Was your high school student invited to a summer programs with the promise of enrichment, prestige or something else? Many of these programs are expensive. For example, Stanford’s Pre-Collegiate Summer Institutes program for high school students for 2020, Tuition is $7,500. (https://summerinstitutes.spcs.stanford.edu/dates-tuitions)

Some of the email and letters sent to high school students and parents typically state that their program will make their student stand out. The wording of the letter sounds like it impresses a college, it does not. Typically, it reads like this:

• Congratulations!  Based on your outstanding academic achievement and blah blah blah, you have been selected for membership in Our Prestigious Program.

I have dozens and dozens of letters that read exactly the same. Don’t they know that plagiarism is wrong?

Here is a really good question. How did they find out MY student’s “academic achievement”? Are my kids grades public record? No, they are not. So how did that entity get my kids name, did they purchase a list somewhere? Yes, there are many different list companies such as American Student List. All those “sign up for this free thing” collect names and sell them to various entities. Even CollegeBoard sells names (but only to colleges).

So, before you fork out thousands of dollars, do a little research. Don’t be fooled by the heavy stock paper with the gold foil seal.

There are some legitimate summer programs that will truly enrich your student. Typically, the student must apply for the program and is selected. The student may have to submit transcripts, test scores and an essay to qualify. Not everyone is admitted to those types of programs.

However, if you really want to stand out, forgo all those summer programs and forge your own path. That would truly be unique. AZCollegePlanning.com can help students create their own path.

Know before you go.

If you get any of these invitations, and are unsure, give me a call or send an email. I’ll be happy to provide my expert experience. 1-888-237-2087 or info@AZCollegePlanning.com

#summerenrichmentprograms #summerprograms

University of Arizona Honors College 2020-2021

Choose ONE prompt – 500 words max

Essay Option #1:

“A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

Maturity is a virtue that we all strive for but often find difficult to obtain. It is a quality that we must acquire at some point in our lives as we become adults. What do you think it means to be a mature person?

Write a well-organized essay in which you describe what you think are some of the qualities that make a person mature.

Essay Option #2:

We experience many types of relationships with our family and friends during our lifetimes. Some of these relationships survive over the years, while others deteriorate. What qualities are important to learn and develop in order to sustain healthy, lasting relationships?

In a well-developed essay, discuss those qualities that you feel contribute to a healthy relationship. Support your answer with specific details or examples from your own experience or reading.

Essay Option #3:

Many people have argued that the skills needed to be successful in today's workforce have changed. What skills do you feel an individual needs to be successful in a job today? Why do you feel these skills are most important?

In an essay to be read by a teacher, identify the skills you feel are most needed by an individual to be successful at work and provide reasons to persuade your teacher that these are the most critical skills for success

2020 ASU Barrett application essays prompts

The 2020 Barrett application essays allow you to address our admissions committee in your own voice. Your essays will let us better see you as a future scholar in our honors community. Both responses will be uploaded within a single document (PDF format strongly preferred, Microsoft Word also accepted).

Keep the following in mind:

• We have a deep interest in knowing why you are considering Barrett, The Honors College.
• Our admissions committee values intellectual curiosity.
• The essays will contribute to our assessment of your ability to write effectively, a key skill for success in the honors curriculum.

Essay 1: With an essay of 300 - 500 words, react to the following: what do other generations misunderstand about yours?

Essay 2: With an essay of 300 - 500 words, reply to one of the following four prompts. Your response may be critical or creative.

     a) Biologically speaking, whales are mammals. However, author Herman Melville famously claimed that since they look like fish and in most ways behave like fish, they are fish no matter what science says. Defend Melville's position.
     b) Many individuals, groups, and organizations enhance Barrett through their support (scholarship gifts, internship positions, alumni mentorship, etc.). As a student, given these external contributions to the honors college experience, what (if anything) would you owe to others?
     c) Author bell hooks says "It's in the act of having to do things that you don't want to that you learn something about moving past the self. Past the ego." Reflect on how this quote applies to a particular moment in your life.
     d) Water.

University of California Essay Prompts for 2020 Admissions

Write your responses to the personal insight questions in advance What you tell us in your responses gives us the context to better understand the rest of the information you’ve provided in your application. Be open, be honest, be yourself.

Instructions: You will have 8 questions to choose from. You must respond to only 4 of the 8 questions. Each response is limited to a maximum of 350 words. Which questions you choose to answer is entirely up to you. All questions are given equal consideration in the application review process.

Questions:

1. Describe an example of your leadership experience in which you have positively influenced others, helped resolve disputes, or contributed to group efforts over time.

• Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.

• What would you say is your greatest talent or skill? How have you developed and demonstrated that talent over time?

• Describe how you have taken advantage of a significant educational opportunity or worked to overcome an educational barrier you have faced.

• Describe the most significant challenge you have faced and the steps you have taken to overcome this challenge. How has this challenge affected your academic achievement?

• Think about an academic subject that inspires you. Describe how you have furthered this interest inside and/or outside of the classroom.

• What have you done to make your school or your community a better place?

• Beyond what has already been shared in your application, what do you believe makes you stand out as a strong candidate for admissions to the University of California?

The deadline to apply for the Flinn Scholarship is Monday, September 16, 2019.

The 2020 Flinn Scholarship application is now open. Apply by September 16.

Apply Here https://flinn.org/flinn-scholars/the-scholarship/apply/

Please answer each question with no more than 140 characters.

1. What will be the title of your autobiography?
2. If you were given five minutes to present to your peers on a topic about which you're an expert, what topic would you choose?
3. What do you worry about most?
4. What is the greatest challenge you face entering college?
5. If you advance to the interview stage, what one question would you like us to ask you?

Essays

Copy and paste your response to each essay into the adjacent box. We encourage you to save your work in a separate document in the event you experience technical difficulties.

Tell us your story. 300-word maximum

Tell us about a time your involvement in a situation or activity positively impacted the outcome. 300-word maximum

Think about your intended career (or a possible career, given your interests). If you sought to mitigate inequity through that career, what would doing so look like? 300-word maximum

Is there any other information that reviewers should know about?
This question is optional. (Max 100 words)

AZCollegePlanning wishes you the best of success!

Next SAT Dates	Next ACT Dates
August 24, 2019 October 5, 2019 *October PSAT (TBA) November 2, 2019 December 7, 2019 March 14, 2020 May 2, 2020 June 6, 2020	July 13, 2019 September 14, 2019 October 26, 2019 December 14, 2019 February 8, 2020 April 4, 2020 June 13, 2020 July 18, 2020

• To register for the P-SAT contact your local high school counselor to sign up
• To register for the SAT go to: http://sat.collegeboard.org/register
• To register for the ACT go to: http://www.actstudent.org/regist/

Dozens of wealthy families in Illinois have reportedly been using a controversial tactic to help their children pay for college: They give up legal guardianship so the teenagers can claim dramatically lower incomes and earn need-based financial aid, according to reports from two news organizations published Monday.

ProPublica and The Wall Street Journal each detailed the efforts in separate articles after uncovering dozens of applications filed by Chicago-area parents to financially divorce themselves from their kids over the past year and a half.

As part of the strategy, wealthy parents allegedly file paperwork to transfer legal custody of their kids to other relatives, friends or even co-workers. When the transfers are complete — often during their junior or senior years of high school — students are then able to declare themselves financially independent on college applications. In one instance detailed by the Journal, a student whose parents owned a $1.2 million home only had to declare $4,200 in income from a summer job.

That student was able to obtain about $47,000 in scholarships and federal Pell grants to attend a private university that costs $65,000 per year.

The practice is legal, but the Journal notes that the Education Department is looking into the matter. The agency did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

“It’s a scam,” Andy Borst, the director of undergraduate admissions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told ProPublica. “Wealthy families are manipulating the financial aid process to be eligible for financial aid they would not be otherwise eligible for. They are taking away opportunities from families that really need it.” Borst also spoke with ProPublica.

ProPublica noted that laws in Illinois governing the transfer of legal guardianship are broadly written and that as long as the parents, children and the court agree, a judge can approve the transfer even if parents are able to financially support their kids.

Almost all of the cases cited by ProPublica and the Journal echo language that says the new guardians “can provide educational and financial support and opportunities to the minor that her parents could not otherwise provide.”

It’s unclear if the tactic has been used in other states. The Education Department does not mandate students report their parents’ income on federal financial aid forms if they have been legally declared independent.

The reports come just months after the unfolding of a college admissions scandal that saw more than 50 people charged with allegedly buying their kids’ way into elite universities around the country. Celebrities including actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman were named in the investigation, and many parents were said to have paid $200,000 to $400,000 to secure their children spots at universities such as Yale and Georgetown.

Investigators called it the largest admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Justice Department, and it set off a nationwide reckoning regarding everyday access to elite colleges that have grown more competitive in recent years.

J.D.'s comments:

Regarding this article, when those families get found out, and they will, it’s going to be the IRS that gets involved because this is tax fraud and tax fraud is taken very seriously. (PELL grants are federal money calculated off tax returns. Falsified tax returns can result in $250,000 fines (which is more than the cost of most colleges plus 3 or more years in prison.)

Every year someone tries to cheat the system and when they get caught, it’s jail time, fines and a criminal record. 

It’s not worth the risk.

Original article here:

Discover the real ethical and legal secrets to Reduce your cost of college and not go broke in the process, give us a call now! 1-888-237-2087 x2

College Funding Webinar Thursday May 30, 7:00 PM to about 9:00 PM.

I want to attend this class: CLICK --> jd@AZCollegePlanning.com

I have had a few families say to me – Thanks for helping my kid get into college and get an amazing scholarship but there is still a gap that we as parents must pay for college. How do we do that?

I have struggled with this question and bounced it off my good friend and colleague Brian Safdari.

I meet Brian about 12 years ago in the fall of 2007 when I started my college planning business. Brian had been a college planner for a few years longer than me. Brian runs a successful college planning business in the Northern Los Angeles area.

It was interesting watching his business grow in one direction while AZ College Planning grew a different way. Two branches from the same tree. There were various times that Brian asked me admission and scholarship questions while I asked him Funding, Savings and Sheltering Assets questions.

Brian’s experience and research has propelled him to be the premier expert in the Funding College arena. He has helped a thousand plus families with Funding Strategies. He was even sought out by various other business entities and organizations to speak with their clients and staff on the delicate balance and intricacies of Funding College.

Our mutual goal is to get the cost of college as low as possible through scholarships and grants AND to come up with a plan to pay for college.

This is where Brian’s expertise flourishes, - Creating a Game Plan to Fund and Pay for College without Busting the Bank.

Some of you have attended my Sheltering Assets Class. All the concepts and ideas from this class are from Brian’s expertise. Brian’s Funding College Class takes all that information and puts an action plan behind it as well as expounding on building assets and sheltering assets.

I have convinced Brian to present a class to all of you on the strategies to Fund College. This class will be a live webinar. I highly encourage you to attend this event.

In an email to me, Brian said “In this workshop, I will show your parents how 200 clients of mine are funding college, the pros and cons of all the funding options they used, the mistakes they made (after the fact), and what is the best way to fund college, stay within their cashflow budget, and still be able to reach their retirement goals.”

Here are a couple details about this class:

1. This workshop is good for any family that already has kids in college, where they will learn mistakes and advanced strategies they may not know about.
2. It’s also a great workshop, especially for your families that are in your program as early as 9^th grade in high school.
3. The early they start the more financial aid they can receive while being able to fund college.

Plan on attending this important class.

This class is only offered via Online Streaming.

• If you would like to attend this event please click the link and I will send you the login details to view this event.

I want to attend this class: CLICK --> jd@AZCollegePlanning.com

The Brian Safdari Parent Funding Class is May 30, 2019 at 7:00 PM and will run about 1.5 to 2 hours.

This exclusive class is going out only to my clients. You will be very impressed with Brian, his expertise and this important Funding College Class for parents.

• Please note that I will not be able to reply or answer an email that comes in between May 4 thru May 13 as Jennifer and I will be on an Alaskan Cruise with no access to phone, email or text messages.

• What: How to pay the gap and fund college without busting the bank
• Who: Parent of High School or current year college students
• Where: Online Streaming only
• When: Thursday May 30, 7PM to about 9PM (Arizona time)
• Class title: Parent's Funding College Class

Requirements- computer to view the live class and Zoom software. Get the free download here: https://zoom.us/support/download

I want to attend this class: CLICK --> jd@AZCollegePlanning.com

*I will send out the link to the Zoom Webinar on May 28, 2019.

Chinese Family Reportedly Paid $6.5 Million for Spot at Stanford

Is a Stanford degree really worth it if ultra-wealthy families can buy their way in?

The family of a student admitted to Stanford University reportedly paid $6.5 million to try to secure her spot there. Credit Ben Margot/Associated Press

By Kate Taylor and Jennifer Medina (New York Times) May 1, 2019

From the day in March that prosecutors announced charges against 50 people in a sweeping college admissions fraud investigation, they have held out a tantalizing mystery: an unnamed family that they said had paid the college consultant at the center of the scheme $6.5 million — far more than any of the parents named in the case — to get their child into college.

The student is Yusi Zhao, who was admitted to Stanford in 2017, according to a person with direct knowledge of the investigation. Neither she nor her parents, who live in Beijing, have been charged, and it is unclear whether they are currently being investigated. Stanford rescinded Ms. Zhao’s admission in April, and she is no longer a student there.

The person with knowledge of the inquiry said that Ms. Zhao’s family was introduced to the college consultant, William Singer, by a financial adviser at Morgan Stanley based in Pasadena, named Michael Wu. A spokeswoman for Morgan Stanley said that Mr. Wu had been terminated for not cooperating with an internal investigation into the matter and that the firm was cooperating with the authorities. Mr. Wu did not respond to a phone call.

At a court hearing in March, the lead prosecutor in the admissions case, Eric S. Rosen, said that Mr. Singer had tried to get Ms. Zhao — whom Mr. Rosen did not identify by name — recruited to the Stanford sailing team and created a false profile of her supposed sailing achievements.

The original article is here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/01/us/yusi-zhao-stanford-university.html

At AZ College Planning, we play the game, BUT we don’t game the system. You can get admitted and get a great scholarship package by following our proprietary plan. Attend a workshop to learn more about these strategies.

RSVP for the workshop and discover that you don’t have to pay $6.5 mill to get admitted. /contact/free-workshop

Tell your friends they don’t have to bride college staff or pay $6.5 mill to get admitted, just attend the free workshop. (Free is much cheaper than $6.5 mill.)

Why Would You Pay Full Price for College?

Discover the Admission Secrets Arizona Families Use to Get College Paid For at a Huge Discount!

Students who use the college as a tool to get where you want to be, launch into their Career and Profession.

With all the publicity around the VARSITY BLUES College Admission Scandal, the highly selective colleges are being scrutinized. Are these high priced hard to get admitted colleges really worth it?

Selecting the Right Fit college is important. As it is equally important to get the cost of college down by maximizing scholarships and grants.

Choosing a college that is going to help launch your student into their career is a critical aspect of the college section. It’s not always the Ivy colleges or the highly selective colleges that offer the best scholarship packages or the best and most influential internships and research assistant projects to its student body.

We want to help build your college success story.

AZ College Planning’s specialty is showing how to use the student’s Power of Influence to get the colleges to admit them and give big scholarships. This is done by showing your student the essential things to invest time in that would impress the college.

With over 12 years of experience we have fine-tuned the application and scholarship process and can show students how to Market Themselves to Colleges so that the college Needs to Admit your student.

AZ College Planning has successfully methodized the process of how to get colleges to really want your student and offer tons of scholarship money.

Discover more by attending our next free college workshop. Click the link for dates and our North Scottsdale location.

If you have an 8^th grader, freshman, sophomore, or junior you will want to attend this informational workshop.