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Many of us are certain that given time and knowledge, we can get through the college application process ourselves, without spending thousands of dollars on professional advisors. Our guidance counselors may be burdened with hundreds of students. But what if we don’t know where to start the process? How do we avoid pitfalls that previous families encountered, where they ended up with offers from schools with large debt or rejections from all? For a price less than one college application fee, take our comprehensive “Talking College Search” course here https://goodapples.teachable.com . This three hour course has 18 lessons on six different aspects, from searching for the best fits to how to interpret the financial aid reward letters. “Talking College Search” points you in the right direction so that you CAN be satisfied and successful doing it yourself.
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There may be a little good news for future college students with family incomes of $50,000 or less a year: Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) who chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee; plus House Representatives Mark Pocan (D-Wisconsin) and Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Virginia) who chairman of the House Education & Labor Committee, have introduced the Pell Grant Preservation and Expansion Act to Congress.
The Pell Grant is guaranteed gift, funded by the US government via taxpayers, and is put towards a student’s college tuition. Filling out the family income information in the FAFSA determines the amount a student gets. The Pell Grant is not like a loan because it does not have to be paid back. The maximum gift, based on family income, is currently topped at approximately $6,495 for a school year.
If the bill passes in the House and Senate and becomes law, it would protect the Pell Grant, increase the amount based on inflation and have the Pell Grant fund permanently funded so that it can gift to millions of students. Part-time students would also be able to receive a percentage. Full-time students will be able to request the grant for 18 semesters instead of currently 12 semesters; not all students can obtain degrees in four years, so extending the grant will help them.
– For the 2023–2024 school year the bill calls for students to get a maximum of $9,000.
– The Pell Grant will increase to $10,000 for 2024–2025.
– Students will receive in 2025–2026 up to $11,000.
– $12,000 in 2026–2027 will be the maximum.
– The bill will reach its goal of $13,000 per year in 2027–2028 and each year after that.
Students in families that receive federal benefits would qualify automatically for the maximum award plus an additional $1,500. There is a sliding scale for the Pell after that.
Representative Scott and Senators Hirono and Murray had previously introduced the Act in 2017 with no progress. It originally began as the Basic Educational Opportunity Grant in 1972 and it was renamed in honor of Rhode Island Senator Claiborne Pell in 1980. He first introduced the bill to create the grant in 1965.
“The Pell Grant is the most important tool we have to help students afford college. Unfortunately, due to the rising cost of college, the purchasing power of Pell Grants has severely eroded over time,” said Senator Scott in a press release.
“Every year, Pell Grants make college more affordable for millions of students in the United States—including tens of thousands of students in Hawaii. But over the last decade, the value of the Pell Grant has steadily declined—from covering nearly fourth-fifths of the cost of attendance at a public, four-year institution at its height, to less than one-third,” Senator Hirono said.
“It’s thanks to Pell grants that I was able to graduate and get a great education from Washington State University—but today’s students are being asked to pay more for college with less financial support. Students should never be forced to give up their higher education dreams because they can’t afford it—and this legislation will take a significant step in helping to make sure college is within reach for more students,” Senator Murray said.
In addition to Senators Hirono and Murray and Representatives Pocan and Scott, the Pell Grant Preservation and Expansion Act is cosponsored by Senators Jack Reed (D-R.I), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.), and Representatives Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Andre Carson (D-Ind.), Tony Cardenas (D-Calif.), Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), Val Demings (D-Fla.), Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.), Mike Doyle (D-Pa.), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Jahana Hayes (D-Conn.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Derek Kilmer (D-Wash.), Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), Al Lawson (D-Fla.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.), Andy Levin (D-Mich.), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), Lucy McBath (D-Ga.), Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), Joseph Morelle (D-N.Y.), Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), Marie Newman (D-Ill.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Deborah Ross (D-N.C.), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (D-Northern Mariana Islands), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Thomas Suozzi (D-N.Y.), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Paul D. Tonko (D-N.Y.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.).
How to get this Act to pass? Contact your senators and congressperson to encourage them to vote for the increase this time.
Read the Act here: https://edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/PELL_PRESERVATION_xml.pdf
What vaccinations Do Freshmen Need Before Stepping on Campus? Even before the pandemic, entering freshmen in colleges and trade schools have been expected to be up to date on immunizations. Campus environments are intimate and turn into disease incubators quickly. So students must provide proof of the mumps MMR and tetanus DTP boosters. It’s also recommended to have the Meningitis B vaccine; many campuses experience a Meningitis B outbreak each year, and that strain can be deadly. The Meningitis B vaccine is usually a two-parter, so make doctor appointments now so that there is time to take the second before moving on campus.
“I am a failure. I spent six weeks straight, 10 to 12 hours a day, studying and it was so important for me to take this. And to not pass gets your spirit down and just makes you want to give up.” said Kim Kardashian after taking the “baby bar”, an exam given at the end of the first year of studying for a law degree to people not going to traditional law school.
Only people who live in California, Vermont, Washington, and Virginia can study to become a lawyer this way. The other states require four years of college and then three years of law school. People who take the alternate different route like Kardashian must study in apprenticeship four years with a lawyer or judge and are required to take the First-Year Law Students’ Examination (FYLSE). According to Kardashian, “The test is seven hours long and has four hour-long essays that you have to write, and then it has 300 multiple choice questions.” Students have three chances to pass the exam in order to earn law school credit. Only 21% pass upon taking the exam the first time. She scored a 474 and needed 560 to pass.
Kardashian has already taken the exam a second time, in November 2020, at the urging of her sisters who warned her that she’d lose momentum if she waited to take it in June 2021. But if a 40-year old mother of four who hadn’t taken exams for 20 years, as well as being a business owner and going through a difficult divorce publicly isn’t enough, she took her second “baby bar” while suffering through COVID-19! That’s a lot on her plate.
Many hesitate and worry about doing well in school and getting into a college. It is best to study well, gain all the knowledge, take the tests, put one’s best-but-real self on an application. Even then, the results may be disappointing. However, it can also end up with happy results! But first, one has to take the initiative and do it. Don’t listen to doubts inside and out.
It’s okay to whine about disappointment for a moment, but it’s not okay to give up without trying again, as many times allowed. Hopefully Kardashian used a different study tactic the second time, and if she has to take it again, that she will study differently in preparation for the third try.
But give up as she considered after the first attempt? Whether or not she re-took the test a year later, the year would still come. What should that year look like? Isn’t it better for an entire year to go by and to have done it rather than not try at all? Try? Try not? What did Yoda say?
History Lesson Time: Did you know that when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation in September of 1862, that slaves in Texas did not learn that they had been freed until June 19, 1865(!!)?? That day became known as Juneteenth, Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day, and/or Emancipation Day! Since then, across the country, Juneteenth has become a recognized day of the end of slavery. New York City just announced that its public schools will be closed on June 19 next year.
In this century, we’ve seen colleges change the names of buildings and programs that had been named in honor of controversial figures from the Civil War. Other colleges have acknowledged the use of slave labor on their campuses and profiting from the sale of its slaves. And Georgetown University established a foundation to address the legacy of the slaves which includes a fund so that descendants of the 272 slaves the school sold in 1832 who apply to Georgetown have the same college admission and acceptance considerations just like other children of current Georgetown employees have.
(Want to let people know you’re acknowledging Juneteenth Emancipation Day? You can wear the message, selecting a design like on this t-shirt seen on Amazon:
Learn about Georgetown’s Descendants’ Truth & Reconciliation Foundation and how the school is recognizing history: https://www.georgetown.edu/news/georgetown-continues-support-as-jesuits-descendants-of-enslaved-form-foundation/
Thousands of students apply to colleges each year and those who apply to schools that their relatives attended in the past get extra points towards their application in admissions. That’s called being a legacy admit.
Inside Higher Ed conducted a survey of admissions directors in 2018 and found that 42% of private institutions and 6% of public institutions said they consider legacy status as a factor when selecting applicants for their freshman class. But not every school does this; some of the largest public universities do not give points for having relatives who are alumni, and other colleges are beginning to drop it. As schools reduce the number of students admitted due to legacy, it increases the admissions chances for students who don’t have connections, and whose parents or grandparents didn’t attend college — also known as “first generation college students”.
Johns Hopkins University, University of California and California State University recently announced that they will not consider legacy admissions anymore. And in May 2021, Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed a bill to prohibit the use of legacy as admissions criteria for all of its public colleges and universities.
Colleges make some sacrifice when they don’t admit as many legacies: there will be less freshmen who are familiar with the traditions and culture of the school; less students with built-in spirit; less donations by doubly-grateful alumni. A school that is low on funding might want rely more on legacies.
Since historically, college alumni in the past were fairly wealthy and not diverse, legacies admitted also tend to be from more wealthy families and not as diverse as the pool of students without connections who apply nowadays. Some colleges like Princeton University have accepted four times as many legacies to regular applicants.
Just for financial reasons, to end legacy preference is a major event in college admissions.
Guidance Counselors are preoccupied. Celebrity College Advisors are expensive! But you can start your college search journey on the right foot with our inexpensive “Talking College Search” online web course! 6 Topic Sections, 18 Lessons, 3 Hours and 1 Bonus Workbook all for less than the price of one college application fee (didn’t know there were application fees? You really need to start with this course.). Enroll here: https://goodapples.teachable.com
National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s study finds that Spring 2021 undergraduate enrollment is down 5.9% compared to the same time last year. Enrollment in community colleges declined the most, with a -11.3% decrease in enrollment compared to fall 2020.
But what is an interesting trend is the 4.4% INCREASE in students enrolling in graduate school. Master’s degree enrollments are up 5.2% and doctoral degree enrollments are up 3.6%.
When looking specifically state–by–state, undergraduate enrollment increased in only three states: Nebraska (+1%), Utah (+0.9%) and West Virginia (+0.6%). Twenty five states declined more than the national average (-5.9%)! Enrollment in undergraduate programs in Alaska, Delaware, New Mexico, Oregon, and South Dakota declined the most.
Good Apples NYC’s “Talking College Search” online course mentions community colleges as another option after high school. Community colleges offer certificate programs and also are where full–time students can earn an Associates Degree in two years. They are much cheaper than colleges that offer four–year Bachelor’s degrees. The cost to attend community colleges is much lower because state governments subsidize two–year colleges so that they don’t burden students with the expense that comes from running a school. Students can transfer to four–year colleges after earning their AA. With the 60 or so credits from the Assoicates degree in their pocket, these students are halfway to a Bachelor’s, saving money on tuition. A high grade point average from a community college makes students appear a better academic candidate than they did in high school — especially important for adult students starting college years after high school.
So it is problematic if this decline in enrollment in community and undergraduate colleges continues once the COVID-19 pandemic wanes and the spread of the virus is more controlled.
“The continuing slide in community college enrollments is of great concern,” said Doug Shapiro, Executive Director, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. “In a sign of potentially long–lasting impact on the level of skills and credentials in the workforce, there is still no age group showing increases at community colleges, even after a full year of pandemic and related unemployment.”
The research found that the number of students enrolled in associate degree programs declined 10.9% and bachelor’s degree enrollment declined 2.2%. The biggest decline was in the 18-20 year old age group that usually makes up most the undergraduates. That age group declined in community colleges by 14.6%!
Not surprisingly, enrollment in online programs increased during the pandemic year. Males enrolled at a 3.5% increase and enrollment of female students in online schools went up 1.4%.
All ethnic groups saw a drop in undergraduate enrollment, with Latinx and Native American enrollment declining the most.
So what programs did attract the students? In community colleges, the most popular concentrations were in health professions. Four–year undergraduate colleges also saw increase in health and clinical services majors, but the psychology, computer science and education departments saw more enrollment. On the graduate level, enrollment in MBA programs increased after experiencing a decline in previous years. Master’s programs in science and engineering increased. Education is also more popular, especially doctorate programs.
What conclusions can we make from this new report? Why was there a decline in enrollment of the traditional college age students (ages 18-20)? We have to assume that all who did not enroll this year thought it was more practical to join the workforce — but people who already have bachelor degrees went back to school for higher degrees. This report studies enrollment in the 2019 and 2020 school years and uses preliminary information of enrollment through February 2021. Final numbers will be reported in June. We will have to follow this for a couple of more years to see if it’s pandemic–related or if there’s a real new trend in college education.
Watch that space…
Instead of waiting until after May 1–National College Decision Day, two weeks earlier than usual, the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) released the list of colleges and universities that are STILL accepting applications.
“The NACAC College Openings Update provides options and assurances for students who have not yet found a college to attend this fall,” said Melissa E. Clinedinst, director of research and grants. “Because of the extraordinary disruptions of the past year, many terrific institutions are still seeking students for fall enrollment. Seeing this resource may help ease the college application stress that many students are experiencing.”
According to NACAC, the list was released two weeks early in mid-April “due to high demand” and will update the list shortly after colleges receive decisions from students who applied during the regular decision period. The list will be viewable until July. There were more than 770 schools on the list with open seats in 2020!
So what kinds of colleges and universities are on the list? Both public and private schools can be found, religious and secular, even schools with Division I athletics programs! The search filter makes it easy to find schools by state, and even by country. Interested in Aruba, Australia, Canada, France, Ireland or Japan? Or perhaps you may be interested in one of the 12 universities in the United Kingdom? American schools on the list go from Alfred University in New York to Xavier University in Ohio.
Good Apples NYC’s “Talking College Search” online course guides you to find a list of colleges that are the best fit for you. For less than the price of one application fee, take this course to help you figure out which schools on the list that still have openings. (Best to take the course BEFORE high school senior year in order to avoid the panic of finding a school after May 1).
To search the NACAC 2021 College Openings Update, go to nacacnet.org/openings.