Getting In: A College Coach Conversation

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.

Standing out in the college admissions process is a great thing. Unless you're the parent, and not the student. Listen is as we share horror stories of parents who are more memorable than their students and get a better understanding for just how much this can hurt applicants in the process. In our second segment, we'll discuss financial aid for transfer students, and then wrap up the show with advice about what to do--and not to do--while students wait for their final round of decisions.

Once you file the FAFSA, it may feel like all you can do is sit and wait to find out how much money the colleges on your list will offer in their packages. But there are actually things that students and parents can be doing during the next few months, and we're going to tell you all about that. For those of you with students in middle school, we'll be discussing the things that you and your students can be working on now that will positively impact their college process later on. Finally, getting ready to invest a lot of money in going on college visits? We'll be sharing tips on how to make the most of that time and money.

Over the past few months, we've been asking you to send us your thoughts on the things you'd like to hear more about, along with your specific questions. In today's show, we're going to answer as many of those admissions and college finance questions as we can get to. In addition, while many seniors are wrapping up their admissions process, there's a whole new group of students who are embarking on theirs. The first step for most is figuring out where to apply. We've done a few shows on how to put together a good list, and today we're going to tackle what happens once you have that list in hand--i.e., the best way to research your colleges.