THE HIGH SCHOOL BLOG

Now’s your chance to hear the creator of this blog, Reecy Aresty, live on WDEL 1150AM, Saturday, May 30^th from 11:00 am – 12:00 pm.  Join Spencer Graves as he interviews Reecy and call 478-WDEL or toll free from downstate and out of Delaware 800-544-1150.

For the past three decades Reecy has helped thousands of families send their kids to the college of their choice for less than they ever dreamed possible.  If you have a question on admissions and/or financial aid, call the show, Reecy will surely have an answer!

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Filed under: Parents, Reecy Reports, Students

Reported by R.G. Ratcliffe in The Houston Chroinicle

Texas’ main college opportunity financial aid program would add tough academic standards and not just be based on a student’s economic need beginning in 2010 under a plan approved Thursday by a state higher education governing board.

The change in the Texas Grants program voted on by the Higher Education Coordinating Board is contingent on the Legislature approving $77 million in additional funding for scholarships for students attending community colleges.

Higher Education Commissioner Raymund Paredes said changing the program to include higher academic standards would make the program fairer to students who apply for a Texas Grant. He said it also would make it easier to sell the Legislature on funding the program if it has a high success rate.

“I would like to make an argument to the Legislature that these are well-invested dollars,” Paredes said.

If the Legislature approves the additional funding, the new academic standards will be phased in over four years beginning in 2010.  For the rest of the story, click here.

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Filed under: 10th Graders, 11th Graders, Admissions info, Campus Briefs, Statehouse briefs

Arizona colleges poised to raise tuition 10% plus!

Reported by Anne Ryman in The Arizona Republicrent a car bulgaria

Double-digit tuition increases could be in store for all undergraduate students at the University of Arizona and for new students starting in fall 2009 at Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University.

But students at two of the three state universities, ASU and NAU, would get a bit of a break in future years as they would be part of a guaranteed-tuition program designed to give them more predictability over future costs.

Presidents of the three state universities announced their tuition recommendations this afternoon, which range from increases of 10 to 14 percent depending on the university. If approved by the Arizona Board of Regents in December, it would mark the first time that base undergraduate tuition and fees cross the $6,000 mark at ASU and the UA. For the rest of the story, click here.

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Filed under: 11th Graders, 12th Graders, Admissions info, Campus Briefs, Future Transfer students, Students, Tuition Updates

Reported by Peter Sacks in Newsday

“Society likes to think that the SAT measures people’s ability or merit. But no one in college admissions who visits the range of secondary schools we visit, and goes to the communities we visit - where you see the contrast between opportunities and fancy suburbs and some of the high schools that aren’t so fancy - can come away thinking that standardized tests can be a measure of someone’s true worth or ability.”

When I saw that quote in my morning newspaper the other day, I did a double-take to make sure I wasn’t in some odd parallel universe. The speaker wasn’t some rabble-rousing outsider to the higher education establishment - like me, for instance - taking another pot shot at the venerable SAT. No, that was William Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard, who was now rocking the SAT’s boat.

He was referring to his work on a commission sponsored by the National Association of College Admissions Counseling, which has called upon the nation’s colleges and universities to reconsider their heavy reliance on standardized admission tests like the SAT. For the rest of the story, click here.

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Filed under: 11th Graders, 12th Graders, Admissions info, Campus Briefs, Reecy Reports

It has come to my attention that many families are under the impression that they can simply ”forget” to include US savings bonds, Israeli bonds, or similar investments on the CSS Financial Aid Profile and/or the FAFSA.    However, doing so is “purposly giving false information” and “you may be fined up to $20,000, sent to prison, or both.”  The risk of paying a hefty fine and going to prison is far worse than the reward of receivng additional financial aid!

I have been told by reliable sources that for the past several years the IRS has been flagging student and parent social security numbers for the sole purpose of matching up US Treasury interest income on Schedule B of subsequent tax returns filed by the parents and/or the student, but only after the student has graduated from college.   During the college years, the financial aid office will get a copy of parent and/or student tax returns and notify the IRS if necessary.  How long they will keep these record is anyone’s guess, but I was told it would be for at least 10 years. 

Case in point - Many years ago, I had a client who had about $40,000 in US savings bonds.  He reasoned that since there was no reporting and his family would not need the money in the foreseeable future, he would just “forget” to report it on the FAFSA.  For 3 years all went well, and they qualified for $1,000’s in additional financial aid.  Suddenly, at the beginning of the second semester of the junior year, the father lost his job.  By the end of the year, they had cashed in all the bonds. 

When it came time to submit a filed tax return to justify the senior year financial aid, the roof fell in.  The financial aid administrator called the father questioning the $10,000+ in US Treasury interest income that appeared on their tax return.  It became obvious where this money had come from.

The bottom line - Since the bonds were owned by the parents, the student was allowed to graduate, but only on the condition that ALL fraudlently obtained financial aid was paid back within 30 days.  Had the bonds been owned by the student, she would have been expelled immediately.

DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!

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Filed under: 12th Graders, Financial Aid for Parents, Financial Aid for Students, Parents, Reecy Reports

Beginning with the 2009-2010 school year, new and returning students will no longer have to worry about need-based loans.  They will be replaced by university grants.

Way to go Vandy!

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Filed under: 11th Graders, 12th Graders, Campus Briefs, Financial Aid for Students, Future Transfer students, Reecy Reports

Reported by Sara Rimer - New York Times

A commission convened by some of the country’s most influential college admissions officials is recommending that colleges and universities move away from their reliance on SAT and ACT scores and shift toward admissions exams more closely tied to the high school curriculum and achievement.

The commission’s report, the culmination of a yearlong study led by William R. Fitzsimmons, the dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard, comes amid growing concerns that the frenzy over standardized college admissions tests is misshaping secondary education and feeding a billion-dollar test-prep industry that encourages students to try to game the tests.

A growing number of colleges and universities, like Bates College in Maine, Lawrence University in Wisconsin, Wake Forest University in North Carolina and Smith College in Massachusetts, have made the SAT and ACT optional. And the report concludes that more institutions could make admissions decisions without requiring the SAT and ACT.  For the rest of the story, click here.

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Filed under: 11th Graders, 12th Graders, Admissions info, Capitol Hill

Posted on Red Orbit By Michele DeVinney

Many parents begin worrying about sending their children to college as soon as they are born. Their kids, on the other hand, find their own time to begin considering their options. And, those options are plentiful, with private, public, in-state, out-of- state, liberal arts and technical schools all among the mix. It is not surprising that some teenagers would rather visit their Facebook page than begin thinking about life after high school.

But choosing a college does not have to be painful. It can actually be exciting. Approaching the matter openly will make the process rewarding and successful. A visit to a school guidance counselor early in their high school career can help students begin to plan for the future. The sooner students start looking ahead, the better their options will be when they start making choices.

“The minute you walk in the door, what you do matters,” says Heather Case, guidance counselor at North Side High School. “A lot of freshman just think ‘Whatever’ when you say that to them, but colleges are looking at everything from high school, not just grades. If a student received a detention for participating in a food fight his or her freshman year, when a college or university representative asks if a student received any detentions, then we have to say yes. If it’s a competitive school and it comes down to a choice between someone who didn’t get into any trouble and someone who did, it can determine whether or not the student is accepted.”  For the rest of the post, click here.

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Filed under: 11th Graders, 12th Graders, Admissions info, Students

Reported by Kimberly Miller - Palm Beach Post

Bucking decades of college tradition, Lynn University has ditched mainstay classes such as English 101 in a revolutionary effort to graduate better thinkers.

Students who start classes Monday at the Boca Raton school won’t find college Algebra on their schedules.

Freshman Biology? Gone.

Public speaking? History.

But before a pedagogical panic sweeps South Florida, one national expert says Lynn is actually a leader in a widespread trend to rewrite general education requirements taken in a student’s freshman and sophomore year - a makeover educators hope will answer the age-old Algebra II question of “Why do I have to know this?”

“Many campuses are finding that what they’ve got is a list of courses in different categories and a student picks one from here and one from there but nothing is connected,” said Terrel Rhodes, a curriculum and assessment specialist at the Association of American Colleges and Universities who is familiar with Lynn’s new course schedule. For the rest of the story, click here.

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Filed under: 11th Graders, 12th Graders, Campus Briefs, Future Transfer students

We apologize to all you who have or would have signed up.  We must re-schedule for next Thursday, and will offer everyone who signs up a special bonus. 

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Filed under: Reecy Reports