Counselor is a representative from the admissions office at a university of college who assists prospective students through the admissions process. (Get to know your admission counselor!)
Admission
Counselor is a representative from the admissions office at a university of college who assists prospective students through the admissions process. (Get to know your admission counselor!)
College Profile
is a document where your high school counselors describe your school to the colleges. Look on your high school website for the College Profile written by your counselors. It will explain how many APs are offered, colleges students attend from your high school, the overall school climate, how grading was altered for Covid, and other additional facts and information to give the college admissions personnel to give insight into your high school.
College
is where you will earn a bachelor’s degree which takes approximately four years. If a school is a college, this is also called a liberal arts college and offers humanities, business, and finance courses, but will not have, for example, a college of engineering or a college of nursing. Whereas a University has several colleges within the university and has a larger student population.
Common Application
(www.commonapp.org) The website and application is used for over 900 colleges. A student can make their account anytime the summer before their senior year.
Cost of Attendance (COA)
The total amount it will cost you to go to college each year. The COA includes tuition and fees, on-campus room and board (or a housing and food allowance for off-campus students), and allowances for books, supplies, transportation, or loan fees.
CSS Profile (The College Service Scholarship Profile)
is a financial form administered by the College Board and required by many colleges and universities seeking need-based financial aid. The CSS Profile is completed after the FAFSA has been completed and each school will inform you if they require the CSS Profile.
Deferral
is used at colleges and universities that offer early admission plans (Early Action, Early Decision) and it is a decision to ‘defer’/to move your application to a later admission plan, oftentimes the Regular Decision pool of students. Rather than being admitted or denied admission, a student may be ‘deferred’ to a later round.
Demonstrated Interest
is a term to describe the tool schools use to gauge the level of interest a student has in their school which helps a school determine the likelihood a student would enroll if they were admitted. As your student starts to look at schools, register online at various schools to receive emails and then students should try to open the emails and links. This data is collected. (Your student should create a gmail address just for the purpose of the college search and other things associated with college planning.) All schools will review a student’s application on the merit of the transcript, grades, essays and overall fit. Demonstrated interest will help the student if the admissions staff is wavering about their decision to admit the student. Schools will use the Demonstrated Interest data for a student because the admissions office would rather admit a student who has displayed an interest in their school rather than a student who only showed interest in the school by submitting an application.
Early Action (EA)
acceptance is non-binding. Students will receive an early response to their application, students do not need to commit to the college until spring of their senior year.
Early Decision (ED)
application and acceptance is binding. A student who is accepted as an early decision applicant must attend that college. ED can increase your chance of getting accepted, but the school can accept you without any information or promise regarding financial aid.
Expected Family Contribution (EFC)
is the amount of financial support a family is expected to contribute toward a child’s college education which is determined by the FAFSA . At some schools, the EFC is also determined by using institutional methodology that uses data collected from the CSS Profile.
Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
www.fafsa.ed.gov To apply for federal grants, work-study, and loans for college. Every family should complete the FAFSA starting October 1st preceding the year of enrollment. The FAFSA needs to be completed every year the student attends college. Don’t pay anyone to do this for you. The sooner you apply, the better. This application is only for federal aid as the name implies. Most schools will not consider institutional aid until the parent(s) have submitted a FAFSA.
Grants, Scholarships, Merit Aid
These categories are free money which does not need to be repaid. It is a good idea to ask the school what GPA is needed to maintain the award money.
High School Profile
is a form created by each high school that provides colleges and universities with information about the specific high school. High schools typically provide curriculum details, description of grading scale, student population information, extracurricular opportunities available, and high school counseling information.
Need-Based Financial Aid
is awarded based on demonstrated financial need as determined by the FAFSA and/or the CSS Profile.
Need Blind
is when a admission decision is made without regard to a student or family’s ability to pay for the education.
Net Price Calculator
Each school has a Net Price Calculator on their website. It is helpful and a quick predictor of financial aid, but it can not predict merit scholarships.
Public Institutions
receive federal and state money and are less expensive than a private school, but private schools generally offer more financial aid. (i.e. University of Minnesota)
Private Institutions
are supported through tuition, but also have solid financial aid packages to make them competitive with the public schools. (i.e. St. Olaf College)
Regular Decision
schools hold all applications and then make admissions decisions at one time.
Retention Rate
is the percentage of students who return to a college or university the following year; typically this refers to first-year to sophomore retention.
Rolling Admissions
These are schools who accept students as they receive the applications and qualified students are admitted until the first-year class is filled.
Room & Board
is the dollar amount for housing and dining combined for the enrolled student.
Student Employment/Work Study is eligible for students who complete the FAFSA, which determines eligibility for this program. Eligible undergraduate students may work up to 20 hours per week on campus. There are a variety of work locations and settings.
Test Optional
means students are not required to submit standardized test scores. Whether to send the scores is the student’s decision. In some cases, a Test-optional school will still look at the test score if you send it.
Test Blind
A school will not look at any standardized test scores even if the student submits them. There are only about 60 schools in the country that are test blind.
Waitlist
is when a student who has not yet been admitted, but still shows strong promise. The university will often make offers of admission from the waitlist based on the response from students initially offered admission.
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