Getting In: A College Coach Conversation

What happens if you got into most of the colleges on your list, but now you're realizing you don't really like any of them? We'll be looking at what you can do if you find yourself in this situation. We'll also talk to a student about her decision to attend the University of Michigan and the path she took to get there in another segment on students' college choices. We'll wrap it all up by answering your college finance questions.

College visits can be an incredibly valuable part of the college process—or they can be a big waste of time and money. Students and families can make these worth their while by thinking ahead about the kinds of questions they want to ask and of whom, and we'll be offering guidance around both in this week's show. In another of our ongoing segments on students' college choices, this week we'll hear from a student who chose the University of South Carolina after originally setting her sights on small liberal arts colleges. And finally, we're running part two in our series on tuition reciprocity agreements with a focus on the New England Regional Student Program.

In our first segment on Turning the Tide, Ian Fisher, Elyse Krantz, and Beth Heaton discussed the relative merits of the report and plan but only had time to cover the basics. In this week's show, they'll return to dig a bit deeper and uncover what this means for students. Should they change their approach to course selection? Opt for fewer APs? Move community service to the top of the list of extracurriculars? Worry less about all of those in general? Tune in and find out! In this week's college finance segment, we'll be talking about taxes and their impact on college students.

You might think a scholarship offer is firm and final—either you get it, or you don't, and the amount is fixed. In reality, colleges often have leeway in not only who they offer money to, but how much money they offer. In this segment, we'll explore how to negotiate a better deal. We're also excited to welcome a parent to the show to discuss how finances played a significant role in her child's college process. We're also answering your college admissions questions.

The initial financial aid award you receive from a college doesn't necessarily have to be the best and final offer—it's actually okay to ask for more if you think you need it. Our college finance experts, who also happen to be former financial aid officers, will help listeners understand what kinds of information they can present to make the case for more money. We'll also present a current Brown student's college selection story and dig into Harvard's Turning the Tide Report and what it all means for future college applicants.

We're excited to welcome another student to the show to tell her college selection story. In this case, she had to make a difficult decision between USC and Carnegie Mellon, and she's going to tell us how she did this. A recent article outlined some suggestions for how to raise a creative child, and they didn't involve overscheduling or—gasp—over-parenting. We're going to discuss our thoughts on the article, encouraging creativity in students, and how that creativity can play a role in the college admissions process. We're also going to answer listener questions about college finance.

It should be an easy thing to compare financial aid offers from different schools. But between loans, grants, merit scholarships, work study, and other different components, it can often feel like comparing apples to oranges. In this week's show, we'll take listeners through the best way to compare offers and decide which one is actually the best. In another segment in our High School Plan series, we'll explore different course selections and extracurricular ideas for potential pre-dental students. For those students looking to get some hands-on experience while they're in college, we'll look more closely at co-op programs.

It seems that every other day we get asked about the possibility of paying in-state tuition at an out-of-state college. There are so many myths surrounding this concept that it can start to feel like the whole thing is made up, but it is a real option. In part one of a multipart series that will explain these options in the US, we'll take a closer look at the Midwestern Higher Education Compact. Other segments will cover tips and tricks for using Naviance to navigate the college application process and answer listener questions on college admissions.

Ever wonder how the admissions process works at large state universities? We'll give you a hint—it's not exactly the same as at the Ivies. Kelly Bird, senior assistant director of admission at the University of Georgia will join us to explain how their process works. We're also going to fill you in on financial aid verification, including what it is and how it works. Finally, we'll shed some light on how colleges evaluate the high school that your child attends.

As decisions start to come in next month, many students will be embarking on one of the biggest challenges of the college admissions process: where to actually go! In the first two segments on our new series offering student perspectives, we're excited to welcome two students to the show to discuss the process that led them to their final college choices and what they think about those choices now that they're enrolled. We're also going to be answering listener questions on financial aid and other college finance issues.