Question: How important is it to attend a college that my friends and family have heard of?

Answer: To many parents and students, the name of the school, is more important than the actual quality of the education and the social experience of the college. For some, the focus on "brand" is sufficiently great that parents may direct their child towards schools that are unrealistic, or even inappropriate, or may exclude from consideration schools that offer equal , or perhaps better, experiences than the "name brands" that are at the top of their lists. For many, all they can think about is "getting in." But, the reality is the acceptance letter is really just the beginning, and it is the actual college experience that will lead to either success or failure.

Some parents firmly believe that merely attending a brand name institution will guarantee professional success and a high paying career. The simple fact is that it doesn't. More important than the name of the school is what actually happens there. A successful undergraduate experience fosters intellectual growth and exploration. Colleges and universities do not interview for jobs, the graduate does. Good grades and, in many cases, good performance on graduate admissions tests are what really count when it comes to getting hired or getting into graduate school. Without these, having attended a brand name offers little. The wise student will place the greatest emphasis on choosing a school that matches their academic and social needs.

There are over three thousand colleges and universities in the United States; students should choose those that offer the best academic and social fit. Parents need to be open-minded.

Marilyn G.S. Emerson, M.S.W., CEP

What Families Need to Know About Financial Aid Award Letters

Question: How and when can I expect to hear if my child has been awarded financial aid?

Answer: Financial aid award letters, as they are called, are typically sent out between mid-March and mid-April each year. Families have until May 1st to evaluate their offered aid packages and commit to a school by sending in a deposit. Don't assume that the school with the lowest tuition or the one offering the most grant money is the most affordable. The real measure of an aid package is how much you end up paying in the end.

Question: How do I determine which college is the most financially viable for my child?

Answer: First determine what the major costs are to attend each school. It is imperative that all directly and indirectly billed expenses (travel, books, meals, etc.) are included whether or not they are reflected in the financial aid award letter. Then group the major aid components together and compare them. Aid comes in three forms, loans which have to be repaid with or without interest, gift aid which consists of grants and merit aid which do not have to be repaid and work-study where a student is paid to work part time either on or off campus. In the latter case, the award letter doesn't typically indicate what the work will be. Comparing components is sometimes easier said than done. There is no standard form of financial aid letter. Schools can have cryptic acronyms to identify components without indicating which are grants and which are loans.

Once you know what your costs are and how much, and in what form of aid your child will be receiving, you can determine what your out-of-pocket costs will be. The difference between the cost of attendance and the amount of grant money and work study that your child is offered is ultimately what the family will owe. Offered loans may defer some the cost initially, but will have to be repaid with or without interest, depending upon the type of loan it is. Interest on some loans have to be repaid during the course of undergraduate studies. Others defer repayment until after graduation. Typically loans carry interest charges and fees which should be included in your calculations.

Question: Is help available to compare financial aid awards?

Answer: There are websites, some of which are more reliable than others, to assist families in comparing award packages. They also require a certain level of understanding the financial aid process. The college's financial aid office is always a resource to be called upon to clarify and explain inconsistencies or ambiguities. Also, be aware that aid packages aren't necessarily automatically renewable from year to year. Educate yourself early about the process so you will be in a position to evaluate financial aid letters in a timely fashion.

Carolyn Cohen, Esq. Educational Consultant at College Planning Services, Inc.

Choose Your High School Coursework with Care

Question: My son and daughter are a rising junior and senior. They'll be meeting with their guidance counselor soon to pick courses for next year. What should they be thinking about?

Answer: by Joseph J. O'Brien Jr (Educational Consultant)

First, it is always advisable to have a tentative four year plan when choosing your freshman year courses. That puts the student on a path that enables him to anticipate future courses while also allowing for changes to satisfy new interests. Having such a plan also makes it easier to decide on the next year's course selection.

But whether or not your sophomore son has a plan in place, he should be thinking about whether any colleges he's considering have particular course and test requirements. For example, some colleges or majors within a college might require two lab sciences or recommend a particular SAT subject test.

If there are no special requirements to meet, your son should be thinking about the courses that logically follow from the courses he's already taken, the courses he will enjoy and the courses that put him in a position to compete for a place in all of the colleges he will eventually apply to. Of courses, the courses needed to make a strong college applicant aren't always the most enjoyable courses, and that's where hard choices must be made.

Recently, when asked a similar question to yours, the President of the National Association for College Admission Counseling, Bill McClintick, said that most experienced admission officers would say, "We want to see if they have taken the most rigorous courses available to them at their particular school and how they have performed in those classes."

This adage will also serve your daughter well. Senior year is no time to take it easy. College will notice any drop off in the level of courses selected for senior year, and they won't like it. This is a time for her to continue to take as demanding course load as she can reasonably expect to succeed in. In fact, this should be every student's guiding principle in selecting next year's courses.

College Admissions: Post it With Care - If it is in Their Face it is Hard to Ignore

What students advice would you give students about using the Internet for college admissions?

In light of the recent spate of articles and blogs about Tufts University welcoming student videos as part of a student's college application, I want to share with my readers the advice I give the students I work with about using the Internet:

• Students should set up a separate e-mail account for the college admission process, so important information is not lost among regular e-mail. The e-mail address should be some form of the student's name; it should not be funny, cute or off-color. Students should make a folder for each college they are applying to and put all e-mails in the appropriate folder.

• Posting too much personal information, off-color comments or anything else you would not want college admission officers to see on blogs or away messages may come back to haunt you.

• Blogs and other Internet postings can be fun and interesting, but remember that what someone posts may be viewed by anyone and everyone. "If you can't say anything nice about a person, don't say anything at all" is an old, but very good rule that is quite applicable to the Internet - on web pages, blogs, e-mail, videos and IM.

• Students, and others, should reread their blog or video script a second, and even a third time to make sure they feel comfortable sharing everything they posted with the world. Admission counselors, and, later, potential employers may examine these posts. Information that is posted on the Internet becomes public information about the person posting. Be aware that even postings that have been removed may be viewable at later dates by savvy Internet users. If you are not sure, do not post it.

• Sometimes when students contact admission counselors through the college's blog and/or message boards, the information may become part of the formal correspondence and it may be factored into the admission decision.

Thomas D. Reason, Associate Director of Admissions at the University of Wisconsin - Madison said, "neither my staff nor I have the time to Google or Facebook every application. By the same token, if something ends up in 'My Face' it would be hard to ignore."

Marilyn Emerson, MSW, CEP

College Bound: Tougher Course or Higher Grade?

Question: Should I take a higher level course where I might get a B or take an easier course where I know I will get an A?

Answer: I am often asked this question by college bound students and parents of high school students. My first response is to take the more difficult course and get an A. Then I go on to say, that while it is easier to say, it is often more difficult to do. The question really is which is more important getting a perfect grade or challenging oneself with a higher level course. Assuming that the student has good grades and is realistically capable of doing the work my answer usually is to take the more rigorous course.

The Center for Public Education recently conducted a study that supports this view. They found that perfect grades are trumped by higher level courses. "Taking more rigorous courses, especially in math and science, gives an applicant a better chance of getting into a competitive college than does raising his or her GPA."

Are College Campuses Safe?

Question: After reading accounts of crimes on college campuses I worry about my daughter's safety. How safe are college campuses?

Response: On October 29th the United States Department of Education published new federal regulations dealing with campus, fire safety, emergencies, missing students and hate crimes. These new rules, which came into effect at the beginning of this month, implement laws enacted in 2008, including amendments to the Jeanne Clery Act. Prior to the Act, name for a Lehigh University coed who, in 1986, was raped and murdered by a stranger, a student who abused drugs and alcohol, relatively little attention was paid to campus safety; simple security breaches like residence hall doors propped open were common. The Act now requires colleges and universities to release Annual Security Reports that include campus crime statistics, plus summaries of campus security procedures. The www.securityoncampus.org website provides a summary of the Jeanne Clery Act and other information about campus safety, including tips for college students.

Currently the latest cause of Constance Clery, mother of Jeanne Clery, is pushing the United States Congress to establish a National Center for Campus Public Safety. The United States House of Representatives has authorized the national center. The Senate Judiciary Committee now needs to act.

In spite of all the effort that goes into protecting men and women on college campuses, no college campus is 100% safe. The rules and regulations help, but it is up to parents to talk to their children about how to stay safe, it is up to the colleges to continually look at safety issues and it is up to students to think about their actions and possible consequences.

To read the federal regulations go to http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/E9-25373.htm

Happy New Year!

For the new year I will be changing the focus of this college admissions blog. Instead of writing a college admission tip of the week, each week an educational consultant from College Planning Services, Inc. will answer a college admission related question . So please, keep sending us your college admission questions.

Question: Can I ask your opinion on whether you think Spencer "shot high enough" with college applications? I sometimes wonder if we went to see enough schools. The guidance counselor at his high school made it sound like Boston College would be a stretch. Should we just be thrilled that it's over? Would he have gotten into some Ivy League schools? Spencer seems confident he wouldn't. I'd love your professional opinion on this. It probably sounds ridiculous, but I guess I'm hoping you tell me to be and he wouldn't have a chance at an Ivy League school.

Answer: Spencer was accepted at a wonderful college, one I am assuming since he applied early action, that he really wants to attend. Admission to college is only the beginning. Spencer, like other students, needs to be in an environment where he will be academically successful and socially happy.

In all likelihood, since both Spencer and his guidance counselor thought his list was a good one, you are probably doing Spencer a disservice by second guessing their judgement. Students, counselors and educational consultants usually have a good sense of colleges that would be a good fit , both academically and socially, whereas parents often don't. Students, counselors and educational consultants usually have accurate knowledge, which is a good basis of comparison, and parents often don't. Students usually know where they stand in their class. In my experience, if I was asked to rank those who accurately predict where students will be accepted, I would rank students, guidance counselors and educational consultants high and parents low.