College Planning 101

Welcome to college planning 101.

This presentation was originally scheduled to be done in person, but because of the changes to Cove at night because of the changes from Kroger 19 we obviously needed to move to an on line setting one of the first things I would like to start out before even introduce myself is to ask the audience how many of you have ever gone to an emergency room or had surgery of any kind, and where did all of those people who you let operate on you get their degrees? Where did the nurses who stuck things into you get their degrees? Obviously, the fact that they got the degree is more important than where they got it from.

And that's kind of what I want to talk about so far today. And that's basically a little bit about the college planning process. I don't want you to become overwhelmed by this process. I want you to understand that colleges need students just like students want colleges, and we'll talk a little bit about that. But this entire presentation is geared specifically to address some concerns that you might have about the process and next steps. So with that example of critical thinking that yes, you've been doing emergency room and you may or may not ask someone where they went to college, let me introduce myself. My name is Dean Reinhart on the associate director of undergrad admissions.

I've been doing college admissions now for a little over 30, three years, six campuses, 25 years, and Suni. In the last 15 years here at Buffalo state, going to talk about the truth about the process, we're going to talk a little bit about the campus visits, what it takes to go to get on campus, and how to visit the places and also the application process. The evaluation up with applications, financial aid, scholarships, and final thoughts. I know this is a lot and I assure you would be a lot more entertaining if we were in person, but because of the way things are going right now, we're not able to do that. So if you can hang in there, I.

Promise to give you some good information about this process. First off, you need to know there's a lot of great schools. Colleges need students. If you have any doubt of that, check your Mail. Anybody who's taking the psat or the plan if you took the AC T Prep course, you already know the colleges want students. You're getting Mail all the time. My son got a little over 4000 different emails from colleges as they went through the process. I do think it's important for you to understand that typically in the junior year you take the PSA team, your name started getting out there, but you can take the information that you got from the PS18.

And link it through the college. Put your College Board account with Khan Academy in Khan Academy will actually set up a study schedule for you. An an average students who participate in the con participation of practice. See about 100 point increase from their PS. 80 there. S80 there's a lot of changes going on, not just with code 19, but in higher Ed in general. In these days, and I think you're going to see that we're going to all be competing for a smaller and smaller group of high school grads and individuals going to college.

And it can get crazy, but understand that ultimately colleges are here to assist you. There's more than one route to college. About 50% of all students started a Community College at this point. Don't limit your search based on private public in state. Out-of-state commuting, living on campus, cast your net far and wide. Understand that there's a lot of free resources for you. Do not need to pay someone to go through this process, and my final point on this slide is that this is not an objective process. This is a very subjective process. Colleges would love to admit everybody and get everybody in.

But they have a couple of criteria. One, they have limited space in most cases, so they have a limited number of options that the offers that they can make. The additional part is, in most cases campuses are going to look to find someone who fits the profile of someone who's been excess successful in the past academically can do the work. Additional process truth about the process is that there's a little over 4500 schools in this country, so I assure you that you're going to be able to go and get into some school. We market ourselves very competitively.

Uh, all of our marketing has smiling faces on it. Everybody looks happy if there's water anywhere on the campus, we take a picture of it. If there's no water, but it rained, one day will take a reflection photo of a building. I do this to make fun of ourselves, but also to drive home to you that one of the things that we teach in college is to critically think. and I want you to critically think of each of the brochures and catalogues and everything that you get. Look through it. Obviously, they're going to be diverse photos. Everyone is going to be smiling, everyone's happy, but also take a deeper dive and take a step back.

And start to evaluate some of the statements that are made 100% of our students do this. 99% of our students do that. I think it's important to point out that that's typically of those students who responded to surveys. So 100% of the students responded the survey tell us this or 99% of our students. In many cases, colleges don't even know where all their students are, so I encourage you to take all of this with a little bit of a grain of salt. A couple of websites here College scorecard dot dot Gov. This basically is a government website that.

Data that has to be submitted by the campus as part of their common data set. An if a campus false ifis. This data the colleges could lose their federal financial aid, so this is going to be some of the most accurate data you're going to get. Average annual costs for campus based on income level. The graduation rates. Obviously, graduation rates are important. It's important to point out though, the campuses and even the government allows us to report 150% of the average college experience. So it's almost like a six year graduation rate that we can report.

So you wanna look and dive deeper when you look at this to see how many students are getting out in four years and the sense of success. There's also the college navigator which is the National Center for education statistics. Their website is there very similar stuff, but it's a little bit deeper. Dive in terms of stuff that goes on college costs, want to talk a little bit about this? Understand that whatever you see is the college cost today or the sticker price is very likely not what you're going to end up paying. In fact, colleges don't necessarily cost what they say they cost.

And in many cases, colleges spend a great deal of money recruiting students. In fact, there are some campuses that discount or tuition discount up to 63% of what a student pays. In other words, $0.63 of every dollar they take in actually goes back out to students in aid of some kind.

Multiple campuses have been known to lower their tuition. You know, from $40,000 down to $30,000. Those are marketing ploys as well and you need to take critical step about that. Understand though, then both public and private schools can cost very similar amounts when you include the competitive tuition discounting that can take place at some of the privates, I think it's important to understand that most college is not as competitive as you think that they are. In fact there's only 59 schools in the country who accept 25%.

Or blow of their applicants. You can imagine who those 59 schools are. Includes the Ivy leagues, and we're going to talk about them a little while, but understand that the average except rate for a college student for a student who applies to college or most colleges, I should say the average accept rate is about 64%, which means 64% of the students who apply to the college actually get into the college. and I think it's important for you to understand that as we market ourselves, and we don't necessarily do a very good job of telling you that.

The transparency factor of how we do the process and what we do. But understand that in the end most students are going to be able to get into either their first choice or their second choice.

Some additional things to keep in mind. One of the things that takes place is the number of credits you take per semester. A credit is typically the number of hours you're in class per week. So if you're in a three credit class, you meet for three hours a week. Most college students will take 5 classes of three credits each, or about 15 hours that they're going to be in Class. I think it's important for you to understand that that when campuses start allowing people to start visiting again, and most campuses have virtual tours up or virtual information sessions up, and all of that.

And you can check those out at your leisure. But once you can really get back on campus, understand you need to find a place you're comfortable outside of the classroom as well as inside of the classroom talked about critical thinking a little bit earlier, college fairs, obviously, or postpones on campuses. And also in local communities. But different campuses are doing virtual college fairs that you can come and check out. Obviously the Internet is a great resource. I would typically recommend the summer between junior and senior years, but most campuses at this point had moved to remote learning for the summer.

As well, but I assure you once campuses are open again for visits, you will certainly hear about that. So let's talk a little bit about campus visits and what we look for. Things you can think about there. I always recommend that you make reservations. I encourage you to visit lots of campuses and right now you say I'm going to visit lots. The reality is you're busy person. It's tough to narrow it down and figure out where it is that you're going to go and make those decisions. Use resources, reach out to your friends, take advantage of your school counselors.

They have, uh, multiple years of experience, and more importantly, they typically have data depending on the software that they use to tell you what school is except what type of students in where they go and how things breakdown. Summer gives you a broad overview. You don't want to visit too many, because as you can tell, is an emissions person. I can talk really really fast and and so can my colleagues were going to get up there and throw out all sorts of stuff. And if you go to too many campuses in one day, you start it all starts to blur, go with some set questions that you want answered.

Look for things that matter to you. Understand that 70% of all students change their major. 50% of all those students change their major for a second time. It's OK to be undecided. Most campuses are going to allow you to be undecided for your first 2 years are going to take a general education sequence, which is a ratcheting up to the next level that which you've taken in high school. Find out if the club, the organizations, the Athletics, the Intermural, is the housing the study abroad programs that you might be interested in. Make sure that they are available. Some little tips to you.

You know, if you are just starting this process, you might want to create an email address just for this process that you can forward to your main account, so that way when you're done with this process, you won't have to worry about us continuing to.

Communicate with you continuous OK. Go to an admissions presentation. Go to a campus tour. If interviews are offered, certainly take advantage of that. Once you've narrowed it down, you can certainly go back to campus is for more focused tour or perhaps an open house in the fall. And as I said earlier, make sure that you're comfortable outside of the classroom. A lot of what takes place beyond those 15 credits is what takes place outside of the classroom. Some additional application process stuff always apply early. By and large, most applications for most campuses.

Open as of August 1st. You can certainly use the suni common application for Buffalo state and all of the Sunni campuses, but you don't necessarily want to just use the Suni application if you're applying to both private and public, you can use the common application. If you're looking at a certain set of schools, you might want to look at the coalition application or school specific. If you're looking at any of the 30 community colleges insooni, you can typically fill out the application right on their website and not go through soon and get charged. The $50 application fee through Suni. So explore this, but ultimately take take advantage of all this out.

Out there in terms of how we go through and look at applications, there's a lot of different ways that applications can come in. Early decision is just that it is. You apply. The campus makes a decision on your application early and it is also binding, which means that you have to then remove your acceptance is to other campuses and commit to that. Remove your applications, other campuses and commit to that college. So early decision is specifically for this student who absolutely positively has a first choice college.

Regardless of financial aid, is going to go to that school. It gets accepted. Early action is simply the campus takes action early on your file. Certain deadline you get everything in. If it's there, they're going to get out and move from there. Now after 30, three years of look into files, I think I can tell you that what we're looking to do is to admit students and you shouldn't rule yourself out just because you think you're not admissible to icampus understand that. Obviously, your academic record makes that determination as to where you go, but every time I open a file or now I view a file online 'cause we're completely digital.

I have to take a step back and look to evaluate whether the students admissible. Obviously we're looking for a good college prep curriculum for use of English and social studies. Three years math science in a foreign language, and then, if you have an interest area of a major, obviously we'd like to see a strength in that area as well. Alittle bit about it. The academic record. Sometimes questions will come up about AP or honors courses, and I certainly encourage that a lot of students. In fact, the majority of students have something of some of those on their transcripts at this point.

But you also want to make sure that you challenge yourself with an ability. I regularly will have a conversation with a student who says, but I took AP and honors courses, but their cumulative three year average was a 75 or 76, which is even know you're taking the AP or the honors. You're still not succeeding at the level that you should. Most campuses will evaluate you based on your three year average, and that's basically freshman, sophomore, and junior year. So for those of you who are juniors right now, you've sort of made your bed at this point. In other words, you have.

Laid out your academics as to where you're at and what's next and where you stand. I think it's also important for you to understand that we are in the business of admitting students were going to try and do our best possible to get the students that are the best fit for us. A little bit about the financial aid process. Most campuses are need blind or many campuses are need blind, which means the admissions and financial aid offices operate separately. And that means that when we're making an admissions decision.

We're not taking taking into consideration whether or not someone's gonna be able to pay for college, and that's probably the best way to level the playing field. But in terms of the financial aid process, for most schools you want to fill out the fast phone, which is the free application for federal student aid. It's the free application for federal student aid focuses on that first word of free. I mentioned that because there are certain agencies and companies that will charge you $79 to help you fill out application out and say that they're going to work the secrets out. I caution you against that.

But I also want to let you know that the best way to do it is to actually have the IRS data retrieval tool when you're filling out the fast food where it goes out and pulls in the financial aid or the information that's needed from your tax returns understand that colleges financial aid is done now prior prior so students enrolling in the fall of 2020 those.

The tax return from 2018 is typically what's used for those of you who are juniors will be enrolling in the fall of 2021 it would be the 2019 tax return that is do was delayed but is do it usually April 15th I think it's not a July 15th so you felt the fast one and then one of the questions says do you want this reported to your state hired Association annual check yes and then the higher education services Corp in New York state will send you a tap application information and then you fill out tab which is the tuition assistance program.

No matter how much money you make how little financially do you think you will qualify for I strongly recommend you take the time to fill out these at least for your first year to get a baseline there's some merit based scholarships that you may have to have exhausted all of your need based aid opportunities before so that you can make informed decisions and also so that the donors want to make sure that their money is spent in the best way possible I also mentioned in the college scholarship service application their CSS S certain selectives typically the more selective schools.

Will ask for a CSS S this is by the College Board in there is additional information that you submit about income, possibly family. Second homes, that sort of thing. Information that comes through there but don't cast your net far and wide in terms of financial aid and opportunities, check with community groups. Check with parent, Guardian, mom or dad's employer to see if they have anything available. Check with the school counselors. Most school counselors on their website will specifically have link.

Available to you of all the different scholarship opportunities that they have so also under financial aid offices both private and public are available and parted our community services to provide outreach if you have a question feel free to call several different offices to see the answers that you get and verify that but understand that we are here for you that's part of what we do as a profession and I would encourage you to take advantage of all of that.

I know I've gone through this very quickly I have just 2 slides remaining 3 slides I guess but the first one I want is just provide some final thoughts.

And the first thing I'll talk to is the students students I talk with more parents than I do students I prefer talking to students you are the ones who are the reason why I continue to work on a college campus I certainly understand that I have an obligation to talk to parents and answer their questions but understand that you typically will get a much more in depth response from most emissions people if it's the student if you've taken ownership we notice that sort of thing even if mom and dad are right there next to you when you're making those Phone calls you should take the ownership of this process.

Parents your job is to love your child I understand that this is a very nerve wracking process one of the things that worked out for me with my children is to agree to a set time frame which means that OK tomorrow at 6 o'clock I want 15 minutes to talk about where we're going up and we did that just so that we don't constantly think about what's going on obviously there's a lot of stress that students feel they want to make sure that they make the right choice they want to make sure they make the right choice for themselves but also for others and often times that it'll lead to bad decisions if there are.

More concerned about what others think is supposed to what works best for them I also emphasized to students that this responsibility is on you the one thing I will tell you students though is if your parents did go to college you certainly have to visit their alma mater that's just the rules it's important for you to go there you do not have to go to their alma mater as far as enrolling there but I think it's important for you to see what your parents saw in their experiences that they had so humor them a little bit and make sure you visit that visit I take that visit.

Be cautious about letting other people make your decision find out what really best represents you as you fill out all your application information you want to show your strength you want to throw a strong class choice and also strong curriculum the final bit of information that I want to talk to you about college planning 101 is to take advantage of your school counselors there a breadth of knowledge you can also call our office speak to any of our counselors were there here to help you whether you choose Buffalo state or not I usually make a corny jokes that you remember my name but.

Early on I mentioned my name is Dean reinhart on the associate director of admissions I'm not the Dean of anything but I make that joke to point out that if you call the office of admissions and ask to speak to the Dean they're going to put you through to me I'm more than happy to help you walk through this process and give you an overview of this process if there's anything I can do to help you with this process please let me know an all of my colleagues in this profession both private and public schools feel that way but I understand you also need to critically think that we are salesman in many ways and we're here to assist you but.

We also would like you to enroll in our school so all the preceding information was more just generic general information to give you an overview about buffaloes are about the college process the final 2 slides I would like to find a couple slides I want to focus is on our campus and where you're at today soon as the world's largest higher education comprehensive public University system in the US over 4000 different undergraduate majors 96,000 degrees so it spread out over 64 campuses.

Our tuition is just 77270 is what it's going to be for the fall with room board books fees everything it's about.

$20,000 per year that's both fall and spring OK.

And then for Buffalo state which are visiting today or at least listening to this PowerPoint about we are found in 1871 is a school of education we're now fully comprehensive college 100% of our classes are taught by faculty we don't use teaching assistance we don't use great assistance 88% of our faculty hold their doctor or the terminal degree their PhD in their MD JD depending on what they're teaching 170 different programs to choose from we have over $150 Million in renovations going on on campus 80% of our classes are very similar to the size you see in high school.

We have very few large lecture halls that we utilize most popular majors undeclared business education psychology and communications.

Some of their more unique programs we have a forensic chemistry program.

Which is just what you imagine it to be, but you need to understand that it's a chemistry program as well, not just what you see on TV. We also have a fashion and textile technology program, a three plus one option. Spend your first three years of Buffalo state senior F it in New York City. Average student at Buffalo State has an 80 six overall average and 1000 on the S80.

Automatic decisiones our students have a three year average or 85 or higher, regardless of test scores. So if you're in that range then you're very likely to be admissible to Buffalo state. Understand that we also have transfer possibilities if you are looking to find the right fit an you are not admissible directly to Buffalo state and you want to start somewhere else, you could certainly start add another campus and then look to transfer after 20, four more credits we no longer look at your high school average or your SITI. Understand that this was a quick 1520 minutes here.

I can talk really, really fast if you have additional questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. Enjoy this process, understand that there's a lot of great schools out there, and there is a perfect fit for you, but there might be more than one perfect fit, so make sure that you find some good good options. Good luck and feel free to reach out to us. Have a great day.