Transcript The College Planning Forum

• How ready are you for college
...REALLY?
• 10 questions, 2 minutes
• Graded within 3 biz days
www.GetCollegeFunding.tv
7 Mistakes Families Make
When Planning for College ...
but Don't Know Until It's Too Late
GetCollegeFunding, Dana Point Harbor Office
6:30-8:00pm
Thursday, Oct 27th
Wednesday, Nov 16th
Thursday, Dec 15th
Source: National Center for Education Statistics (www.nces.ed.gov)
Formerly of
Formerly of
2000 4-yr
1650
Meet Basic Standards
C+/B Avg
Top 1/2 to 1/3
Competitive
SAT 450-600
Selective
Pre-College Courses
250
Some participation
75
Good HS Citizen
A Avg
Top 5-10%
B +/A- Avg
SAT 700’s
Top 15-20%
Almost all Honors/AP
SAT 600-700
25
Some Honors, AP
A/A+ Avg Top of Class
Good Activities/Talent,
Personal
SAT Mid /High 700’s
Strong Activities/Talent,
Personal
All Hard Courses
Unusually Strong
Activities, Talent,
Personal in combination
Most
Selective
No Negatives
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
Supply is steady


The number of spaces for freshmen has not changed
much in the last 2-3 decades.
Demand is growing overall



The number of high school grads has never been higher.
 Now about 3.3M
The percent going to college is increasing.
 From 45% to nearly 2/3 since 1980’s
More international students
Chronicle of Higher Education Almanac 2008
© Betterton College Planning, LLC
 You
need to know how to prepare, both inside and
outside the classroom, to meet higher standards
 Courses,
grades
 Standard tests
 Activities and achievement
 It
is essential that you have a realistic college list
© Betterton College Planning, LLC
There is academic “Bunching”
Increased enrollment in hard courses
 Honors, AP, International Baccalaureate
 College courses in high school, summer
enrichment
Distinctions are blurred
 Grade inflation
 Multiple valedictorians
 SAT and ACT Super Scoring
 Test prep courses (ePrep recommended)
© Betterton College Planning, LLC
There is personal “Polishing”

Students are more savvy about building a resume
with activities and accomplishments, strategizing
the essay, volunteering, enrichment programs

High schools feel the pressure -- reluctant to
lessen student chances – inflation in teacher and
counselor recs
© Betterton College Planning, LLC

College admission offices have a split personality
 They are a meritocracy
 Admit the best
 They also practice “institutional engineering”
 Admit to meet other objectives

The result is not one, but two admissions processes that run
side by side
 One for “Untagged” applicants
 One for “Tagged” applicants

This is where confusion increases and predictability
decreases.
© Betterton College Planning, LLC
Level I
 Scholarship
Level III
athlete
Level IIA
 Non-scholarship
athlete
 Affirmative action minority
Level IIB
 Low
incm, disadv, obstacles
 Inst. need – arts, academic
 Early
Decision
 Connections
 State resident for some publics
 Demonstrated interest
Level IV
 Legacy
 Geography
 Gender
 Full
pay
© Betterton College Planning, LLC
Colleges rate applicants on academic and
personal scales.
 To sort through so many apps, a number
system is used.
 My system is 1 (low) to 8 (high) on both
academic and personal.
 Academics weighted more heavily, roughly
in a 3:1 ratio.

© Betterton College Planning, LLC
Average
GPA (UW)
Rank
Courses
(5 solids)
SAT
(M+CR/2)
ACT
(Comp)
SAT
Subject
Acad
Awards
8
A+
4.0
97-100
1-2%
Most
Demanding**
750-800
35-36
780-800
Intern/
National
7
A
3.9
94-96
3-5%
Most
Demanding
710-740
33-34
760-770
Region/
State
6
A3.7-3.8
90-93
6-14%
Very
Demanding
680-700
32
730-750
County
5
B+
3.3-3.6
87-89
15-20%
Demanding
650-670
29-31
680-720
School
4
B/B2.7-3.2
80-86
25%
Demanding
600-640
26-28
630-670
None
3
C
2.3-2.6
77-79
33%
Average
550-590
23-25
590-620
None
2
C
2.0-2.2
74-76
50%
Below
Average
470-540
19-22
500-580
None
1
CBelow 2.0
Below 74
Below
50%
Below
Average
Below 470
Below 19
Below 500
None
© Betterton College Planning, LLC
PERSONAL RATING TABLE™
© Betterton College Planning, LLC
STUDENT RATINGS COMPARED TO COLLEGE RATINGS™
14
Super Selective
Stanford
13
Most Selective
UCal
12
Most Selective/Selective
USC
11
Selective
UC Irvine
10
Competitive
Occidental
9
Competitive
UC Santa Barbara
8
Lightly Competitive
Santa Clara
7
Lightly Comp/Meet Basic Standards Loyola Marymount
6
Meet Basic Standards
U of Pacific
© Betterton College Planning, LLC
BCP EVALUATOR™
Name
John
Rating 5/4
Date
Here are your admission prospects comparing your credentials with those of each college’s
most recent freshman man class. Green shading indicates Core colleges.
Very
Difficult
Difficult
Somewhat
Difficult
Good Choice
Solid
Chance
Strong
Chance
(50-70%)
(60-80%)
V.G. to
Excellent
Chance
(70-90%)
Santa
Clara (8)
LMU (7)
U of P (6)
(40-60%)
(10-30%)
(20-40%)
USC (12)
UCal Irvine
(11)
(30-50%)
Oxy (10)
UCSB (9)
:
© Betterton College Planning, LLC
BCP EVALUATOR™ (w/Tag)
Name John
Rating 5/4 (11)
Date
Here are your admission prospects considering that you may find yourself
tagged as: An Athlete
Very
Difficult
Difficult
Somewhat
Difficult
Good
Choice
Solid
Chance
Strong
Chance
(10-30%)
(20-40%)
(30-50%)
(40-60%)
(50-70%)
(60-80%)
Stanford
(14)
UCal (13)
USC (12)
UCal
Irvine (11)
Oxy (10)
UCSB (9)
V.G. to
Excellent
Chance
(70-90%)
Santa
Clara (8)
LMU
(7)
U of P
(6)
© Betterton College Planning, LLC

NCAA – National Collegiate Athletic Association
(380,000 athletes in 36 sports)
Div I (331)
 Div II (291)
 Div III (429)

NAIA - National Association of Intercollegiate
Athletics (300 schools, 23 sports, 50,000
athletes)
 NJCAA - National Junior College Athletic
Association (525 schools, 16 sports)

© Betterton College Planning, LLC
You’re a Heavy (Blue Chip) Recruit



You are recruited early by more than one college, are offered a full ride,
coach assures you he can “get you in.”
You are 1% of high school athletes
You don’t need this Webinar. Congratulations
If not, view yourself as a Light Recruit (interest by coach, but no early
offer of admission or schp) or Self Recruit (very little or no interest by
your colleges).

Light recruit. Keep in touch and keep improving. Hopefully you will
move up the ladder as other recruits choose their colleges. Academics
remain quite important. Might get some money.

Self recruit. Promote yourself and keep improving. Plan to go through
admission process with sport as an admission plus.
© Betterton College Planning, LLC

Your chance to play in college may not be as great as you think. As a
general rule, between 5% & 10% of high school athletes end up making a
college team. For example:
Men’s
Women’s
Sport
HS Players
College Players
%
Football
1,012,000
77,800
7.6%
Basketball
539,700
27,700
5.1%
Baseball
450,500
49,900
10.9%
Basketball
452,700
24,400
5.3%
Soccer
292,000
31,800
10.9%
Softball
350,200
27,200
7.8%
© Betterton College Planning, LLC
Nearly all “full rides” go to Blue Chip athletes in
revenue sports.
 An occasional full ride to outstanding recruit in nonrevenue sport
 If on athletic schp, expect a partial (MSOC $8750/$30K)
 Athletic schps are one year at a time
 Don’t expect college to fund up to NCAA allowable
schp limit (MSOC 7 of 9.9)
 Full ride doesn’t cover all costs
 No schps in some Div I and II. None at all in Div III

© Betterton College Planning, LLC
 You
can’t get a schp or play for 4 years unless
you meet NCAA academic eligibility rules.
 Coach can’t recruit you unless you meet the
college’s admission standards.
 The NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate encourages
coaches to recruit good students.
 If it turns out you are not recruited, your
academics are what counts. Your sport may
help in admission as an extra-curricular activity.
© Betterton College Planning, LLC

You can tell if:
 Usually
contacted before your senior year
 Get calls, home visit after July 1 of senior year
 Invited to make an official (paid) visit
 After reviewing academics, coach, acting as de
facto admission office, will say he can “get you in”
if you commit to attend.
© Betterton College Planning, LLC

Lack of commitment may cause coach to
remove his admission offer.
 Possible
dilemma – do you turn down offer to
keep options open, not knowing where you stand
with other colleges?
 Try
to extend deadline as much as possible, then make
your decision.
 Sometimes coach will “re-recruit” you

Verbal offers vs National Letter of Intent
Then your option is to Self-Recruit
 Make
yourself known. Cast a wide net.
 Fill out questionnaire on athletic dept Web site
 Contact coach, explain more about you, judge level
of coach’s interest.
 If at least some interest,
 Offer
to make unofficial visit
 Update performance periodically
 Ask if he would like to see video
 Give coaches’ names as references
 Give schedule of where you will be playing
 Be Politely Persistent until successful or no chance
© Betterton College Planning, LLC

If you want to participate in athletics or receive an athletic
scholarship during your first year, you must:







Graduate from high school
Complete 16 core courses (14 in Div II)
Earn a minimum required grade-point average in your core courses
Earn a combined SAT or ACT sum score that matches your corecourse grade-point average and test score sliding scale
Comply with amateurism rules
Register with the Clearinghouse
Follow the recruiting rules
Guide For College Bound Athletes
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