College Watch

Every once in a while, the government does something that shocks me into "yep, I guess they can do even stupider things".  This news story out of California is one of those instances...

Education Officials Break Down Stockton Man's Door

The Department of Education is the last place I would have expected to see this kind of heavy-handed thuggery, but there it is.  I am shocked and disappointed in the DOE's actions in this matter.  The Department of Education is supposed to be about helping children get ahead and improving the education level of our country.  It is not supposed to be a Godfather sending out his enforcers to collect debt.  This is the United States of America.  We do not have debtors' prisons here.

If anything, this should highlight to everyone the importance of keeping out of education debt as much as possible.

US News has come out with its latest college beauty pageant list... The World's Best Universities. *sigh*

Let me be as frank as I can be, I hate these US News lists with a passion reserved only for those who steal kids' dreams and force grandmothers to eat dog food in a cardboard box in Duluth, MN in January. Aside from being hopelessly flawed methodology, these lists instill false expectations in students. For many students, it means life crushing debt to live up to some unholy expectation of a super-life after graduating from the world's "elite" universities. For others, it means depression and hopelessness when they think their life is over because they couldn't get in to some select school as defined by some secret society in league with hellish allies.

It is not the college that defines the student! It is the student who defines their future. Do not pay attention to the lists. They are garbage!  

October 22nd, 2010
by Scott Anderson

Preliminary Award Letters typically show up with the notification of acceptance for admission to the college or shortly thereafter. They will typically say something like “Congratulations. Because of your excellent performance, we are honored to award you the President’s Special Scholar Award of $40,000.”

 $40,000! You just hit the jackpot! 

No… I don’t want to make light of the monies that the colleges are going to offer you, but you need to understand what these letters are and how they are written. These offers are most often based upon arbitrary academic indicators such as the student’s GPA, Class Rank, or Standardized Test Scores (ACT or SAT). Quite often, Colleges will have a set schedule of awards for particular performance. Such as if a student has a 26 on their ACT, the school would give the student $2,000. If the student has a 28 on their ACT, the school would give them $5,000; and so on.

These letters are also written in a way to make the offer appear as large as possible and increase the “wow” factor. Keep in mind, you have been accepted to the college, now the college is trying to get you to commit. The $40,000 in the above example is $10,000 per year over the next four years. It is not $40,000 per year or $40,000 up front. It would be one heck of an offer, but colleges do not give signing bonuses.

Preliminary awards are just that… they are preliminary. They are what the college knows they can offer up front before any of the financial paperwork is filed. As such, they most often become part of the Official Financial Offer after all the financial paperwork is processed. In some instances, the preliminary offer may only be one-half, one-third, or even one-quarter or less of the Official Financial Offer. There could be much more money coming.