Calling All Students: Guest Bloggers Needed!

Welcome back to College-Bound at STES, the college admissions blog for Saint Thomas Episcopal School families! This spring, I'm re-launching the blog to share information about college visits around the country. The purpose of this blog is to share as much information and insight on the college admissions process as possible. As I've said before, the best college searches are based on fit above all else, and I'm here to help you find out as much about as many colleges as possible so you can find the campus that fits you best.

Like last year, Mr Cusack has generously approved for me to take another college road trip on the school's behalf. This June, the school is sending me to New England to visit as many colleges as I can, and I'll be soliciting your help in choosing which schools to visit on my trip.

Since I can't visit all of the schools you'll be seeing this year, I need your help! If you'll be taking a trip this summer to visit colleges, I'd love to have you write a review of your visits. If you're interested, please email me ASAP and let me know where you're headed. I'll happily post your insights and pictures on the blog.Continue Reading...

Links for the day

There are some interesting stories going today as we move toward the release of the Ivy League's decisions today at 5 PM EST. Here are some links to distract you until that time.

First, there's a new college admissions blog, The Choice, over at the New York Times. Though I don't quite understand why they waited to start it until the end of March (the drama of decision day? an emphasis on the post-waiting days of April?), it's pretty compelling thus far. Check it out here: The Choice Blog


Additionally, NYT had an article yesterday about the growing trend of need-aware admissions. This means that some schools are taking a family's financial need into the equation as they admit students--and not in the way you might expect. That is, as college endowments suffer in the economic downturn, colleges are choosing to admit students who can afford to pay tuition out of pocket. This is a sea change in many ways, not the least of which speaks to a middle-class family's relationship to the FAFSA (the Free Application for Federal Student Aid). In the past, many families have told me that they didn't want to fill out the FAFSA because they didn't think they'd qualify for any aid and didn't see any point in doing so. However, if this trend continues and colleges have less money available in the financial aid budget, it may be advantageous to demonstrate that your family does not have large demonstrated financial need. It's unlikely that this would make or break an admission decision, but it certainly might not hurt. NYT: Paying in full may be the ticket into collegeContinue Reading...