College Matcher

Dancer in high school? Here is some advice that might be useful...

2011-11-09T15:31:00.000-08:00

Dancers considering studying dance beyond high school often want to know if dance is an impractical major? They often ask "what kinds of work could I get from this major if I do not make it as a performer?"

Here is my advice to high school dancers:

Ask yourself if you can do anything else and if so, then do it. If you don’t have a ridiculous passion for dance, then do something else and have dance as a wonderful hobby.

Passion is rarely practical; one would be wise in the case of dance and the performing arts in the U.S. to think from the start of the what ifs and the what elses. What if you pour all your effort, talent, and time (and your parents’ money) into dance and then do not get offers as a performer? What if you get seriously injured and may not perform? What if you are able to perform professionally but it is not providing a living wage?

There is no harm or lack of dedication in pursuing another related area that might provide the time and income for you to continue to dance unless or until you land performing work. But if you go to college for dance, it would be discouraging (at least to your parents) to be the proverbial waiter or waitress after graduation while trying to “make it.” Consider utilizing your electives to minor in another area such as arts administration or become certified in Pilates. These could provide part-time work for you once out of school while you continue to train, audition, or perform.

Happily the days of professional dancers getting to retirement age and saying, now what? are fairly much gone. Years ago New York City Ballet started a joint program with Fordham University accommodating the dancers’ desires to get a college education while dancing. They became surprisingly practical about second careers in related or unrelated areas even as they were just joining or rising within one of the most incredible ballet companies in the world! They have set an example of practicality within their dedication for the reality of a short performing career and acknowledging there is life after leaving the stage.

So plan a parallel track. If you love to teach, great, but pursue that seriously and not just as a default-colleges and schools want strong credentials and professional experience. If you think you may love to create, study composition and music and the great works of the repertoire and get some of your fellow dancers in a studio and start creating. If you are organized, analytical and have strong leadership qualities, consider the possibilities of working within a dance or other performing arts organization in administration, development or marketing. Do an internship and see if you love to help the artists get to stage and the public to see them. Many artists work as teaching artists in the schools which is incredibly important work as dance is rarely offered in education; it can be very fulfilling and is rarely a full-time endeavor. If designing for the stage may be of interest, consider costume, lighting and scenic design study. Most schools with strong dance programs also have strong production departments. Take courses and assist the designers in production. Consider stage management and crew. Who could better call a dance performance than a stage manager who is a trained dancer? But put in the time and effort to learn it at school; it too is a serious skill acquired through effort.

Seek advice from a performing arts professional, a current dance major, a professional dancer who went to college, or a college counselor specializing in the performing arts. They can discuss your goals and give you more ideas about your optimal path or paths.

Take advantage of being in college. There are few other places that offer so many opportunities to experience many facets of your passion beyond performing. Start answering the what ifs and what elses with a plan. (Your parents will breathe easier.)

Diane Coburn Bruning
College Match Dance and Performing Arts Consultant
diane@collegematchus.com

More Applicants Are Interested in Creative Writing

2011-04-14T09:58:00.002-07:00

Taken from Kristina Dell's Daily Beast/Newsweek article on 4/4/11

OMG! More high school students this year are interested in writing and want to choose schools where they can do more of it, says Montesano. “We have more clients than ever who want to build up creative-writing portfolios,” he says, “so they’re looking at colleges like Sarah Lawrence for creative writing and Vassar and Occidental for screenwriting.” Many have spent the summer between their sophomore and junior years at writing workshops to hone their skills.
Apparently, the increased interest in writing has resulted in better college essays, at least for some schools. “I do think the writing skills have improved,” says Miller of Brown. “Or maybe it’s the editing skills,” he jokes.

Applicants From Technology Havens Have the Admissions Edge

2011-04-14T09:58:00.001-07:00

Taken from Kristina Dell's Daily Beast/Newsweek article on 4/4/11

Schools like to say geography doesn’t matter, but if you’re from a technology haven like Seattle, Palo Alto, or San Jose, you just might have a subtle advantage. “Good high schools in tech hubs are getting in more kids to top schools than they used to,” says Montesano of College Match, who cites liberal arts feeder schools like Lakeside School in Seattle and Katharine Branson School in Marin County as having that edge. Why the leg up? “It’s nothing more than colleges wanting kids whose families are tech people, especially if they work for blue-chip tech firms," he says. "Google is the future, and they want kids from those families.”

Ivy League for Graduate School Is the New Goal

2011-04-14T09:54:00.000-07:00

Taken from Kristina Dell's Daily Beast/Newsweek article on 4/4/11

Sure, almost any student would love to gain admission to an Ivy right off the bat, but many have become next to impossible to get into. “The super-reach schools are completely out of reach,” says Montesano of College Match. “You’re looking at a 6 percent admission rate for Harvard.”
So more families have started to take a long-term approach to the college admissions process. For many, the endgame isn’t college; it’s graduate school. Some are considering sending their kids to top-notch state schools to save tens of thousands of dollars with the idea that Stanford or Yale will make a great graduate school. Others are searching for programs that allow a student to go to school for six years and gain a B.A. plus a J.D. to save a year of time and tuition. Whitman, Hamilton, Occidental, and Bowdoin have such programs.

Toughest Admission Year on Record!

2011-04-14T09:41:00.000-07:00

This year may well go down as the most competitive in the history of admission at America's top colleges as Newsweek/ Daily Beast reporter Kristina Dell observed:

"The toughest college admissions year on record reached its apex this week as nervous seniors obsessively checked their email or a website to discover their fates. (Waiting for the fat or thin envelope? So 2005.) The hotter-than-ever Ivy League schools, which all had a record number of applicants this year, notified the lucky ones at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

It has been an especially stressful process this year. The weak economy and a wider acceptance of the common application—Columbia used it for the first time this year and had a 32 percent jump in applicants over last year—has meant the competition is steeper than ever. Over the past five years, applications to the eight Ivy League schools plus MIT and Stanford skyrocketed from just over 200,000 applications to almost 300,000 early and regular applications, for a total increase of more than 40 percent."

Learning Disabilities Help Improve College Admissions

2011-03-22T08:53:00.000-07:00

Clients often ask, "Will my student's learning disability negatively impact their chance of admission?" The answer that I give is always, "No, in fact it will help your student gain admission".

LEARNING DISABILITIES AND COLLEGE ADMISSION
Colleges are looking for diversity and having a learning disability is a form of diversity. The way it works is that colleges will often look at an applicant's grades and test scores in a new light if presented with evidence of a learning disability. The learning disability may help put lower grades and class rankings or test scores like the SAT or ACT in a learning disability context. Say that a student ranked in the top half of their high school class is up against an applicant pool with a majority of students from the top 25% of their classes. Showcasing a learning disability can help bridge this significant gap in grades. A learning disabled student with an average GPA of 3.4 may be competitive against an applicant pool of that happens to include mostly students with GPA's around 3.7. Other factors such as academic activities and leadership also impact admission. For more information on these factors please review our case studies.

DOCUMENT THE LEARNING DISABILITY
The key here is documenting the disability in advance of college applications. High school students and their families should follow these steps if they suspect a learning disability:

1. Assess the specifics of the student's disability through testing with a qualified third party such as an educational psychologist or physician. Check with your high school for a referral to an educational psychologist, Many practitioners are also listed online; for example, Center for Developing Minds in Los Gatos, CA.
2. Establish a record of accommodations/ Individualized Education Program (IEP) with your high school; these may include timing and location of tests, presentation of materials, and other techniques and tools for improving understanding as outlined in the student's LD assessment.

Recommendation: assessments and IEP's should be kept current; re-assess LD's within three years of applying to colleges.

REVIEWING COLLEGE SUPPORT RESOURCES
Review each prospective college's academic support programs. Students with learning disabilities must familiarize themselves with their needed accommodations and ask for these accommodations from their colleges. Get in touch with each college's learning disabilities resource-- who will be more than likely located in the college's academic support services department.

Here are some steps to take while reviewing colleges:

1. Contact the college's academic support department. Ask to speak with a "learning disabilities specialist." Write down their name.
2. Ask the learning disabilities specialist if they have experience working with students having similar disabilities. If so, how many? What are usual accommodations given these students? Ask about specific software tools or processes used to help students with this particular disability.
3. Ask about the retention rate of LD students. How long does it take students using the program to complete their required courses? How involved is the LD resource in helping each student? What is the ratio of students with disabilities to LD specialists? What types of support does the institution offer faculty in terms of training in accommodating students with special needs? Is support in the program offered by interns, graduate students, peer tutors or trained professionals?
4. Review expected LD accommodations, based on IEP and LD assessment, with the learning disabilities specialist. Gauge learning disabilities specialist's resource's level of enthusiasm and/ or helpfulness.
5. Ask for the learning disabilities specialist's phone, email and mailing address.

PREPARE A LEARNING DISABILITIES STATEMENT FOR EACH COLLEGE APPLICATION
Application time! The process of college admission offers LD students an opportunity to set themselves apart from the competition by placing their academic performance in the context of their disability. Here are the steps for increasing the chances of admission to a college or university:After screening colleges for appropriate LD support, the application process is the next step. In the applications it is important to establish the student's learning disability.

Here are the key steps:

1. In college applications, give details of the learning disability under "Additional Information". Please specify the name of the learning disability and its effects on learning and grades and/or standardized testing.
2. Under "Additional Information" discuss grades and test scores and their impact from this disability.
3. In the next paragraph talk about ways that you have compensated for this disability; give examples. Also, discuss all accommodations granted to you in high school.
4. Conclude with a discussion of the how your grades and test scores have risen based on the accommodations you have received as well as your extra efforts to "compensate" for said disability.

Following up. It is important to stay in communication with each college's Academic Support Program. A learning disabilities "portfolio" should be readied including:

1. A recent assessment of the learning disability
2. IEP or record of accommodation at the high school
3. Notes or comments from high school counselor or LD resource specialist

Go ahead and forward this information to the selected college's learning support/LD specialist.

College Match associate named to Top 100 Mentors List!

2011-03-16T15:23:00.000-07:00

Co-author Ingrid Stabb named one of the Top 100 Desirable Mentors by GenJuice. More info: http://fb.me/TDoSpIZc

Jump Start College Admission: Take an Early Lead!

2011-03-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

College admission insights for freshman, sophomores and juniors presented by two knowledgeable college admission experts, Jan Hale and David Montesano of College Match on Tuesday, March 22nd or Wednesday, March 23rd from 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. at the Lafayette Public Public Library in Lafayette, California. PARENTS AND HIGH SCHOOL FRESHMAN, SOPHOMORES AND JUNIORS ARE ESPECIALLY ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND. Hale and Montesano will demonstrate proven techniques that will help your student choose the best colleges and put their applications ahead of the pack. There is no fee to attend this event. Seating for this event is limited; please email your RSVP to david@collegematchus.com

Shocking News: The SAT is Exactly Like Everything Else

2011-01-25T09:18:00.000-08:00

Many of my students approach the SAT as if it's some sort of strange, unknowable monster. They've heard through the grapevine that the SAT isn't like most tests - you can't study for it, you can't beat it, and it exists solely to ruin the college prospects of unsuspecting college students.

The problem with this attitude? It's completely and utterly false.

Is the SAT different than many other exams? Of course it is. It uses strange, logic-based wording and unorthodox questions to ask extremely simple things in extremely challenging ways. However, far from being an exam that you can't study for, the SAT is an exam that you need to study for. It's an unfamiliar and bizarre test - the more time you spend with it, the more comfortable you'll be with it (and the better your score will be).

I always compare the SAT to chess. It requires a special combination of strategy and tactics that, when used properly, bypass the malarkey of the exam and get right to the good stuff - the solvable, non-confusing question at the core of each prompt. Much like chess, the SAT requires its adherents to follow a good strategy from start to finish, using select tactics if and when necessary. With this in mind, I want to present a hypothetical scenario:

You find out that, in addition to your grades, extracurriculars, essay, and application, the only other factor affecting your chances of college admission is going to be a chess game against an international grandmaster. Depending on your observed performance on that exam (which accounts for 25% of your dream school's admission criteria, you will be accepted or rejected.

Now, faced with that situation, what would you do? Well, if you're like most sane people who want to get into college, you would study the game of chess! You'd study it a lot. You'd begin training early. You'd learn the strategies and tactics necessary to do well in your game vs. the grandmaster. You'd want to get to the point where you were dreaming about chess. That would be the ideal.

Now, here's the problem:

This is not a hypothetical scenario! The SAT is just a game (trust me, it does not test your mathematical or verbal abilities AT ALL - it tests your ability to take the SAT). If you want to get good at it, play it and practice it a lot. If you want to do terribly on the SAT, all you need to do is do nothing at all.

Students know how important the SAT is. Yet, instead of getting into gear and beginning their preparation programs early, they wait until a month before the exam before they crack open their SAT book and read it passively once or twice. This is bad strategy. Very, very bad strategy.

If you want to do well on the SAT, start practicing early, and practice a lot. Am I biased in giving this advice? Sure! I'm a professional SAT tutor. But whether or not you hire me or another tutor, or decide to study on your own, the advice stands: the SAT is just like everything else in the world, so treat it accordingly! If you wanted to get good at tennis, would you play 1 hour a week for 2 months and expect to be any good? If you wanted to get good grades in history class, would you skip all your homework and show up to class 1/3rd of the time? Nope.

The SAT is a game that requires guided, focused practice. If you start early, and if you practice patiently, you're going to destroy everyone in your grade who doesn't do the same. Remember: the SAT is graded on a scale, and your score is based on the performance of other high school students in the country taking the exam at the same time as you. So ask yourself: If I practice the SAT diligently, and I get started early, will I do better or worse than my peers?

I leave you with this closing thought: based on the % importance of the SAT in college admissions statistics, your SAT is more important to your chances of college admission than any class you will ever take.

How many hours do you put into your average class? Consider matching or exceeding that, and you'll stand a much better chance of getting into a school that you really care about.

Anthony provides test prep advice to College Match's students. For more articles, advice, and daily tips, you can visit Anthony Green's New York SAT Tutoring blog.
Anthony Green was recently named New York's Best SAT Tutor by Manhattan's most popular parenting and educational blog, and his results prove it: after tutoring over 230 students, Anthony's average score increase exceeds 350 points, an industry-leading average. You can get in touch with Anthony by visiting his website at www.NewYorksBestSATtutor.com.

Does getting into the right private school require the same skills as getting into the right college?

2011-01-25T09:09:00.000-08:00

Yes! Just like colleges, private schools want students who LOVE learning, and who have a demonstrated academic and extracurricular achievement record.

As a kindergarten – 12th grade educational consultant based in competitive New York City, I coach students on how best to impress admissions directors. I coach parents too, because the younger students are, the more the parents matter.

Here’s one of my recent cases: a student who speaks three languages, plays piano and soccer, and studied abroad, in China. How old was this student?

Four.

Let’s just say that once I helped her parents with their application essays and interviews, this girl was not too hard to place in a top Manhattan private school.

Another client was more challenging. Applying for 9th grade, he had no solid interests other than playing Wii and arguing with his mother. Neither the boy nor his mother were sure how to package this for private school admissions directors.

Eventually, we settled on a fast-track CV building plan including technology camp, computer classes, tennis lessons, and debate. The best part was that not only was the student accepted to a private school he loves, but now he’s on the path to college admissions success.

So whether your child is applying to kindergarten or to college, remember that the principle is the same. Every school wants a motivated, enthusiastic student.

Emily Glickman, President of Abacus Guide Educational Consulting (www.abacusguide.com), a top New York City K-12 consulting firm, sent us this. Emily can be reached at info@abacusguide.com or (212) 712-2228. She blogs at www.abacusmom.com .

Improve Your Chances For College Admission

2010-07-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

The Main Essay (a.k.a. The Common App) is the linchpin of your College Application:

Strategizing and targeting the Main Essay and supplements: a key component of the admissions profile
Most advice on how to write it is based on common myths
A well-written Main Essay can garner merit awards for the student

The SAT Essay: Writing vs. Facts

2010-07-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

The College Board, which administers the SAT, in their official guide for scorers explains:

"Writers may make errors in facts or information that do not affect the quality of their essays. For example, a writer may state 'The American Revolution began in 1842' or ' "Anna Karenina," a play by the French author Joseph Conrad, was a very upbeat literary work.' " (Actually, that's 1775; a novel by the Russian Leo Tolstoy; and poor Anna hurls herself under a train.) No matter. "You are scoring the writing, and not the correctness of facts."

Gearing up for Law School: A Marathon, Not A Sprint

2010-07-19T20:50:00.000-07:00

You may be thinking about law school and how to approach the process from a planning perspective. The following is a ‘pearl’ that we believe will save you time and, ultimately, some grief.

Relative to college and other professional school admissions processes, applying to law school seems fairly simple. Your grades are your grades. You prep for, then take the LSAT (and about three weeks later maybe decide to retake it). You look at data tables to figure out what law schools are in 'play.' Then, upon reviewing the requirements (99% of which will be near-identical across schools) you worry about getting those recommendations. Eventually you hunker down at your computer and crank out a personal statement. Finally, you spend a few minutes looking over the forms and, just like that, you're done.

Simple, right? Simple? Sure. Effective? Absolutely not. Though natural, it's a bad idea in terms of the process and quality of your output. Despite your natural inclination, you can and should tackle certain elements of your law school application in parallel.

At a minimum, you'll spend a month prepping for the LSAT. Given the perception of the test's importance, many devote 100% of their early law school application time to prep. That's silly. The LSAT isn't about internalizing subject matter, it's about honing your testing and analytic skills. It follows that you can't "cram" by staring at books all day. Furthermore, even if you devote your time to practice tests, doing more than the equivalent of a full-LSAT in a day would be a masochistic and futile exercise. Your brain can only process so many passages about competing theories of basket weaving practices of indigenous peoples. Instead, I suggest you allocate more like 60-80% of your early time on the LSAT and devote the remainder towards easy, changes of pace—like settling logistics, prepping recommendations or brainstorming essay topics.
Choosing, engaging and equipping recommenders takes time, but not a sustained process that eats up days on end. Rather it’s a series of emails, dropped off forms, office meetings and check-in phone calls spread across weeks, even months. Take a break from studying to attend to some of these processes and you'll be less likely to mentally burn out while saving yourself a mad rush in the fall.

Seemingly little things like sending your college transcript to LSDAS (the service that compiles your academic and testing info and sends to law schools) take more time than you may expect. Applicants who transferred schools or took classes at programs abroad need all of those documents sent to LSDAS. ‘Better to check this box early then have something silly like a missing transcript for a 1 unit class hold up the submission or even the review of your application.
Due to college conditioning or sheer desperation, too many personal statements are churned out shortly before submission. There's a better way. I'm not saying you sit down, four months ahead of time, staring at the blinking cursor on your computer screen and add a couple sentences every day to ultimately arrive at an essay months later. Rather, an essay - particularly one meant to reflect your personality and values - is easier to write when one has devoted significant thought to what they want to convey and how they want to express it. If you've been at your desk diagramming dinner guest seating around an unnecessarily complex table for an hour, take a logic games breather to reflect. Maybe go on a jog and ponder your hopes and dreams. Perhaps flip through your resume and old papers to get a sense for the passions which have driven you thus far. Or jot down ideas on a whiteboard and iterate as additional thoughts come to mind. All of these things will make life easier when you ultimately sit down to actually write your statement.

Whether its school, work or keeping up with the World Cup, you're available law school prep time is finite. But that does not shackle you to a 'one thing at a time' approach. Be better than that and your law school prospects will be better for it.

Rhodes Scholarship Rankings By University!

2010-06-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

For the first time Rhodes Scholarship rankings, by college, are available. A Rhodes Scholarship, only about 32 in the US per year, provides recipients with two years of study at Oxford University. It is easily considered to be the most prestigious scholarship in the world. As The Washington Post put it, "For more than a century, Rhodes scholars have left Oxford with virtually any job available to them. For much of this time, they have overwhelmingly chosen paths in scholarship, teaching, writing, medicine, scientific research, law, the military and public service. They have reached the highest levels in virtually all fields."

Here is the listing of US colleges and universities and the number of their Rhodes winners: http://www.rhodesscholar.org/stats

As you review the data please keep in mind that the 32 awards are divided into "districts" and so there are some geographic advantages that make it a bit easier for certain institutions to compete versus those in more "crowded" places; though in the end it is up to the individual to impress the Rhodes committee.

Congratulations Urban Prep!

2010-03-10T17:15:00.000-08:00

This is a wonderfully inspirational story; 100 % of first senior class at all male, all African-American Chicago academy is accepted to 4-year colleges and universities...read the whole story here:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/happynews/ct-met-urban-prep-college-20100305,0,3299917.story

Race Relations

2010-02-08T15:07:00.000-08:00

Some interesting articles regarding race and college admissions this week...

The Boston Globe's Kara Miller discusses Asian's SAT scores, California campuses, and compares them to Jews via Daniel Golden. Most interestingly, at UCLA some Asian-American students feel the large Asian population on campus is taking away from their college experience and not adequately preparing them for the real world.

Check out the full article here: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/02/08/do_colleges_redline_asian_americans/

AP's Kathy Matheson points out how more college websites are being translated to Spanish and some schools are holding admission sessions in Spanish.

Check out the full article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/07/AR2010020701764.html

Little Three

2010-01-29T15:26:00.000-08:00

Wesleyan University

Williams College

Amherst College

Ivy vs. Ivy

2010-01-28T15:05:00.000-08:00

There have been several articles lately concerning the rising number of applications to Ivies such as Harvard and Princeton. Janet Frankston Lorin's Bloomberg article says, "More students are seeking admission to top-ranked universities because they think a degree from these schools can help them land a job after graduation, particularly during a time of economic uncertainty." While this seems like a smart and obviously good choice, there are other options out there.

New Ivies

The rising tide in terms of qualified applicants to Ivy and other elite schools has created a bumber crop of “Sub-Ivy” category colleges. These new elite include some of the nation’s best liberal arts colleges and universities with that have experienced skyrocketing application rates including, on the West Coast, The Claremont Colleges (Pomona, Claremont, Scripps and Pitzer colleges) and Occidental, Reed and Whitman colleges, In the South ,Vanderbilt University, Univeristy of Richmond and Washington and Lee University, and Davidson College; In the Northeast these new ivies include: Sarah Lawrance, Hamilton College and Colgate University and in the Mid-West Carleton, Colorado, Macalester, and Washington University have all benefitted greatly from this increased competition to become a new defacto group of Sub-Ivies.

The rise of West Coast colleges can now be measured in terms of both the quality and quantity of applicants. West Coast universities and liberal arts colleges now feature more prominently in the admission picture and often overlap increasingly with Ivy League and Little Ivy (Amherst, Wesleyan and Williams) applications. “West Coast Ivies” include: Caltech, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Occidental, Pomona, Reed, Scripps, Stanford, USC, and Whitman.

Which College Grads Earn the Most?

Most data show that attending certain elite liberal arts colleges may give applicants to graduate school better preparation thus resulting in better access to premium jobs like consulting and investment banking, etc. But now a very interesting Business Week article tells us just how much these graduates may expert to earn versus those from top research universities. For example, among the Ivies, the leading earner is Dartmouth College-- not Cornell or Harvard as we might expect. "Interestingly, median starting salaries for alumni of MIT, California Institute of Technology, and Harvey Mudd College, which have strong engineering programs, are the highest in the country ($75,500, $72,200, and $71,800). But the salaries do not get as high for midcareer professionals from those schools as they do for graduates of the elite liberal arts schools."

It may surprise parents to learn that Bucknell University’s mid-career grads often earn more than MIT’s or that Dartmouth grads earn, on average, more at mid-career than any other school in the country. According to a recent survey published in Business Week, where you go to school matters because “a strong network of well-positioned alumni can lay the foundation for a high-paying job”. This is a network you buy with your tuition dollars. (Source: Which College Grads Earn the Most, Newsweek, 2008)

The Truth About College Admission: What Do Colleges REALLY Look For?

2009-12-29T10:43:00.000-08:00

What are colleges and universities really looking for in admission?

FIrst, you should know that colleges are selfish—first they must meet institutional needs. What really matters to colleges isn’t what you think and it changes. It is a "what's-in-it-for-me?" approach to admission on behalf of colleges.

Here is what colleges often look for:

-high class rank (GPA), test scores (SAT/ACT) to improve their image
-academic success in specific areas to further their mission and improve their image; strong academic symbols help, preferably at the state or national levels
-developing leaders to improve their reputations; strong extra-curricular leadership helps; state or national level
-winning sports teams--you might help if you are recruited to play for the college's team
-money to grow their nest-egg (endowment); meaning for example, that you do not require financial aid.

Image enhancement is a pre-occupation with colleges and universities. They worry about being relevant and thriving in the long term. How does this effect the applicant? Applicants who get in do so because they further the aims and goals of a particular college or university--in other words, they help enhance the college's image.

Some advice to college applicants: there is more to admission than your GPA/SAT's. While colleges need this information, they will often go far beyond grades and test scores in making their final admission determinations. You should think about what you bring to colleges that will help them achieve their goals. Extra-curriculars are key; I would say nearly 50% of the total admission picture

Colleges are looking for individual experts and NOT looking for well-rounded generalists. Find something you care about and excel at the state or national competition level.

Athletics is often one of the top routes to admission. Another thing to consider is that most top tier schools do not offer scholarship money to athletes-- they just just admit the person. Be sure to take an active role in the recruiting process. You should start by giving coaches at your colleges a resume and cover letter and possibly a video of your skills and competitive play.

For more information about how to stand out from the pack in the admission process, please review our college consulting services: http://www.collegematchus.com/services.html

Video Introducing College Match's Services and David Montesano

2009-12-23T13:12:00.000-08:00

Demonstrating Points of Difference

2009-12-09T08:42:00.000-08:00

Students are individuals. But, unfortunately, colleges can’t admit everyone who looks worthy. Students have to communicate what it is about them that will be of possible value to a specific college. This means managing effectively not just data like grades and test scores, but taking time to cultivate depth in particular area such as a hobby or activity outside of class. Say, for example, that a high school junior volunteers in community soup kitchen and also has penchant for designing and building architectural-model houses. It would be best to begin to unify the disparate and unrelated activities into one symbol, such as the creation of actual homes in the community for low-income residents.

Why Bother Planning for College Admission?

2009-12-03T10:11:00.000-08:00

While 30 percent of adults in the U.S. hold a bachelors degree, today 65 percent of all high school seniors are applying to four-year colleges, both illustrating the cultural and economic necessity of higher education and further compounding the college admission challenge. And many students and their families are ill prepared for the process of college application, let alone planning.

A unique approach to college counseling based on student history and identity, strategic communication throughout the application process, careful analysis of target schools’ applicant pool and current study body, and specific admission needs and goals. Robin Mamlet, former Dean of Admission and Financial Aid at Stanford, recently noted that the applicants offered admittance displayed talents and academic excitement that fit perfectly into the Stanford community. With so many students applying for college today, admissions offices increasingly use this criterion in the final cut: Who are the students who would fit best and benefit most from what their schools offer. Unfortunately, this is an area frequently overlooked or under-examined by many applicants today.

Starting the planning process earlier and using an education consultant to develop a communications strategy, a student's chances for admission to a college of his or her choice can be improved dramatically - in some cases by as much as 50 percent. It is more important than ever to understand each student’s strengths, weaknesses and passions in order to apply to the appropriate range of colleges.

Grads From Elite Liberal Arts Colleges Earn the Most

2008-09-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

Most data show that attending certain elite liberal arts colleges may give applicants to graduate school better preparation thus resulting in better access to premium jobs like consulting and investment banking, etc. But now a very interesting Business Week article tells us just how much these graduates may expert to earn versus those from top research universities. For example, among the Ivies, the leading earner is Dartmouth College-- not Cornell or Harvard as we might expect.

"Interestingly, median starting salaries for alumni of MIT, California Institute of Technology, and Harvey Mudd College, which have strong engineering programs, are the highest in the country ($75,500, $72,200, and $71,800). But the salaries do not get as high for midcareer professionals from those schools as they do for graduates of the elite liberal arts schools."

Which Grads Earn the Most?
http://www.businessweek.com/lifestyle/content/aug2008/bw2008087_013640.htm

Adding Value to College Applications Generates Merit-Based Awards

2008-06-06T10:54:00.000-07:00

Good news! I just finished tallying our students' merit awards and 80% won merit awards averaging $13,078 per year. In particular, one student with a 3.4 GPA generated merit award offers of $255,200 among five colleges over a four year period!

What is the secret to winning a merit-based award?

Colleges are looking for individual experts not looking for well-rounded generalists. Find something you care about and excel at the state or national competition level to garner merit awards.

First, remember that colleges are self-centered—first they must meet institutional needs. What really matters to colleges isn’t what you think and it changes. It may be that a college needs to build its endowment, gain diversity, fill a sports team roster, or even just prove that it is really great in an particular academic area. Remember, each school is different. Look at a college's strategic plan to identify what is most important to them.

YOU MUST BRING VALUE to the college to be admitted. Value is a two way street. Applicants must demonstrate not only value transmitted but value received.

Showing how you get value back from the college is easy. Here are the steps to take:

1) Be sure to let the college know how first heard about the college. Cite specifically the one reason above all others that I am attracted to the school. This should be a well-researched and specific reason. Remember: do not mention the most obvious reasons--the admission officer will not be impressed. You need to find something that is a little bit deeper.

2) What is your promise of value to this particular college? Ask yourself if this value matches the college's strategic plans or weaknesses? Your promise of value must be supported by credible proof, for example: "I did this before in high school and I will do it again for your college".

3) Next, say what you offer and give a tangible example of how you did this already and then say what you will get in return from this college, and only this college. Just as important as giving your value is letting them know what you will get in return and why this college offers something others don’t.

For more insight into the college application process, visit our blog: http://collegematchus.blogspot.com

Brand Yourself: The Student Guide to College Admission Success

2008-04-23T13:13:00.000-07:00

Here is a blurb about my forthcoming book (Winter 2009):

COLLEGE ADMISSION’S NEW REALITY
It has become all too clear that we have entered an era of radically increased college entrance difficulty. For the first time, Ivy League schools are taking fewer than 10 percent of their applicants (Yale accepted 8.3 percent this year and Harvard accepted 7.1 percent of all applicants in 2008). That means in the not so distant future, it will be statistically improbable for most students to be admitted to one of these colleges. While top students still can apply to these schools, they too need to consider viable alternatives that will meet their needs not just as students but also as individuals.

They must, at a minimum, demonstrate the tangible results of college preparation: good grades, high test scores and strong extracurricular activities. But the score-oriented, quantitative approach to admissions, prevalent in the last decades, needs to be replaced with a more strategic approach to gaining admission to quality schools.

This is where branding comes in. As an admissions strategist, Dave Montesano has helped hundreds of clients find and gain access to the best match undergraduate and graduate programs over the past 10 years. From offices in the U.S., Dave has served families with students who hope to attend college programs and now shares his knowledge with a larger public in his book: "Brand Yourself: The Student Guide to College Admission Success".

MARKETING STRATEGY TO SELL STUDENTS TO THEIR PREFERRED COLLEGES
With years of experience in brand strategy, counseling clients on marketing and identity development, Dave Montesano is a new breed of college admission consultants who use business school marketing principles to sell students to their preferred college. In his book" Brand Yourself", Montesano offers would-be students inspiration as well as practical step by step information on getting into the college of your dreams. The book itself is as unique and groundbreaking as Dave Montesano’s approach to college admission: whereas most college reference books are badly designed handbooks that are about as inspirational and grey as the paper they are printed on, Montesano’s book is a feast for the eye. It’s a useful and design-heavy handbook that has value for everyone interested in obtaining their goals and dreams. All the advice is presented in a very easy to digest format. Think of Paul Arden’s books and you get the picture!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dave is the author of "Strategic College Admission", published in CollegeBound News (April, 2005). Profiled by Washington Post education writer, Jay Matthews, in Newsweek's "America's Hottest Colleges" (2005 edition) Dave was called a "new breed of college admission consultants who use business school marketing principles to sell students to their preferred college." Dave gets consistently high approval ratings from his clients and is a speaker for parent and school groups.

What Are the Latest College Admission Trends?

2008-04-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

Challenges and opportunities abound this year for college applicants…here are just a few of the trends that College Match spotted:

1. College counseling goes private. For an increasing number of the nation’s 1.7 million college-bound students, personal advice for college applications is a phone call away. Faced with counselor to student ratios of 315:1 (source: National Association for College Admission Counseling, 2007) at public high schools (241:1 at private schools), students and their families are turning to consultants in record numbers. Last year, 20% of private high school students and 5% of public high school students hired a private college advisor with the number expected to increase this year (Independent Education Consultants Association).

2. Dance is one of the top ways to get into top colleges. Among the usual performing arts that students take part in, dance is now one of the most sought after with college admission offices around the country. For the first time, a number of competitive schools are reporting dance statistics among accepted students. Pomona and Occidental Colleges now record the number of accepted students involved in dance among their freshman class profiles (t5 % and 8% of the freshman class, respectively). And at Harvard the Dance Program there just moved into a new 200-seat dance center. Echoing this trend, construction is underway on new dance studios at Vassar –one that seats 244 people and new facilities have been built at Tufts, University of New Mexico, Hamilton College, and Emory University this year.

3. High schools team with organizations like Rotary Club to extend service opportunities abroad. Among the nation high schools, a higher percentage of students are embarking on overseas service projects through Rotary’s Interact program. With 246,000 members, 10,700 clubs in 109 countries, opportunities abound for Interact Club students to engage in service projects in developing countries. At Seattle’s Garfield High for example, students regularly travel to Uganda and dispense computers to schools through Interact-sponsored program, “Computers for the World”.

4. Urban colleges offer “chic” appeal to more applicants. In a 2007 poll of more than 3,000 students conducted by Princeton Review, New York University came out on top as the college that students most often dream of attending. In general, applications to schools in the country’s major urban areas, NYC, LA and Chicago, have dramatically increased, For example, at one urban liberal arts college, Occidental, college applications have risen 170% over the last 8 years.

5. Schools with strong international studies programs increase in popularity. Like their urban counterparts, colleges with significant international programs have gained ground in admissions. Applications to international majors and schools such as Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service have increased over last year to 3,400 and represent Georgetown’s most competitive applicants according to its Admission Office. Other strong international programs include, Macalester (where former UN Secretary Koffi Annan attended), Occidental College, which sponsors undergraduates at the UN, and Tufts University where undergraduates benefit from the research of the school’s graduate programs at Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. According to Institute of International Education, US students studying abroad also increased by 8% in 2006.

6. The medium is the message: a new professional look is taking hold for extra-curriculars. Students hoping to gain an edge in an increasingly competitive admission picture can improve their chances by “professionalizing” their extra-curriculars by using slide portfolios, CD’s/CD-ROM’s, to showcase their work to art departments and admission committees. By creating artist’s statements, portfolios or publishing their manuscripts in advance of applying to colleges, students can stand out more from the rest of the crowd.

7. Bad news for good students: top students across the nation face less than 5% chance of admission to top Ivies. Among the very top tier of colleges including, Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Stanford, chances for admission have become very unlikely for most candidates who don’t have a “flag” or “tag” in the admission process. Flags and tags represent varying degrees of admission importance to colleges and include sought-after athletes, under-represented minorities and or legacies. If you happen to be in one of these special categories you may enjoy a far better chance of admission. At Harvard, for example legacies (that is, when your mother or father attended Harvard College) have been admitted a rate as high as 40% in 2003 (according to Daniel Golden in his book, “Price of Admission”). For the rest of us mere mortals with top grades, SAT’s and extra-curruculars that leaves us with a less than 5 percent chance of admission—which viewed conversely, reads more like a 95% chance, against getting in.

8. More students attend undergraduate “feeder” colleges en-route to Ivy League graduate programs. Based on an assessment of colleges originally conducted in 2003 by the Wall Street Journal, it was then revealed that students who got into graduate schools such as Yale Medical School, Harvard Law School or Penn’s Wharton Business School obtained their bachelors degrees at some very unlikely places. Apart from Ivy League colleges, this year’s students gaining ground in elite graduate admission offices continue to include private liberal arts colleges Pomona and Claremont McKenna in California, Haverford and Swarthmore in Pennsylvania, Bates, Bowdoin and Colby colleges in Maine, Washington and Lee in Virginia and Reed in Oregon. Similarly the state schools that “feed” into top graduate schools are also enjoying more applications; these include New College, in Florida (a public liberal arts college) along with three familiar research universities: Berkeley, Michigan, Virginia,

Dave Montesano is director of college planning at College Match in Seattle and can be reached by email: david@collegematchus.com or by calling (206) 799-4986.

College Admission: 5 Tips for First Generation College Students

2008-02-14T09:00:00.000-08:00

Here are some of my thoughts to help foreign students who are applying to colleges in the United States:

1. When considering a US undergraduate program for your student, look beyond college rankings. College rankings like US News and World Report and The Times of London rank colleges and universities based on scholarly productivity and not on ability to teach undergraduates or undergraduate research or prizes won by students. It is wise to supplement these rankings with more undergraduate-focused criteria. Rhodes Scholarships, Fulbright grants, Ph.D. production on a per-capita basis are all good measures of undergraduate quality. A good source of information is the discussion board, College Confidential (www.collegeconfidential.com)

2. Don't worry about your student's major. Unlike other parts of the world, students in the US do not typically specialize at the undergraduate level. Many students attend post-graduate programs like business, law and medical schools to get the specialization they will need for their jobs.

3. Undergraduate admission is difficult at top schools the US. If a family is considering undergraduate admission, admission is competitive and costs may be high. Since most spaces are designated for US citizens the number of spaces is often limited to below 10%. In addition, most foreign students pay the full costs of education since most need-based aid is unavailable due to federal rules on financial aid.

4. Look beyond the Ivy League. Don't overlook smaller prestigious colleges. Instead of focusing on Ivy League, MIT and Stanford, look for smaller, prestigious colleges that feed into these for graduate study. The Wall St. Journal published a study of the top 50 "feeder" colleges (http://www.collegematchus.com/related_resources.htm)

5. Look for the right college match. Base your decisions about where your student will attend not soley on location, prestige or cost--instead make sure that the college's values are the same as your student's. Colleges, like people, have values; it's like joining a family. The network that you inherit by attending a particular college is for life!

College scholarships: Student Debt Help-great Tips To Help You Eliminate Your Debt

2008-01-04T23:24:00.000-08:00

College scholarships: Student Debt Help-great Tips To Help You Eliminate Your Debt

This is very helpful content!

NEW BENEFIT ALLOWS EMPLOYERS TO HELP WITH COLLEGE PLANNING

2007-10-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

A CRITICAL BUSINESS ISSUE: EDUCATION

After home buying, education is the number one cost facing employees. Whether it’s putting a child in a day school, researching colleges, or applying to continuing education programs, employees spend a significant amount of time and energy and money focusing on education-related issues.

Increasingly, companies are turning to experts to help alleviate employee concerns and save time while on the job. Companies can manage employee time and productivity by making education advice available to employees in the workplace. This approach benefits employers by improving the performance of top employees by allowing them to focus on the critical tasks of business at-hand.

Specifically, companies may offer employees access to educational consulting services that help employees and their families:

•Determine the best possible college options for employees’ college bound children
•Finance college; identify sources of merit-based and need-based aid for education
•Identify their children’s qualities, talents and skills that matter most to colleges
•Navigate the high school, college, and or graduate school admission process
•Deliver applications that will offer the best chance of admission to a school of choice

Below is a list of College Match US’s complete work/life benefit based on "life stages".

COLLEGE MATCH’S CORPORATE BENEFIT PROGRAM

College Match US’s Corporate Benefit Program (CBP) provides companies and employees with full life-cycle assistance including workshops, one-on-one counseling. The Strategic College Matching™ process and tools used by our education experts provide the necessary guidance and coaching to improve time management, lower stress levels of employees and their family members, and help reduce education costs through merit-based aid and financial advising.

The following graphic illustrates the stages of College Match US’s Corporate Benefit Program:

LIFE STAGE WORKSHOPS AND / OR INDIVIDUAL COUNSELING

K - 6th Grade College Investment (Saving)
K - 12th Grade Learning Disabilities and Academic Success

6th Grade - 12th Grade Keys to Success - Excelling in School
6th Grade - 12th Grade Activities and Academics – What Matters to Colleges
6th Grade -12th Grade Developing Leadership Qualities in School
6th Grade -12th Grade Reading and Writing Skills
6th Grade - 12th Grade Math Skills

7th Grade - 8th Grade Selecting the Right High School
7th Grade - 9th Grade Discovering Your Child’s Academic Talent/Passions

9th Grade - 11th Grade Improving Academic Performance for High School Students
9th Grade - 11th Grade Developing Extra-curricular Activities for College Admission

10th Grade -11th Grade Preparing a List of Colleges

11th Grade - 12th Grade College Application Workshop; individual guidance
11th Grade - 12th Grade Paying for College: Financial Aid and Merit Aid

College Freshman Get What You Put In: Performance Skills in College
College Sophomore Study Abroad: Why, Where and How
College Junior Internships and Graduate School
College Senior Resume and Interviewing for Jobs

Parents/Employees Degree Completion Programs, MBA / MA / PhD

THE COLLEGE MATCH TEAM

College Match US's staff consists of former Ivy League and top liberal arts college admissions officers, counselors and admission strategists, a certified financial aid advisor, college and high school entrance exam tests tutors, MBA admissions advisor and life coach, performing arts advisors (dance, music, theater), writing instructor/ essay coach.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information or to schedule a meeting to further review the many benefits of our Corporate Benefit Program, such as case studies and testimonials, please contact David Montesano: david@collegematchus - (206) 799-4986.

Finding the Right College Does Matter

2007-10-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents,

A Princeton Review poll indicates nearly half of all students' greatest worry is finding the best match for college. Recent college admission rates show both parents and students more than a little concerned over getting into the right college. These are valid concerns. The right college affects:

• A student's choices and path in life
• The quality of their social network and career connections

In our global society, change is the only constant; the best strategy for change is an education that offers numerous and high quality options towards a career or graduate school.

Some important facts to understand about college:

• College is the second largest investment after buying a home
• It’s an investment with high returns--on average about 2 million over a lifetime
• Decisions about where to go are not always wise: 1 in 3 students transfer and only half finish in four years
• College counselor/student ratios are 300:1 at public schools and 200:1 among private schools
• Each year, 100,000 new high school students compete for places; college admission has never been more difficult

While grades and test scores matter, they don't guarantee admission. More crucial to success is that students demonstrate their value to each college. In 2007, 93% of College Match clients were accepted to their first choice school (chances without using our service are about 51%); the average merit award was $17,366.

College Match, which has been featured in Newsweek, Seattle Magazine and GreatSchools.net, helps students appeal to the college of their dreams.

• We develop key “proof points” that communicate each student’s value through each application to each college
• College Match takes a holistic, yet strategic, approach to working with students: Our consultants work one-on-one with students to discover their unique skills and abilities so that colleges will value each admission application
• We have a unique process that implements special tools to highlight the qualities that College Match’s applicants offer

College Match offers a 20 minute presentation called, “Navigating the College Admission Maze” students and parents have found quite useful. We have been very successful in presenting at high school “college nights” or other relevant discussions on college admissions topics.

We would be pleased to share with you how College Match can help your student achieve their educational and life goals.

David Montesano
Admission Strategist
College Match US
(877) 658-4400

What Are the Latest College Trends?

2007-10-04T14:34:00.000-07:00

COLLEGE MATCH'S LATEST COLLEGE ADMISSION TRENDS

Challenges and opportunities abound this year for college applicants…here are just a few of the trends that College Match spotted this year:

1. Rise of SAT Subject Tests: among students applying to selective colleges this year there has been increased number taking the SAT Subject Tests; on average students take 2-3 Subject Tests.

2. De-emphasis on college board testing at some top colleges. A small but growing number of top liberal arts colleges have made the SAT 1 optional. While this list increases each year, we found a couple more that were of interest to our clients including, Knox, Lewis and Clark and Mt. Holyoke colleges, among longstanding holdouts, Bowdoin and Bates in Maine.

3. Merit scholarships become standard feature of some liberal arts colleges. High quality, yet slightly less selective colleges such as, Allegheny and Lewis and Clark, routinely offer top students modest scholarships to help offset the cost of attendance (versus other State or less expensive regional, private colleges).

4. Party schools take on a serious tone. Colleges like USC and NYU once known more for their partying ways than “nerdy” academics now boast students with top grades and SAT’s and extracurricular accomplishments. Instead of accepting lower academic achievers with high social ability, these places have become so sought after that the average grades and test scores to gain entrance are now more likely to favor the honor student who’s spent significant time in the library and laboratory.

5. “Information Age” makes applying easier but also more competitive. The rise of Common Application use and Internet research in general has created a huge increase in college application numbers; some colleges, like Occidental, have seen applications increase by as much as 185% over the past nine years (www.oxy.edu). Similarly, the average number of colleges applied to has increased according to the National Association of College Admission Counselors (NACAC), to an average of 12 colleges.

6. West Coast colleges bask in the spotlight. The rise of West Coast colleges can now be measured in terms of both the quality and quantity of applicants. West Coast universities and liberal arts colleges now feature more prominently in the admission picture and often overlap increasingly with Ivy League and Little Ivy (Amherst, Wesleyan and Williams) applications. (“West Coast Ivies” include: Caltech, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Occidental, Pomona, Reed, Scripps, Stanford, USC, and Whitman (schools in the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (and drawn from US News “Best Colleges”)

7. New, “holistic” approach to admission for top research universities. University of Washington recently announced it would employ 20 more Admission officers to consider an applicant’s essay and extracurricular involvements and special circumstances and talents. This approach has been practiced successfully in the past by mainly private colleges.

8. Extracurricular involvement comprises nearly 50% of the admission decision at selective colleges: once the initial hurdles have been cleared--SAT and GPA--then extracurricular activities matter most including but not limited to, depth of involvement, leadership and national-level competition. Superior extracurricular accomplishment has become one of the main hallmarks of admission to a selective college.

Dave Montesano is director of college planning at College Match US and can be reached at david@collegematchus.com or by calling 1-877-658-4400.

Making Your College Visits Count

2007-10-03T16:10:00.000-07:00

Applying to college is a two way street...students have needs and so do colleges.

More often than not college applicants are not aware about what colleges really want in an applicant until it's too late and their application has been denied. One way to find out what a college is looking for is to interview current students. While on a college visit, a student can basically conduct his or her own survey by asking a minimum of 10 students what they like, and more importantly, what they dislike, about a particular college. Similarities among the dislike(s) may be important. For example, if everyone is saying that a college is too career oriented, a student who is less interested in a career may have an edge. This "qualitative interview" approach can yield interesting results for students looking to find out more about the unmet needs at colleges. Based on these weaknesses, students can figure out how to best position their applications to meet these unearthed needs.

Paying for College While Protecting Your Nest Egg

2007-09-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

Planning early for college can save you money and help ensure your student’s success.

As the parent of a high school student, college is one of the most significant decisions that you and your child will make. Paying for college is the second largest investment for families behind home buying. After all, you want to feel comfortable with your family’s choices about college as you settle into the empty nest and begin enjoying the next chapter of your lives.

Your experience making strategic business decisions has yielded positive financial results for your company. Don’t leave those skills at work.

College planning can help your student find the best college.

Competition for college is at an all time high with 100,000 new students applying each year for college until 2014. The average high school counselor serves 300 students, but your student deserves more attention. By starting to plan now, you can improve your student’s chances of finding and getting in to the right school for them.

Here are things that you can do:

Start early– Begin planning sophomore and junior year with your student to develop their talents and interests. Colleges want to see leadership and depth in a student’s out-of-class involvement. This doesn’t mean that they have to do a lot of different activities. The best is to focus and start at the beginning of high school. By starting early your student can develop leadership and depth, rather than breadth. Colleges form a well-rounded class by choosing individuals with depth in their activities and interests.

Identify key strengths—is your student a community-builder? An inventor? An entertainer? Nuturing and developing special talents takes insight and understanding about what colleges are looking for. Some want poets, others want dancers or musicians. Working with your student to develop their unique talents should be an organic and natural process. By reviewing the credentials of accepted students you can gain insights into what different colleges are looking for. USA Today sponsors a yearly high school competition that shows the backgrounds of those students who are accepted to top colleges. Keep in mind that for some competitive colleges this may include national and state competitions and prizes, such as the Intel Science Competition or playing an instrument in the local junior symphony.

Become knowledgeable about college admissions trends—dance for example. Among the usual performing arts that students take part in outside of class, dance is now one of the most sought after with college admission offices around the country. For the first time, a number of colleges are reporting dance statistics among accepted students. Pomona and Occidental Colleges in Los Angeles now record the number of accepted students involved in dance among their freshman class profiles (5 % to 8% of freshman classes). Echoing this trend, construction is underway on new dance studios at Vassar College –one that seats 244 people and new facilities have been built at Emory University in Atlanta, Hamilton College in NY, University of New Mexico and Tufts University in Boston this year.

Seek advice from an expert—By working with a qualified college consultant to plan ahead, you can not only improve your student’s chances of getting into the college of their dreams, but of paying for it as well. Families who start sophomore or junior year and work with a college consultant, improve their chances of finding merit money. Getting a merit award may come down to something as simple as the fact that a college needs a cellist or soccer player.

For Empty Nesters-to-be, important decisions about college admission loom on the horizon. The good news is that you can relax because there are steps you can take to eliminate stress, save money and protect your nest egg.

David Montesano is an admission strategist with College Match US. For a free copy of “Ten Strategic College Admission Steps” go to www.collegematchus.com or send an email to info@collegematchus.com