Mrs. Hamrick’s Counselor Corner

Shortcuts and Other Smart Advice for Filling out Federal Student Aid Form

How to Avoid 9 FAFSA Form Mistakes

FAFSA Q and A Part 1 - be sure to click through all 4 parts for answers to some pressing questions about the FAFSA!

8 Happy — and 3 Scary — Trends in Financial Aid 2010

Scholarship Search Secrets – an eBook

This article covers a study that researched what type of student is most likely to graduate from college.  It covers some very important points, including, once again, that high grades, participation (and success) in AP’s, and living on campus all contribute to a high success rate in college.

If you are thinking of applying to a college or university using the Common Application, you may want to view a draft showing the changes for next year’s application – https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/Docs/2009-10CommonApp_highlightedUpdates.pdf

College Board has recently launched a new option for students to send scores to college.  Now, instead of automatically sending all scores from each testing administration, students can pick and choose which set of test scores to send to colleges.  ACT already does this.

For more information, visit http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/score_choice.html?CampaignID=3465.  College Board has also set up a tutorial here – http://www.collegeboard.com/html/SCTutorial/index.html

To see a list of colleges and how they evaluate scores, download this PDF.

Business Week has ranked 32 schools they deem the best business schools.  Two of our own, Georgia Tech and Emory, make the list!

“Responsiveness to the community’s needs, academic rigor, relationships with top recruiters, and dedication to excellence are among the qualities necessary for a business school to be considered one of the best. Every two years, BusinessWeek consults students, recruiters, and academic research to determine which business schools fit the bill. Here’s this year’s look at the best U.S. full-time MBA programs.”
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/11/1112_best_business_schools/index.htm?chan=rss_topSlideShows_ssi_5

This article explains several sources where you can find free college opportunities! 

http://www.examiner.com/x-673-Education-Examiner~y2008m11d8-More-information-on-full-scholarship-and–tuitionfree-colleges

If you’re thinking it’s easy to transfer to an Ivy League school, there’s some things you need to be aware of:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/19/education/edlife/strategy-t.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

I found this article while browsing a college advice blog (http://thecollegesolutionblog.com/).  I thought that it had some really good advice that you don’t always hear when trying to figure out the whole “financial aid thing”. 

http://moneywatch.bnet.com/saving-money/article/what-college-aid-officers-wont-tell-you/276393/

We get asked ALL THE TIME about certain organizations that send letters announcing to students that they’ve been nominated to be in this “highly prestigous” program, or chosen from a pool of students to participate in this expensive summer leadership opportunity. There are pros (travel, exposure to neat opportunities) and cons ($$$, opportunity less unique than anticipated) to all of these and it is debatable as to whether or not they hold any merit with college admission reps. Sometimes students are provided some great learning experiences and other times, the whole program exists to puff up a student’s (or parent’s) ego (”purchase this book that has YOUR KID’S name in it!” Who looks at these books anyway??). Read this article to get several perspectives.

What factors do colleges look at when choosing whether or not to admit a student??  This article addresses this topic and asks college admissions officers what they want to see.

http://www.rockymounttelegram.com/features/the-a-college-applicant-391836.html

Similarly, this next article also addresses the importance of selecting what (and how many) activities you choose to participate in while in high school.  You may be surprised to learn what they have to say!

http://www.examiner.com/x-766-College-Admissions-Examiner~y2009m1d27-Do-only-wellrounded-students-get-into-college