College Counseling Resources

List of 24 items.

• ACT

  This is a standardized test that every college in the United States accepts. Here on the East Coast, we are used to the SAT, but the ACT is equivalent to the SAT in every important respect.

• Common Application

  This is an online application form that about 500 colleges use or hold in common. The student can fill out the Common Application once and use it for as many colleges as he/she wants. It saves a lot of time.

• Deferral

  When a student applies either Early Action or Early Decision, he/she can be deferred, which means the college is declining to make a decision on the student’s application until the regular decision group applies later in the year. A student who is deferred early is still very much in the running and could be accepted later in the year. See Mr. Ward for information about how to manage a “deferral” decision.

• Demonstrated Interest

  Admissions offices like to understand why you want to attend their college/university. In addition to answering the question on an application it is important to "demonstrate your interest," which you can do in several ways: visit the college, interview with a representative of the college, attend a meeting at PCD with the college's representative, fill out a card at the college's booth at a college fair, and/or ask question(s) by writing or emailing the college admissions office. You should make sure you express and show your interest to every college to which you apply.

• Discount Rate

  Every college has a unique discount rate—a simple calculation that tells us something about a college’s financial health. The discount rate is calculated as follows: Divide the total amount of money the college will offer to incoming freshman students in financial aid by the total amount of money the college will collect in tuition and fees from freshman. In other words, the discount rate tells us what percentage of the amount of money the college collects from families for tuition and other fees needs to be used to offer in incentives and aid to get the class they want.  A discount rate less than 25% indicates especially strong financial health. A discount rate of 25% tells us that a college uses 25% of tuition revenue to recruit the class.   A college with a discount rate of 60%, for example, is using 60%, more than half, of tuition revenue to recruit the class.  That’s a lot.  A discount rate about 70% is quite worrisome.   Discount rates are climbing.  The average discount rate now among all colleges is over 50%.  This indicates the financial health of higher ed institutions, overall, is not especially robust.

• Early Action

  Admissions procedure through which a student applies early to a college and receives early word of its decision. If the student is admitted, the student generally has until May 1 to decide whether to accept the offer, though deadlines vary by college.

• Early Admission

  This to be distinguished from both early decision and early action. It refers to when a student elects to start college after the junior year of high school. Colleges rarely select students who apply for early admission as the student must demonstrate that he/she has exhausted the high school’s curriculum and is academically and emotionally ready for college earlier than one’s peers.

• Early Decision

  Admissions procedure through which a student applies early to a college and receives early word of its decision. If the student is admitted, the student is obligated to attend that college. Deadlines vary by college.

• EFC

  This is a financial aid term and stands for “Estimated Family Contribution.” On the Free Application For Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), the EFC is calculated after the family fills in all the information requested about its financial circumstances. The Estimated Family Contribution, is used by colleges to determine financial aid awards. If the EFC is lower than the total cost of the college, then the student is eligible for need-based aid. Most families feel that the EFC does NOT really capture their financial circumstances and that the EFC calculation suggests that they can afford to pay more than they can. But the EFC is currently the accepted instrument used to determine financial need.

• FAFSA

  Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Everyone who applies for financial aid must fill out the FAFSA. Financial information from the end of the prior year is required, so the FAFSA cannot be completed until January. The FAFSA is available every year on October 1. Students use financial data from two years prior. For example, students in the class of 2018 used their 2016 family financial data to complete this form.

• FERPA

  This stands for the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act. Once known as “the Buckley Amendment” (for James Buckley, one time Senator from New York State and the sponsor of the bill in 1973), FERPA gives everyone access to any recommendation letter that is written on his/her behalf. Students may elect to waive their FERPA rights to ensure that recommendations are confidential. College admission offices prefer that students waive their rights, so the colleges know that the recommendations they receive are not written under any kind of duress. We recommend that students waive their FERPA rights, not only because the colleges prefer it, but also because PCD students can rest assured that the recommendations they receive from faculty and administration will serve their best interests.

• Financial Aid

  Financial aid is the awarding of monies to a student to help pay for college based on the financial needs of the student and his/her family. Financial aid is awarded in three forms: grant aid, which does not have to be repaid; loans, which do have to be repaid after college, usually with reasonable repayment terms; and work study, which is an on-campus job for the student, usually for about 10 hours a week. Financial aid is based entirely on financial need. See SCHOLARSHIPS for another way in which colleges award monies.

• Interim Year

  Some students call this "a year off." It's not a vacation year, however; rather it is the opportunity for a student to pursue an activity or activities for a year prior to going to college. Most colleges will allow a student a one-year deferral of entrance in order to pursue an Interim Year.

• Merit Aid

  The common word for this is “scholarship.” These are funds that a college will offer to an admitted student that are not related to the student’s financial need. The colleges use a wide variety of criteria these days to determine how they award merit aid. The common denominator is that the student’s financial need has nothing to do with the merit aid that is awarded. While students do apply for some merit aid awards, or scholarships, the vast amount of merit aid given out by the colleges is given to the student without any application procedure. Merit Aid is also known as “non-need-based aid” to distinguish it from “financial aid”, or “need-based aid”, money given to students because they need it.

• NCAA Eligibility Center

  The NCAA Eligibility Center is the office that determines if a student is qualified to participate in NCAA intercollegiate athletics. NCAA colleges are divided into three divisions. Only Divisions I and II must work with the Eligibility Center, because only those divisions may offer students athletic scholarships. The Eligibility Center reviews the academic transcripts of all potential athletes to determine if a student has a strong enough record to be prepared for academic work in college. In addition, the Center uses SAT or ACT scores, along with the student’s high school academic performance to determine the student’s eligibility. Every student interested in playing DI or DII athletics must be vetted by the NCAA Eligibility Center. The goal is to prevent colleges from exploiting students who are talented athletes, but marginal students. Colleges can only admit students who are academically qualified.

• Need Blind & Need Aware

  These are terms refer to a college’s policy with regard to how a family's financial need affects the college's admissions decision. A need-blind college says that the family’s financial need has no bearing on the admissions decision it makes. A need-aware college says that the family’s financial need could have an impact on the admissions decision it makes. Even at need-aware schools, financial need has a bearing only on those students who are considered on the borderline of admissions acceptability.

• Net Price Calculator

  By Federal law, every college that accepts any form of support from the Federal Government must provide a Net Price Calculator on its public website. Using this instrument, one is able to determine the “net price” of that college, i.e. the cost per year after receiving the financial aid for which one is qualified. Go to the Admissions tab on a college’s web site to search for their Net Price Calculator.

• Post-Graduate Year

  In contrast to an "interim year," a student takes a Post-Graduate Year as a 13th year of scholastic (high school) education. Often this is done at a private boarding school for reasons of further athletic or academic preparation.

• Prior Prior

  This is a policy for the FAFSA adopted by the Federal Government.
  
  Families use financial data from two years prior. For example, students in the class of 2018 used their 2016 family financial data to complete this form.
  
  This policy allows parents to fill out the FAFSA months earlier, starting in October of their child's senior year. (So, they are not using prior year data, but "prior prior" year data.)

• Profile

  Some private colleges use the PROFILE form in addition to the FAFSA. For those colleges that require it, the PROFILE must be filled out. It can be obtained from the College Board website. Consult the colleges or check with Mr. Ward.

• Rolling Admission

  Some colleges do not have a set deadline, but rather practice rolling admission. This means that they read and decide upon admissions applications as soon as they receive them. If a student is applying to a college with a rolling admission plan, it behooves him/her to apply as early as possible.

• Scholarship

  A scholarship is an offer of a fixed amount of money to help the student pay for college. Scholarships are based on merit—that is, on the talents of the student—either academic, athletic, or artistic. Scholarships do not take financial need into account. 90% of scholarships are awarded automatically by the colleges—that is, one does not have to specifically apply for them. There are other kinds of scholarships as well. Consult Mr. Ward for further information.

• Waiting List

  Students can be offered admission, their application for admission can be denied, or they can be placed on a waiting list. Colleges offer the waiting list to those students who qualify for admission and who they would like to take, but who they are unable to accept initially due to space constraints. If the student is placed on the waiting list, he/she may choose or not choose to accept that offer. If colleges find out they need more students than they originally thought, they can offer admission to students on the waiting list. This usually happens in late April or early May. There are ways to optimize one’s chances if one is on the waiting list. This takes several steps, so students should consult Mr. Ward if they are on the waiting list.

• Yield

  Every college has a unique yield rate, determined by dividing the number of incoming freshman students who have accepted a college’s offer of admission by the total number of freshman admission offers that the college has made. A yield rate above 50% is excellent. A 50% yield rate means that 100 students have been offered admission and 50 of them have accepted the offer. A yield rate between 35% and 50% is strong; a yield rate between 25% and 35% is acceptable; and yield rates below 25% are weak. The highest yield rates are enjoyed by West Point, the Naval Academy, and the Air Force Academy. Their yield rates are above 90%. The yield rates for Princeton, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford are in the 70% range.