larger communities.

These solutions are not quick-fixes.  They will take time and many conversations in order for perceptions to change and for foundations to be laid.  However, over the long haul, better college-advising training for school counselors and a reduction in the average student-to-counselor ratio as a result of advocacy can result in better outcomes for students and more stable communities and resources for years to come. 

Resources: CollegeWeek Live Presentation on College Readiness in the Facebook Era

Here are the resources that I shared through Twitter and Facebook during my presentation on College Readiness in the Facebook Era for CollegeWeek Live's Professional Development Series:

Research

Pew Internet--Research on Adult Social Media Use
Pew Internet--Research on Teen Social Media Use
Pew Internet--Breakdown of Social Media Use

Southern Methodist University--Study about Social Media and First Generation Students
University of Michigan/Michigan State University--Study about Social Media and First Generation Students

Facebook

Starting to Create Your Facebook Page
Woodson High School Student Services Facebook Page
Tutorial to Create a Facebook Page from SocialMediaExaminer.com

Twitter

Starting to Create Your Twitter Account
Tutorial to Create a Twitter Account from WikiHow
Pikesville High School Counseling Twitter Account

Blogging

White Bear Lake Area High School Counseling Department Blog
Blogger
Word Press
Weebly

Thanks to CollegeWeekLive for the invitation to present! Make sure to check them out at www.collegeweeklive.com for great resources to support your students through the college advising process!

College Readiness in the Facebook Era

We know that our students (and their families) are actively using social-media in their everyday lives.  They use it to connect with friends and family, but they also use websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, etc. to gain information that helps them make decisions about both the here-and-now as well as their futures.  As school counselors, how do we use that technology to enhance and better communicate with our students and families about college planning, financial aid, and career development?

Please join me, courtesy of College Week Live, on Thursday, October 17th from 3-4 p.m. Eastern Time as I share some thoughts and ideas about harnessing technology to support our work as school counselors with regards to College and Career Readiness.  I will discuss:

• Developing a framework for using social-media to enhance and support your work
• The basics of setting up a school counseling department Facebook page and/or Twitter account
• Survey results about how high-school counselors currently use Facebook, Twitter, and blogs
• Blogging for your department or exploring blogs for your own professional development

You can sign up here for this free webinar.  CEU's will be awarded at the end of the presentation.  We will be using the hashtag #CWLCEU for those of you on Twitter and Facebook if you want to follow along with the conversation threads.  I will also be tweeting out information using that hashtag during the presentation.  How, you might ask?  Magic, and maybe some information I'll share with you during the presentation.

"Thank you" to those of you that took the time to complete the survey.  The survey is now closed.  Your responses directly support the content of this professional development opportunity.

Hope to see you all on the 17th!

Editors note:  This post was edited on October 14th to reflect that the social-media survey was now closed.  The survey that was originally posted here was also removed.

How Do High-School Counseling Departments Use Social-Media?

www.collegeweeklive.com

Greetings, School Counselors!  Some of you have already started your vital and important work with students and your school communities, and others are gearing up in the next week or two.

On October 17th at 3 p.m. ET, I will be leading a session on "College Readiness in the Facebook Era" for College Week Live's Professional Development Series.  I'd love to see you there, and next month I'll be sharing more information about that presentation.

In preparation for that session, I am collecting information on how high-school counseling departments utilize social-media to enhance their post-secondary advising practice.  If you are a high-school counselor, I would love your input!  Please click here to take a short survey--it should take no more than a few minutes to complete. I will share information about the results in my October session.

Best wishes for a smooth start to your school years!

Just How Important Is That GPA?

How many times does "GPA" (grade point average) come up in conversations you have with either your students or their families?  If you're like me, you hear it on a daily basis.  Is my GPA high-enough to get into college?  Will a C+ in this AP class ruin my GPA?  Shouldn't I take a standard-level class and get an A versus an honors level class and get a B since it will make my GPA higher?  It can leave you wondering if the GPA is the be-all, end-all for students and college admissions.

A recent article in USA Today looked into this issue, and finds what college admissions offices have been telling us for years--that for many schools, the GPA in-and-of itself is not a key factor.  Rather, it is the grades students receive in their classes and the rigor and challenge of the classes themselves about which colleges are really concerned.  Below is the list of factors in rank order from the National Association of College Admission Counseling (NACAC):

source: www.nacacnet.org

GPA is not listed.  When I share this with parents and students, they often go into shock.  Why is this?  Every school and/or school system computes GPA's in different ways.  When I was in high-school, in my district everything was factored in except for PE classes, and certain courses deemed more rigorous were given weights.  Other school systems weight nothing, regardless of the level of the class, while others will assign a +.5 weight to an honors class when someone else assigns the same level of class a +1.0 weight and another a +2.0 weight.  Some use 5.0 versus a 4.0 scale.  There is no real consistency from one school system to the next, and as college admissions offices receive applications from all over the United States and the world, trying to compare applicants by their GPAs is like comparing apples to oranges.  Thus, many colleges will recompute GPA's according to their own formulas to level the playing field for the students in their applicant pool, like the University of Florida in the USA Today article.  Some will take out all weights.  Some will only factor in "core" classes to include math, science, English, social-studies, and world language.  Others will not do any computations at all, but rather evaluate the transcript holistically, looking at the level of classes a student took and the grades they received in those classes.  Check out this video from the Office of Admissions at Virginia Polytechnic University (Virginia Tech):

Ixnay on the GPA talk! from Virginia Tech Undergrad Admiss on Vimeo.

If this is the case, why deal with GPA's at all?  They can be great tools in-house.  We use Naviance in our school system, and one benefit is that it allows students to compare their GPA's with the GPA's of past-students (no identifying information is given) who applied to a specific college or university.  Because the data is restricted to one school, this is a like-to-like comparison using the same GPA computation.  Thus, it can give a student a realistic idea of how they might stack up based on past year's admission data for their school.  However, even this needs a word of caution, as the rigor of the classes may not always be reflected within this one data point.  Thus, a student can have a really high GPA but not necessarily be competitive depending on their class choices, or a student from your school can have a slightly lower GPA than the average for a particular college but still be a strong candidate because of the rigorous classes they took.  Additionally, the GPA can be a good common reference point when talking to students and families in general about post-secondary goals within your own school population.  It is an understood measurement within your community to begin discussions about classes and college goals.

Still, the best advice for students and families may be to focus a little bit less on the GPA, take the most challenging and rigorous courses you can manage successfully within the context of your entire life, and strive to get A's and B's in all your classes.  That, in and of itself, is the best formula for the beginnings of a strong college admissions profile.

The College Cost Conundrum

If you are like me, you have read multiple sources of information in the last couple of weeks about the cost of college that often seem to contradict themselves.  For example, this article compares shopping for college to shopping for a house:

"Picture yourself house-hunting. You are shown 20 different homes, all of which fit your basic criteria -- four sturdy walls, a roof, and modern amenities. Undoubtedly there will be one you fall in love with for any number of reasons, tangible or intangible. You've found your dream home. But here's the catch: at no point were you shown the prices of these homes, and the prices vary wildly. With the cost revealed, your dream home is one you cannot afford.  Would you buy it anyway? Not if your mortgage lender had any sense. But if you replay this scenario and replace "home" with "college," Americans have proven -- to the tune of $1 trillion in outstanding debt according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau -- that they'll buy the college they can't afford anyway." (source: Frank Palmasani for www.huffingtonpost.com)

In other words, when we go out to buy a house, we have a price-range that we look in.  We may look a wee-bit outside the price range on occasion, but typically we are not going to look at homes that we know we could never afford no matter what.  Well, unless we just like looking at other people's houses, but that's another story altogether.  Should college be any different?  Should we advise students and families to only look at colleges or universities within their pre-determined price range?

This is confusing because, as I've written about before, there is often a wide difference between the "sticker-price" for a college, meaning the published full-cost of a school if the student receives no aid whatsoever, and the "net-price" of a college, meaning what a student pays after scholarships, grants, work-study, and, debatably, student loans.  Most students, especially at private colleges and universities, do not pay the full sticker-price.  It reminds me of airline tickets, in that very rarely do most people on a plane pay the same price for their ticket.  College can often be very similar, with no two students often paying exactly the same price to attend.

Further, one of the latest briefs from College Board discusses the relationship between college cost, selectivity, and one of the hot-new focal points in post-secondary education, graduation rates.  In the report, it states:

• College "sticker-prices" for tuition and fees may play a prohibitive role in the college choice for families whose net-price may, in fact, be manageable.
• Even if there are only modest differences in the probability of degree completion between different categories of institutions, time-to-degree can still vary dramatically, which is an important consideration in a student’s college choice.
• Recommendation: Refine institutional reporting requirements so that students have better access to institution-specific completion rate data for students like themselves.
• Recommendation: Additional quantitative and qualitative research on the impact of net price calculators on student decision making.
• Recommendation: Convey clear message that, particularly for lower-income students, the additional cost of attending more selective colleges may be much smaller than the benefits of attending such colleges. (source: www.collegeboard.org)

Thus, here it says that students need to be wary of sticker-prices as they are shopping for colleges, as the net-price is so often different in the end.  Further, at schools that are more selective (defined in the full report as schools with higher average SAT's scores in their admitted classes) there also tend to be higher rates of graduation within 4-6 years.  Therefore, the report argues that students may be better off in the long-run if they pay a bit more for their education at a school where they are statistically more likely to finish their degree within a standard amount of time.  Throw into the mix the continued rising costs of public-universities and the lack of standardization and faith in net-price calculators and it can be difficult for school counselors to determine how best to advise students and families to approach the financial aspects of the college search, application, and decision process.

I believe we have to take all of this information into account.  Gone, I believe, are the days in which cost is an after-thought as students are applying to colleges.  Costs are rising, especially at public universities where state-funding continues to decrease.  Student-loan debt continues to rise.  Students who are likely to pursue graduate (Masters and Doctoral) and professional school educations (M.D., J.D., etc.) after their undergraduate experiences need to think long-term about the costs of their education.  As school counselors, I believe that so much of our post-secondary advising has been about getting students admitted to colleges and universities.  This is no longer enough.  We must begin to gain knowledge on financial aid, college costs, and long-range educational planning in order to best advise our students and our families.  Indeed, this has been codified as one of the Eight Components of College and Career Readiness from the National Office of School Counselor Advocacy.  Here are some considerations:

• Students need two lists.  For admissions, we often discuss the need for reach schools, mid-range schools, and "safety" schools, based on a student's academic criteria (classes, grades, standardized test scores.)  Additionally, families should take that same list of schools and chart it with cost as the main factor versus admissions criteria.  If none of the schools on their "financial" list fall into the "safety" category, then it may be time to go back and search for an additional school or two that might fit the bill.  Again, this is just a starting off point to insure that a student will have a variety of options by the time they are making decisions in the spring.  
• Use net-price calculators...with caution.  If students have done the step above and have diverse lists of schools, then head to the net-price calculators, but realize that the word on the street is that there are still kinks to work out.  However, this will give students an idea of what general ball-park "net-price" they might be looking at with some of the schools on their list.  They should also look at additional financial-aid statistics, such as can be found at Big Future from College Board. 
• Consider private schools.  The sticker-price can be scary, yes.  I realize this.  However, if you get into the statistics of private schools, most of the students pay less than this, and many pay a lot less.  When I was applying to colleges, there were two private schools at the top of my list.  There was no way my family could afford the sticker-price of those schools.  As such, my parents made me a deal.  I could apply to those schools, but I also had to apply to at least one state-school that still met most of my admissions needs with regards to size, program reputation, etc.  We would see what financial-aid offers came, and then decide.  Thus, I had options come the spring.  Again, by making a "financial" list with reach, mid-range, and safety categories, you should be giving yourself choices before making that final decision.
• Look at graduation rates.  This is key.  I believe what the College Board brief is telling us is that it may be worth going to a slightly more expensive school if that school has a higher rate of graduating students in four to six years.  Why is this important?  First, with a degree, your earnings potential is higher.  You need to actually finish said degree, though.  Secondly, the less time you are in school, the less money you are paying or going into debt over.  If a four-year private school costs $4,000 more a year but has a four-year graduation rate of 80%, it may be worth it in the long run versus going to the less expensive school with a four-year graduation rate of 50%.  If nothing else, it is worth considering.  Click here for graduation rates by state and then by school.
• Don't just go K-16, but K-17 and beyond.  As I alluded to before, if you have a student who is convinced they are going to be going to law school someday, or that they are going to go into a field where a graduate degree is a must, it is important to include this possible post-college education as a part of the conversation.  Medical school is expensive.  So is law school.  Students and families should consider this when deciding on an undergraduate institution.  It may not be worth going into $75,000 worth of debt for college when you are going to then go into $150,000 of debt for law school.

Cost should not be the only consideration as students are determining where to apply.  However, I think that it has become a strong factor as students make decisions about where they will ultimately enroll.  As school counselors, we can help our students and families make informed decisions about the possible costs of various choices, both public and private.  We can supply them with some of the tools and information sources as I've discussed above.  Further, we can help them to look-long term and holistically at their lives so that they can put the financial burdens of post-secondary education into context as it may pertain specifically to them and their situation.  It's not just about getting into college anymore, it's also about paying for it.

Are We Gatekeepers?

I was recently having a conversation with a colleague in which they were talking about their experience with their high-school counselor, "back-in-the-day."  This colleague described how the one time that they sought out their high-school counselor for some advice on the post-secondary process that they were told they were "not college material."

This colleague has gone on to get a Master's degree and an Education Specialist degree and is having a strong impact upon their own students as a school counselor.

While there are many things that are concerning to me about this story, one of the points that gives me pause is that this experience was only about ten years ago.  As a school counselor, I have heard from many friends and acquaintances over the years of similar interactions with their own school counselors.  My own experience with my assigned school counselor was one in which she handed me my ACT scores, asked me if I was thinking of going to college, and pointed to some books on a shelf that was falling apart in the hallway in case I needed any help trying to come up with ideas.  However, these are typically indicative of situations that happened 20 or so years ago--we've come a long way since then.  Right?  As I pondered my colleague's story this week, I began to wonder if this happened to them only ten years ago, how much of this is still going on today?  Are we, as school counselors, supposed to be acting as "gatekeepers," telling students what classes they can and cannot take, and deciding if they are going to go to college, a trade school, or straight into the work-force?

The answer is a resounding, "no."  If you look at the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) Code of Ethics, it states: 

From the Preamble: 

Each person has the right to receive the information and support needed to move toward self-direction and self-development and affirmation within one’s group identities, with special care being given to students who have historically not received adequate educational services, e.g., students of color, students living at a low socio-economic status, students with disabilities and students from non-dominant language backgrounds. 

Each person has the right to understand the full magnitude and meaning of his/her educational choices and how those choices will affect future opportunities. 

From A.3:

b. Ensure equitable academic, career, post-secondary access and personal/social opportunities for all students through the use of data to help close achievement gaps and opportunity gaps.

c. Provide and advocate for individual students’ career awareness, exploration and post-secondary plans supporting the students’ right to choose from the wide array of options when they leave secondary education. 

e. Promote the welfare of individual students and collaborate with them to develop an action plan for success.  (source: www.schoolcounselor.org)

Our code of ethics is telling us that we have a responsibility to make all of our students aware of all of their possible options but that the choice is ultimately up to them.  We collaborate with the student and the family to make decisions and plan for the future.  It is not enough, anymore, to choose on our own, what is best for a student with regards to class selections and post-secondary options.  Rather, as school counselors it is now incumbent upon us to educate a student and family about what options they have, what the possible ramifications and outcomes might be from their choices, and then to allow the student and family to make the best decision for them based upon the information they have been given.  As I've written about before, during academic advising my role would be to look at the available information (grades, test scores, teacher feedback) with the student, discuss the pros and cons of each choice, examine the student's post-secondary and long-term goals, and give my thoughts and recommendations.  Ultimately, though, the choice is up to the student and family as to how they would like to proceed.  Post-secondary planning is no different.  I work with my students to show them all of the available options to include four-year schools, two-year schools, military options, and gap years, we talk about how they stack up based on available statistics, and then they make their own choices as to where to apply and what they might do.

Our profession has transformed from one in which we guard the doors, deciding who gets to go through the one marked "college-bound" versus "trades" or "military" into one in which we provide students access to all of the possible doors and paths available, with a mind that some portals may be accessed at a later time.  This shift in our role is now more important than ever before.  The College Board recently released a study that discussed how many students are "undermatched" with regards to their college choice.  The study argues that there are students with the strong academic ability who do not access more "selective" colleges that would perhaps provide stronger rigor and educational opportunities.  Some of the factors that may be at play with this are the location of the school (city vs. suburban or rural), number of colleges and universities within a close radius of the school, and the number of adults in the area who have attained four-year degrees.  However, the study also acknowledges that more research needs to be done to determine why some schools have higher rates of "undermatching" than others.  Further, one needs to be careful with the idea of college-match and fit, as the best school for a student may not be the most competitive college to which they are admitted, as is discussed in this open letter.  Nevertheless, the study should give us pause as to think about whether we are challenging our students and encouraging them to take rigorous courses.  It should cause us to reflect upon whether we are providing our students with the full-range of post-secondary choices, including competitive state and private schools.

In addition, one of our goals is to help our students become college-and-career ready.  A recent review of data by ACT shows that many of our students are entering college without having met the benchmarks necessary in English, Reading, Math, and Science to be fully prepared for college-level work.  Those students who took a core-curriculum, defined as four years of English, and three each of Social-Studies, Math, and Science, met these benchmarks at a much higher rate.  As post-secondary training of some kind, whether it is a four-year school or a two-year school, becomes necessary for economic sustainability throughout one's lifetime, we must continue to strongly encourage our students to engage in a rigorous curriculum in order to insure that once they get to that post-secondary place, they are successful.  I have heard many times in education the comment that for those kids who are not four-year college bound (maybe not right away, and who decides this?), some of these higher-level classes and additional years of courses are not necessary.  I would counter that they are.  For example, here in Northern Virginia we have a very strong community college program with a variety of degrees and certificates available to our students.  However, regardless of whether a student's goal is get a degree that will allow them to transfer to a four-year school or to go through a year-long program that will allow them to work in an auto-body shop, they still have to meet minimum educational standards to begin taking courses that will count for credit towards a degree or certificate.  The math placement test for all students contains Algebra 2 content.  If students graduate without having taken this class and do not perform well on this test, they will have to enroll in and pay for non-credit skill-building classes until they have gained that knowledge.  This has become a real issue, as students graduate with high-school diplomas, but enter into colleges needing to take and pay for these skill-building courses for years, in some instances, before they can start on a degree or certificate.  Many of these students will simply give up, as a result, either of frustration or because of the cost.  As school counselors, we must insure that our students have access to these classes and advocate for systemic supports to help students be successful in these courses, perhaps double-blocking in the upper-level math classes, providing an additional support class, asking for classes that use these skills in real-world hand-on applications, or finding access to additional tutoring.  It is no longer enough the get them through a high-school diploma--they need to possess the skills and knowledge necessary to engage from the start in their post-secondary plan.

As we enter the season of academic-advising to include post-secondary planning, I would challenge you to think about your approach with students.  Do you stand by the gate, deciding who gets to enter and who does not, or do you open the doors for all of your students, giving them the information necessary to make informed choices for themselves, both for the short and the long term?  As we continue to build to a K-16 model of education, your answer is more important now than ever before.

College: Where Are We Now?

The National Association of College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) released their annual report this week that evaluates statistics and movement over the last 10 years with regards to college admissions.  There are a few trends that are important for school counselors to note.

I've written this year about the early application process, and that there is a perception out there that applying early increases your chances of admissions into a school.  Well, as this Education Week blog post discusses, this may not always be the case:

• For students who applied Early Decision in the fall of 2011, there was an acceptance rate of 59%, versus 53% for the total applicant pool, giving Early Decision applicants a 6% advantage.
• For students who applied Early Decision from 2007-2009, there was an advantage over the total pool ranging from 12% to 15%. (source: blogs.edweek.org)

Thus, students who applied Early Decision, meaning that if accepted they were committing themselves to attending that one school and rescinding all other offers of admissions, only saw a slightly higher acceptance rate than everyone else, different from past years.  For those students who applied through the non-binding process of Early Action:

• For students who applied Early Action in the fall of 2011, there was an acceptance rate of 65%, versus 63% from the total pool, giving only a 2% advantage.
• The advantages were higher in 2006 and 2007. (source: blogs.edweek.org)

Early Action allows students to get a decision early, usually in December, but they are allowed to apply to multiple schools without committing to one until May 1st.  Thus, it seems like the advantage that may have once been perceived to exist for students who chose to apply either Early Decision or Early Action may be eroding.

Other data to come from this report discussed the growing number of colleges to which each student is applying.  This post from Inside Higher Education shines the spotlight on the following statistics:

• The percentage of students applying to 3 or more schools is up from 67% in 2010 to 79% in 2011.  The percentage of students applying to 7 or more schools is up from 25% in 2010 to 29% in 2011.
• In the last 10 years, the yield of students, meaning the percentage of students who are admitted who accept that offer of admissions, has gone from 51.4% to 42.6% at public colleges and universities, and 47.8% to 36.4% at private schools. (source: www.insidehighered.com)

Thus, more students are applying to college, and more and more colleges, at that.  As school counselors, we feel this in the longer lists of transcript requests and the more involved conversations of to which schools our students are thinking of applying.  There is a perception, though, that admissions has become tougher, and this is not necessarily the case.  While the percentage of acceptances has dropped very slightly, the majority of schools are still admitting almost 2/3 of its applicants. (source: www.insidehighered.com)  Part of this is because with more students applying to more schools, schools have to admit higher percentages of their admissions pools in order to yield enough students who accept those offers to populate a class.  It is important to note this to students and families--while there are certainly a top-tier of colleges and universities that have become more competitive, the vast majority of schools are admitting similar percentages of students to those from 10 years ago. (source: www.insidehighered.com)

The top factors that go in to college admissions decisions remain grades in college prep classes, rigor of a student's curriculum, and standardized test scores.  The importance of class rank, however, has declined over the last 10 years. 

Making Sense of Early Trends

Remember the time when you wrote the bulk of your recommendation letters and secondary-school reports in December?  The world would stop moving as you tried to encompass the academic and community careers of all of your seniors in writing, attempting to add some depth, humanity, and warmth to the cold black-and-white statistics on transcripts and standardized testing reports.  You longed for February, when the bulk of them would be done, and you would move on to the equally monumental task of advising students about course choices for the following year.

If you are like me, you have noticed that those days are long gone.  December, in fact, has, every year, become much less of a whirlwind, allowing me to even sit back and enjoy the cocoa on occasion.  Instead, trying to talk to me in October is just about impossible.  For the last two years, almost half of the seniors on my caseload have applied either early decision or early action to colleges and universities.  This means meetings with parents and students right as school begins, and then a non-stop flurry of interviews, conversations, and writing. Lots and lots of writing.

What can be a special challenge is trying to determine how best to advise these students on the early admissions process.  What students should and should not consider applying early?  What are the trends telling us?  What are the ethical standards that guide both us and our students in this process?  To answer these questions, let's play a game of "True or False":

True or False?  Early action and early decision are the same thing.

False.  Both early action and early decision applications will typically be due by November 1st, and student will usually receive a decision by mid-December.  However, early decision applicants can only apply to one school early.  They must apply to other colleges and universities using the regular admissions deadline.  Early decision is known as a binding agreement, meaning that if that student is accepted to the one school to which they applied early, they will withdraw all of their other outstanding applications and agree to attend that school.  Note that this would be in advance of seeing a financial aid offer.  Early action, however, is typically not a binding agreement (read the fine print, though, on college admissions websites, just to be clear).  Students receive notice in mid-December, just as in early decision, but they are not bound to attend the school, giving them time to receive decisions from other schools and compare financial aid packages.  Many schools have moved towards early action versus early decision for this reason.

True or False?   Any student should feel comfortable applying early decision or early action.

False, but with a lot of caveats.  The reason I wanted to do this particular post is that it seems as if the answer to this question changes each and every year, or at least I feel it does.  Even five years ago, early decision/action was really reserved for those elite students whose statistics (GPA's and test scores) were above the school's admissions pool average.  This was because the typical early application pool was full of more high-achieving (statistically speaking--numbers only) students, and in order to be competitive in that pool, students needed to be towards the top of the pack.  Then, in the last several years, the number of early applications has grown leaps and bounds.  This has increased the pool quite significantly, and we see more and more students who fit the average admissions statistics of a school applying early.  Further, in phone calls and conversations with admissions counselors in the last two years, they have stated to me that if a student has a real passion for attending their campus, they would like for them to consider applying early.  Applying early can be a sign to a school that the student is extremely interested in attending their campus next year.  However, I would still recommend that students only apply early if their statistics fall into the average or above for a given school--more on why that is important in the next section.  Additionally, any student applying early decision must be 100% sure that this is the college or university they want to attend, above all others, which means they have visited the school, have a feel for the campus, know that the campus has their major or many majors within their general area of interest, and that they feel they can reasonably afford to go to the school financially.  One very positive trend in early applications is the increase in diversity of the applicant pool.  A Forbes article discusses how colleges and universities are actively encouraging and recruiting students from minority groups and from low-income households to consider applying early, allowing a wider group of students to access this particular service.    

College Board has some excellent guidelines for students considering applying early decision or early action that I feel are a good standard by which to advise your students.  Early applicants:

• Have researched colleges extensively.
• Are 100% sure that the college is their first choice (a MUST if applying Early Decision).
• Knows the school is a strong match academically and socially.
• Meet or exceeds the average basic statistics (GPA, test scores, class rank if available) of the general applicant pool.
• Have a consistent academic record over time. (source: professionals.collegeboard.org)

Additionally, the National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC) also has recommendations for students considering applying early:

• You should not feel pressured to apply early just because other students are.
• You should not apply early decision if financial aid is a large consideration and you will need to compare aid offers.
• You should not apply early if you feel your senior grades (7th semester) may be necessary to help an admissions committee decide in your favor.  (source:  www.nacacnet.org)

True or False?  Students can expect a response of accept, deny, wait list, or deferral to the regular applicant pool.

True, but this is where it can get tricky.  Students can certainly be accepted or denied through the early process, and there have been several articles discussing how some colleges and universities are admitting a larger percentage of their early applicant pool than their general pool, overall.  For example, Bucknell admitted 65% of its early applicants as opposed to 30% of its overall applicants.  This US News and World Report article points out a list of schools where applying early action helps students.  However, I would again caution people to consider that the early applicant pool may look very different than the general applicant pool, as many of those applying early tend to meet or exceed the average admissions statistics for that college, making colleges or universities more likely to accept a greater percentage of them.  I would think very carefully about recommending that a student apply early to a school on their list that is a "reach" school because their statistics are under the average for a school.

Another trend that it is important to consider is that of deferring applicants to the regular pool.  It used to be that if the college was not completely sure about an early applicant and wanted to see them as compared to the regular application pool, they would defer their decision until after the regular application deadline.  Indeed, many of my students felt pretty safe applying early, because the general feeling was that if they were not accepted, they would probably be deferred to the regular pool where they could get another review.  However, through a conversation with a parent and then an admissions counselor at one of our area colleges, I have discovered this trend may be on the wane.  Indeed, more schools are trying to make a final decision on an early applicant versus deferring them to the regular admissions pool, as discussed again in this recent Forbes article.  Thus, some schools are simply giving a decision of accept, deny, or wait list, just as they would for applicants to the regular pool.  This should serve again as a caution to advise students to take a strong look at their black-and-white statistics in order to insure that they meet that school's averages, as it may be less likely that they will get a second review in the regular applicant pool.

True or False?  There are ethical guidelines and standards to guide both us as counselors and our students through this process.  

True! For counselors, there are guidelines from College Board about advising students properly about early decision, such as letting them know they have to withdraw all of their other applications if they are accepted and that they are only allowed to apply early decision to one school.  They also discuss the process for students who apply early but do not receive the financial aid necessary to attend, but that should be part of the conversation you initially have with a student before they apply early, because if that is a major concern the early application may not be the best choice.  There are also guidelines for secondary school professionals from NACAC on page five of their Statement of Principles of Good Practice. 

For students, I would highly recommend sharing NACAC's Students' Rights and Responsibilities in the College Admission Process--it is available in both English and in Spanish.  It details what students and families have a right to expect in the college admissions process, but also gives guidelines about their ethical responsibilities in the early admissions process.

Overall, though, each college and university is going to have a unique process and a unique set of standards by which they evaluate early applicants as well as in the types of decisions they give.  If you are looking for statistics on the percentage of early applications admitted at a given school, I recommend going to College Data, entering the school, and clicking on the admissions tab, or you can try to navigate the websites of individual colleges.  If you have specific questions about the process at a school, please pick up the phone and give the admissions office a call.  I have always been met with admissions counselors, assistant deans, etc. who have taken time to answer my specific questions--it benefits my students, as they get the best guidance possible for that particular school, it benefits me, as I am able to relate up to the minute advice and information, and it benefits the colleges and universities, who are then able to receive applications from students who are well-informed about the process, their own chances, and the possible outcomes.

Taking the Stigma Out of Community College

Every year all of the counselors in my building do a "meet and greet" lesson with our new 9th grade students.  They get to see where our offices are, we talk about graduation requirements, transcripts and grades, and let them know about the vast array of services we, as school counselors, are able to provide them during all four years that they are with us.  As we are also trying to create a college-going culture,  we ask them about their goals after high-school.  We do these lessons in small groups, so the students are able to hear several of their peers' responses.  Most of them state they are planning on attending one of the popular state universities here in Virginia--UVA, Virginia Tech, VCU, etc.  A few years ago during this activity, one of my new students stated they were thinking of going to Northern Virginia Community College, or NOVA as its known in this region.  Another student laughed at this answer, stating that "NOVA is a school for losers."

It was at this point that I knew that we, as a school counseling team, had our work cut out for us.

I was listening this week to my favorite radio show, Tell Me More, on NPR, and they had a story about college students who drop out of school with no degree and mountains of debt that they are responsible for paying off.  Anthony Carnevale, from the Center on Education and the Work Force at Georgetown University, was the guest, and he had this to say:

"We've come to a point where people have to get some kind of post-secondary education or training to join the American middle class and we've yet to find a way to help people make choices to make them savvy about how they invest in their education." (source: www.npr.org)

I think it is pretty well common knowledge at this point that in order to have any realistic fighting chance at economic security in your life, you need some sort of post-secondary education.  However, as I've written about before, I think we need to continue to refine our definition of "college."  College is not necessarily a four-year degree.  There are many certificate programs and associates degrees that will train people for well-paying jobs and careers in a variety of fields.  In fact, for many of these jobs a four-year degree may not be preferable over a two-year degree that really hones in on the skills necessary for that particular occupation.  Further, if we look at six-year graduation rates from four-year colleges and universities around the country, it is clear that a large percentage of students will not be finished with a degree within that time frame, depending upon the specific school.  In fact, in the United States, the average graduation rate at four-year public universities within four years is 31.3%, and within six years is 56%.  That means that only a third of these students will have a degree in four years, and a little more than half within six years.  Some students may be working full or part time while going through school and are thus taking classes at a slower rate than other students.  Additionally, there are always going to be exceptional circumstances that might allow for some of these students who do not make it within six years.  However, you have to begin to wonder if a four-year university was the best fit in the first place for many of these students, and did they have all the information necessary to make a "savvy" choice, as Mr. Carnevale asks?

Enter the school counselor.  We can help students and families make "savvy" and informed choices about their post-secondary options, and part of those conversations needs to be about the benefits of local community colleges.  With only an estimated 60% of first-year college students returning to the same school for their sophomore year, it is vital that we work to change our community's views about local two-year schools as an option.  Community colleges are not just a place where the students who cannot get into a better school end up.  Our school counseling team stresses the following reasons to consider a community college to all of our students and families:

• It can cost a lot less.  Even if a student is four-year bound, the financial cost of attending a community college for two years and then transferring to a four-year college is going to be significantly less than doing all four years at a traditional university, public or private.  For those families and students who are worried about future student loan debt (a very real concern right now) or about the strain of having to work full-time (as a student) or two or three jobs (as a parent) to be able to afford a four-year school, community college may be a strong choice at which to begin their college career.  Every year I have students with academic profiles that would gain acceptance to good four-year universities who choose to do community college for two years in order to save money on their education.
• Some students are not yet ready to leave home.  Parents, for the most part, know their kids pretty well.  If you as a school counselor and they as a parent have worked just as hard to get a student through high school as the student themselves, then they may not yet be ready to leave home with all of that extra support and go away to a four-year school.  If this is a student who continuously gets into minor trouble (cheating, fights, excessive partying, smaller community issues) then they may not yet be ready for the freedom of life at college.  Some kids simply need another year or two of maturity and growing up in order to gain the skills necessary to manage both their academic and personal lives in a way that will give them a much stronger chance of success.  Better to go to community college for a few years than go away to school, spend $10,000, and then be kicked out at the end of the year for academic or social reasons.
• Students need to build up their academic profile.  We all have those students who figure some things out closer to the end of their high-school career than at the beginning.  They have come to realize late that their grades and the classes they take really do matter.  Community college allows them to start with a clean slate and to build up their academic credentials so that after a year or two they can transfer into a four year school, having proven that they are ready to take on college-level coursework.
• Four-year college is not for everyone, nor may it be necessary.  As mentioned before, there are many occupations for which a certificate or a two-year degree may be all that is required before a student can move into a good paying job or begin a career.  Not every student is going to be ready, at least at this time in their life, to do a Bachelor's degree.  However, they do need to get some kind of post-secondary training, whether it is in auto technology, cosmetology, computers and information technology, or dental assisting so that they are then ready to go out into the world with some marketable skills.  I always tell students and families that this doesn't mean that they will never get a four-year degree--it just may be that this is not the right time for them in their lives and they can always go back later.
• Students have absolutely no idea what they want to do.  Part of what has always worried me about the six-year graduation statistics is that I fear that some of those students who may be on the seven or eight year plan began college with no earthly idea of what they wanted to study.  This is very normal--I would wager that most 18 year-olds are unsure of what they want to be when they grow up.  However, exploring a variety of fields is a lot less expensive at a community college than at a four-year school.  It is possible that these students need a year or two of career exploration (perhaps even via a gap year) to get some idea of what area(s) they may want to study so that when they do finally attend that four-year school they are able to be focused and complete a degree within four to six years.
• Students had their heart set on attending a certain school but did not get in.  We have students and families that really only want to attend a certain favorite school, and perhaps do not get into that college during the admissions process.  Going to community college allows them a year or two to strengthen their academic credentials so that they can reapply and transfer in.

It is important to check to see what partnerships or programs are available from your local community college that could assist you in helping students and families to explore whether it it is a viable option for them.  For example, at NOVA there is a guaranteed admissions program which allows students, depending on their GPA, to graduate with an Associate of Arts or an Associate of Science degree and then be automatically admitted to the Virginia public school of their choice.  Further, we have the Pathways to the Baccalaureate program that supports students in their senior year of high school who are looking to go to NOVA for two years and then transfer to a four-year school.  The Pathways' counselor meets on a weekly basis with students in the program at their high-school, and then there is continued support for these students once they begin at NOVA.  If you do not have these partnerships at your school, it may be worth teaming up with your local school counselors, administrators, community members, and school district to try to develop some programming.

At my school, we have really come a long way in a few short years with taking away the stigma of community college as an option only for students who were unable to get into any other college.  This has taken a lot of effort on the part of the school counselors and our amazing career-center specialist, but I really feel we have turned the corner.  Now, many of our families see this as a strong option for their children for all of the reasons I've listed above, and it is viewed as it should be--a powerful stepping stone to a bright future of college and career.    

A Contrast in College Finances

A colleague of mine forwarded this article from a recent edition of the New York Times about the increasing burden of student loan debt.  The article discusses how the average amount of loan debt per student continues to rise, with it reaching $23,330 in 2011.  Additionally, many colleges and universities attempt to gloss over the costs of attendance during the admissions process, and students are encouraged to look at their college experience as a "return on investment" and a "lifetime investment, appreciating over the course of time." (source: www.nytimes.com).  Since 2005, the number of students who default on their loans within two years has doubled to one in ten.

One of the reasons the article cites for skyrocketing student loan debt is the rising cost of state public colleges and universities due to decreased state funding.  As the economy has struggled in the last several years, states have cut funding to higher education.  This is combined with many legislators pledging not to increase taxes at the same time that they are giving tax breaks to corporations and eliminating estate taxes, both sources of revenue that could be used to help fund higher education.  Additionally, for-profit colleges account for a quarter of all federal grants and loans.  Yet, only 22% of students receive a bachelor's degree within six years at for-profit schools, compared to 65% at non-profit private schools and 55% state public schools.  Students at for-profit schools are also twice as likely to default on their loans as students at private and public non-profit colleges.  (source: www.nytimes.com).

Overall, the message of the article is that families and students are responsible for examining very closely the often confusing financial aid proposals and information that colleges send, mapping out the projected costs of the education over four-to-six years, and for being open to less-costly options if they may help to graduate a student with less debt.  (www.nytimes.com).

In contrast, NPR's Planet Money blog posted this graphic today that shows how the sticker price (it covers tuition only, not room-and-board) at public and private colleges has increased over time, but how the net price (the price that most students end up paying after grants and scholarships) has not:

source: www.npr.org/blogs/money and www.collegeboard.org

I wrote about the difference in sticker and net price in a recent blog post.  So, how do these two articles work together?  How is it that for many students college cost has remained relatively the same, yet student loan debt is increasing?  I have no definitive answers, but can only surmise that the average student loan debt numbers are higher partially because a large portion of the debt may be due the debt accrued at for-profit colleges, which is not a part of the graphic above.  Further, the graphic above does not include room-and-board and other living expenses, which have also risen over time but which may not be covered by the grants and scholarships that help to relieve some of the burden of tuition for students.  Finally, the graphic shows average costs, and those students who are expected to pay more "net price" at public and private non-profit schools have a lot more to cover now than they did in 1996. 

What do we take away as school counselors?  We have a continued commitment to talking about the costs of college with students and families and reminding them that it should be a factor in their decision.  Further, as discussed before, we should encourage students to shop around and apply to public and private colleges, especially those students who are strong academically and have special talents or aptitudes, as they may receive offers with a great deal of scholarship and aid.  The hope should be to have students looking at multiple schools at multiple price points so that when they are making a final decision, they have several options to peruse.  Finally, pointing out to students and families other paths to getting a college education that would lower their debt load--starting at a two year college and transferring to a four year school or perhaps going to a four year school but living at home or with a relative while doing so.  The implications of their choice not only in school but in how much they pay for that education could linger for a lifetime.

"Sticker Price" versus "Net Price"

One of the focuses in our students' junior year is on examining factors that will influence the list of colleges that they will apply to.  In-state or out-of-state?  Large or small?  Urban or rural?  Choice of majors?  Public or private?

This last one is one that every year I talk about with anyone who will listen.  Most of my students will apply to in-state, Virginia schools.  Why wouldn't they?  We are home to some of the top public colleges in the nation--University of Virginia, College of William and Mary, and Virginia Polytechnic University.  Families in Virginia have every right to be proud of these schools and they are great fits for so many students.

However, public, in-state schools are not the only game in town.  What about private colleges and universities?  Whenever I bring this option up to families, the first words I hear are "they're too expensive.  We can't possibly afford it."  It then takes an awful lot of convincing on my part to get them to even think of taking a look at a few.  It saddens me a bit, because many private colleges, with a focus on the liberal arts, smaller classes, and an emphasis on teaching versus research, would be an excellent fit for more of my students than I think apply.  What about this question of cost?

Take a listen to this report, The Real Price of College, from NPR's Planet Money, their group of reporters that focus on economic topics.  This segment discusses how there is a "sticker price" at private colleges and then the price that students actually pay, the "net price."  For a lot of strong students (good to excellent grades, decent test scores, talents in the arts and/or athletic fields) there can be a great deal of need and merit based financial aid at these schools--only a small percentage of students at private colleges and universities actually pay the full sticker-price.  This report goes inside several private colleges' admissions departments and discusses how and why they make decisions that grant so much money to students.  A college may charge $55,000 a year for tuition, room-and-board, and additional expenses, but many students will be granted aid-packages that ultimately make the cost comparable to their public state school of choice.  As high-school counselors, it is our responsibility to make sure that our students and families have all the possible options out there on the table, and that should include non-profit private institutions of higher learning.