BULLHEAD CITY - The financial aid director at Mohave Community College is urging all students and potential students who will be seeking financial aid for the 2009-10 school year to start early in the application process.

High school seniors, potential students who plan to enter MCC in the fall and adults looking to begin or return for postsecondary classes - at MCC or any other college or university - should file a FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) as soon as one's income tax returns are complete; don't wait until they are filed, said Bill Osborn, MCC's director of financial aid. (J.D.'s comment: fill out the form with estimated numbers and get it in ASAP.)

Aid for the summer semester at MCC depends on the 2008-09 FAFSA and 2007 tax returns, Osborn said. Most colleges count summer terms as a trailer, meaning that if a student has not used up their financial aid in the fall and spring semester, there might be some available for summer.

This summer, rules will change and students may be eligible to receive more than two semesters of full-time Pell Grant funds in a single year, Osborn said. For students starting a program of study in the summer, two FAFSA forms will be required, the 2008-09 form utilizing 2007 tax returns for summer and the 2009-10 form and the 2008 tax return for fall.

Both applications are now available online at: www.fafsa.ed.gov. To complete the applications electronically, students and parents can obtain a PIN number at: www/pin.ed.gov.

“Besides getting an early jump on paperwork, it is important this year to apply early because some funds - like federal work study funds - are limited and go to students on a first-come, first-served basis,” Osborn said. “During the current school year, work study funds were awarded to students who had applied before Feb. 15, 2008. This is not a deadline, but with the availability of federal funds an unknown this year, the cliché ‘the early bird gets the worm' may be appropriate.

“As a result of the nation's economic conditions, many more students are finding the community colleges much more affordable for starting their higher education,” he said.

Financial aid offices on the MCC campuses are open 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Fridays through May 16. Summer hours begin May 19, when office hours are 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Thursday. The campuses are closed on Fridays during the summer.

original article posted here Mohave Daily News

Does your student's prospective college stack up in the financial aid arena? Is it going to topple like so many dominos or make the grade? Case in point, Duke raised $308.5 million for financial aid. That is $308,500,000.00. 

For those of you who think it is only the elite colleges... While in-state tuition at University of Colorado Boulder campus has risen from $2,444 a year in 1999 to $5,922 — a 142 percent increase, the average financial-aid package CU awarded to its students increased 241 percent during that same time period.

Of all the colleges on your student's list, how do they stack up financially? Questions you need to ask are

• Does the college that my child wants to attend have money to give out?
• How much of that money is grants and scholarships and how much is in student loans?

Duke University raised more than $308.5 million. Of the $308.5 million raised through gifts and pledges, $226 million is dedicated to need-based undergraduate scholarships, $20.6 million to athletic scholarships, and $61.9 million to graduate and professional student support.

For more than a decade, the percentage increase of Duke's financial aid support has far outpaced the percentage increase of tuition.

The point is students and parents must research schools and ascertain as much about the colleges as possible. Picking a college because it is a "cheap state school" is not the best reason to select a college. Reasons being it may be less expensive to attend a private school as apposed to a state school: because

1. The average gradation time line at a state college is 6 years vs. 4 years at a private college
2. Private colleges typically have more money in their dowry resulting in being more generous with financial aid.

Researching colleges can be a tedious job but the outcome will be extremely beneficial.

Here is where you should start.

Create a list of the top 8-12 colleges your student desires to attend then visit the colleges individual websites as well as various other college related websites and blogs to find answers. Check out the local bookstore or library for books about colleges.  Research more than just polls.

One resource that comes to mind is the book Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think About Colleges by Loren Pope. 

 Don't get caught behind the financial aid-ball, eight-ball. (Sorry, bad pun.)

January 18, 2009 The Arizona Cardinals stacked the deck with great plays for a win today.

As a future college student take the example of the Arizona Cardinals. A lot of preparation, training and planning went into todays win. Teamwork as well as good coaching combined with great plays earns the Cardinals the NFC title.

In a few short weeks the Arizona Cardinals will be heading off to the Super Bowl in Tampa Florida.

To equate this to college, the preference is to first choose a career, a major then the college. Planning is essential in choosing the right career for your student. A variety of assessment tools as well as researching individual careers is extremely useful. It may sound like a lot of work but the pay off is incredible. Students who plan tend to graduate in four years as apposed to the average 6-year graduation rate.

The Cardinals put in a ton of work behind the scenes, all that we see is game time results. Hours of practice, reviewing plays and going over strategies paid off for this team.

The same results can happen for your student. Hours of study to increase GPA and SAT or ACT scores can have huge payoffs with scholarships, grants and acceptances to first choice colleges.

So did the Cardinals really stack the deck in their favor? Yes, by diligent work and great coaching. If your student doesnt have a great coach, get one and review the blog here. (Keep your eyes peeled for the brand new website.)

There are two ways to learn the strategies to position your student to be a top college candidate (and no you dont need straight As) one is spend hundreds of hours researching colleges, financial strategies and test taking skills or two, attend one of the free workshops held by local college expert J.D. Wyczalek. Click the RSVP button to check dates and times.

by J.D. Wyczalek (why-zall-ick)

Selecting the right college is more than just answering a few questions like,
· Does the college offer the major I am interested in
· Does the college have the amenities I am looking for
· Are there too many or too few students at this college for my liking
These are important questions, however we should also look at how the college is doing financially.

The University of California school systems is facing economic hardship and announced it will be cutting spending as well as accepting fewer students. The UC schools include Berkley, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, Davis, Irvine, Merced, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz.
 
Other colleges are flourishing. Duke hit an all time high of 23,750 applications. Bernard College also shows an increase in registration. Harvard said Wednesday that it had received a record number of applicants at 27,278.  Stanford received 30,349 applications, a 20 percent increase from last year's 25,298.  2008 Stanford accepted only 2,400 students, or 9.5 percent, the lowest admissions rate in history.

Even some state schools are up. Applications are up from last year’s pace at the University of Vermont and Vermont State Colleges.

Also Yale announced they would offer additional financial aid to families struggling during the economic crisis.

The key element is research your colleges and find which ones are doing well, which ones are struggling and which ones have money to give out.

If you haven't registered for one of my local workshops here in Phoenix Arizona, then click the link on the right and register now. If you are out of Arizona click the link for the free e-book.

If you have not seen me live and in person, here is the next best thing.  Click to play the audio file and here a portion of my workshop.

This is an excerpt from one of the workshops that was conducted in 2008.

Click to play. running time 8 min 57 sec.

They moved the application deadline?  They can't do that, can they?

AZ College Planning has been saying things for years. Such as HELOC's are not good sources to pay for college. Last year when banks started to freeze accounts parents were left stranded, and they had to scramble.

Likewise, AZ College Planning say to apply to the colleges of your choice 6 to 8 weeks early, preferably some time in October/November.

With all the chaotic gloom and doom the trickle down affect has hit colleges. Budget crunches and slashes underwritten by state officials have smacked colleges square between the eyes.

The California State University system is one of the first to announce that because of the budget cuts they are cutting the number of new Freshman seats. As a result the deadline for admittance applications has been bumped from February 1st to January 9th.

(It sounds counter intuitive to me, less seat means fewer students attend which results in less income for the college. The same goes for applications, as this is one form of revenue for the colleges.)

Be forewarned, other colleges will follow and change the game midstream as well. Like chess you have to stay two steps ahead of your opponet.

January 14, 2009
College Abruptly Moves Up Deadline for Applications
By TAMAR LEWIN New York Times

College-bound procrastinators, beware: When state budgets get tight, application deadlines can tighten up, too.

At Fresno State, part of the California State University system, the original deadline for freshman applications was Feb. 1. But last Friday, the university stopped taking freshman applications, three weeks early.

"The first I heard of it was an e-mail yesterday morning, when we got back from vacation," said Ron Howard, a college counselor at Redwood High School in Visalia, Calif., where about a quarter of the senior class applies to Fresno State. "Since each Cal State has its own deadline, I have no idea whether others are going to move their deadlines up, too. Welcome to our world."

It was no secret that the Cal State system, with 23 campuses and about 450,000 students, has been under financial pressure. The system announced in November that because of budget pressures, it would have to reduce enrollment next year by 10,000. Fresno State, which had about 22,600 students this fall, will have about 22,100 next fall.

Vivian Franco, Fresno State's director of admissions, said the university receives 85 percent of its applications by the systemwide priority deadline of Nov. 30.

"When we decided to stay open through Feb. 1," she said, "we said on our Web site and our materials that the date was subject to change, and we reminded counselors to have students apply early."

Most college counselors did what they could to make that happen.

"When we got that forewarning, we hustled, hustled, hustled to get kids to file," said Diana Rodriguez, a counselor at Sunnyside High School in Fresno. "I really feel that if we'd known this Jan. 9 thing was coming, we could have saved more souls of kids who are falling through the cracks, but our district was on break until the 12th, and we had no idea this final slam-bang deadline was coming."

Clara Potes-Fellow, a spokeswoman for the system, said that nine C.S.U. campuses - Sonoma, San Luis Obispo, Fullerton, Long Beach, San Diego, Poly Pomona, San Jose, Northridge and Channel Islands - had closed most freshman applications on Nov. 30, and that San Francisco State had set a Dec. 10 deadline.

But now, deadlines at some other campuses are becoming a moving target. The chancellor's office expects several campuses will follow Fresno State's lead.

"Each campus knows their target, and they're closing as soon as they believe they have enough applications to meet their target," Ms. Potes-Fellow said. "So Fresno was planning to close in February, but they believed they reached their numbers earlier. Chico is in the same situation, and could close applications any time. Stanislaus and San Marcos said their deadline would be March 1, but they'll probably close before that."

Ms. Potes-Fellow said it was too soon to say exactly how the shifting deadlines were affecting students.

"This is new for all of us," she said. "We are coping with the budget crisis and learning in the process. And we can't say when the last ticket will be sold."

If you haven’t registered for one of my local workshops here in Phoenix Arizona, then click the link on the right and register now. If you are out of Arizona click the link for the free e-book.

As a high school Junior your student should be prepping for the SAT test right now. Statistics show that students who study an extra 20 hours plus (and not the night before the test) have significantly increased their scores.

Heck, it is not to early for a high school Sophomore to start studying and prepping for these standardized test.

Why is this important? For two reasons. First your student should know which college they would like to attend and the minimum SAT (as well as GPA) scores that they like and then shoot higher. Secondly a great score could mean cash, bucks, dollars, dinero, greenbacks (scholarship monies).

test dates              test                     registration deadline
March 14, 2009       SAT only                       February 10, 2009
May 2, 2009            SAT & Subject Tests      March 31, 2009
June 6, 2009            SAT & Subject Tests     May 5, 2009

click www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/about.html to register.

By J.D. Wyczalek
Multiple hundred thousands of hopeful students wish to attend college in California. Some will be in for a rude and shocking awakening.

Universities of California Admission officers have yet to finish reviewing applications for 2009. The record number of applications that have arrived almost certainly means more applicants than ever will receive the dreaded thin rejection letter.

127,000 estimated students applied for admission to at least one of the nine UC undergraduate campuses for the fall 2009 term, up from 121,005 last year. The increase in applications makes 2009 the most competitive year in admissions, the Sacramento Bee reports.

Last week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced plans to chop $31 million from the UC system by June 2010. Those cuts are based on the UCs approving tuition increases of 9.9 percent, from $7,126 to $7, 788 a year.

So not only will it be more difficult to get in but it will be costlier as well.

What can we do as parents? First learn all you can about the college financial aid system or hire a professional, learn what assets count and which ones don't.

What can my student do? Your student should position himself/herself to be a top college candidate by, getting as best grades as he/she can, test great on the standardized test (SAT/ACT), get involved in school clubs (not just sports) but not to many clubs, get involved outside of school with volunteer work or employment. College prep and positioning starts on day one of your Freshman year in High School.

Then in March of your students Senior year in High School the exciting acceptance letters and award packages arrive.

So what will it be, tears of joy or tears of sadness. Either way pick up an extra box of Kleenex.

We'll see your student on the college campus of their dreams.

Midyear of highschool

What should you be doing right now if your student is a High School Senior.
Answer: filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid at www.FAFSA.ed.gov, dont slack off on your grades.

What should you be doing right now if your student is a High School Junior.
Answer: Your student should have a list of about 12 colleges he/she has interest in and should be narrowing down that list, by contacting the colleges, review brochures, view the college websites, check out college discussion boards, (www.collegeknowitall.com/ or www.chronicle.com or www.insidehighered.com) finally visit the campus during regular school hours. By the beginning of summer that list should be 8 schools that your student will actually apply to. Continue studying for the SAT and ACT.

What should you be doing right now if your student is a High School Sophomore.
Answer: Explore career ideas so that your student can properly select a major. Keep grades up. Review your scores for the PSAT (you did take it in the fall didnt you?)

What should you be doing right now if your student is a High School Freshman.
Answer: Prep work for the PSAT, study and keep grades up. The easiest way to earn money for college is get good grades (merit money). Explore high school clubs and extracurricular activities.

What should you be doing right now if you are a parent of a high school student.
Answer: Learn all you can about the financial aid system by coming to one of my free workshops, (Click the link RSVP) and forward this note to 3 or 4 friends because when they find out the truth about the college game they will be amazed and relieved that there really is hope.

Be sure to check out my YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/jwyczalek

Ladies and Gents, drum roll please!

Higher education is too expensive for me. I can’t afford it.
Truth be known, you can’t afford not to go. Few students pay the "sticker price" for college or Cost of Attendance (COA). You pay the difference between the financial aid available and the COA, which is usually much lower, and can be zero. All jobs now require some kind of education after high school, whether it’s on-the-job training or a certificate, degree, or professional designation. Only 25% of the jobs require a 4-year degree, but all require you to further your education, and the rewards for doing so are substantial.

I don’t need formal education. I may have to struggle for a while, but I’ll work hard and earn what I want.
Yeah right! Without a high school diploma or its equivalent (GED) AND additional training or education, it’s unlikely you will ever stop struggling to earn what you want. Education is the key to success! You have to obtain it and use it to satisfy the demands in today’s technological workplace, and there is a place for everyone. Employers will tell you that workers today need knowledge and skills on a level that is equivalent to a 4-yr degree, even if that knowledge is gained through on-the-job training, formal classes, experience, or any combination thereof. There simply is no substitute for education, even if you are the boss! Ask Mr. Gates.

Higher education isn’t for me. No one in my family has ever gone.
That is a great reason to actually go. Now’s the time for you to be the first, to stretch yourself and your confidence just a bit, and make the commitment to a better future. Do it for yourself, your parents, and if you are a parent, your own children. Just do it! The important thing is take action and make a firm decision and move forward.

I’m not smart enough to go to college.
We can't all go to Harvard or Yale however you don’t have to be a math whiz or major in physics. Take classes in something you really enjoy. There is a wide variety of programs available at different kinds of schools and colleges where you can take these classes. Maybe a formal educational setting isn’t for you. You'd rather go straight to work. If so, be ready to take advantage of all the on-the-job training you can get. College isn’t for everyone, but education is. With all the options in higher education and job training available today, there is certainly a place for you to develop your interests and skills. Have you considered an online school or maybe a trade school? Keep learning, lifelong! There is a college/school for you.

Nothing interests me...I don’t know what I want to do.
Some students are not ready to go on to higher education right out of high school. Some need time to mature, to find out what interests them, and to devise a plan. That’s OK. In cases like this it’s better to take a year or two after high school to learn about your own interests, skills, and strengths. Or consider the military. Far too many high school graduates go to college without declaring a major because they don’t know what they want to do. They are told to go to college and take different classes to experience new things so they can "find" themselves. While this may work for few, it is seldom a good plan. Higher education is too expensive to dabble in for the purpose of "discovering" yourself. That should be done before you get there. Get in and get out in 4 years. You don’t need to know exactly what job you expect to obtain once you graduate high school, but you should know what career path fits you before you commit to a program of higher education. See the Gap Year article.