Video – Why College Planning?
In the first video, a college admissions consultant discusses,“5 ways to plan for college when your child is a junior in high school.” After viewing the video, take the quiz which examines why beginning the college planning conversation as a high school junior is far too late in the process.
Take the quiz as a group. Have a discussion about each question. Agree on the best, or most likely answer as a group. DO NOT GOOGLE OR USE WEBSITES TO DETERMINE YOUR ANSWERS. Take your best guess as a group.
After taking the quiz, watch the second video the profiles what colleges actually consider when making their admission decisions.
Have a group discussion and use the following 5 questions to guide your group discussion:
- Based on what the Amherst College Admissions Officers actually considered, were the 5 college planning strategies provided the consultant, sufficient? Explain your answer.
- Is it a productive use of your money visiting college campuses, BEFORE, you have researched the colleges and formulated your questions for admission and financial aid officers? Explain your answer.
- If private scholarships make up less than 4% of the financial aid received to pay for college, where should you be devoting the majority of your attention (e.g., developing your gifts and talents, college planning, identifying institutional scholarships, etc.)?
- Based on the advice being offered by the consultant, what admission considerations discussed in the Amherst College video does the consultant neglect to discuss?
- What is your opinion of the advice that the college planning consultant is offering, and is this more or less advice that you have receive from your high school counselor?