April Newsletter 2013: 4 Reasons to Take a Gap Year & More

Happy April!

It is decision time for seniors!

We are proud that Westface College Planning students have been offered admission and some nice award packages from numerous colleges including Beloit, Brandeis, Brown, Cal Poly, BU, Dominican, Chapman, Hampshire, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Lewis & Clark, McGill, Middlebury, Redlands, Santa Clara, St. Mary’s, Trinity, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Ursinus and many more.

If you’re having trouble choosing a school, don’t worry. In this month’s Senior Scoop we offer some tips to help in your final selection process.

My next webinar is scheduled for Saturday, April 13th at 9am. I’ll provide parents with information on how to develop best practices for selecting a school. Reserve your webinar seat today.

April is a popular month for college visits for families of seniors and juniors. Remember to take a break while on campus to sit and watch the students and get a real “feel” of the college.

All the best,
Beatrice Schultz, CFP®
Westface College Planning 
College Funding Specialist 

College Smart Radio: Tackling the Runaway Costs of College

Tune in to 1220am KDOW – the Wall Street Business Network from 3:00pm-3:30pm every Saturday for my radio show, College Smart Radio – Tackling the Runaway Costs of College. The show can be streamed live at www.KDOW.biz, too!

Curious what College Smart Radio covers? Tune in this Saturday when I discuss a new student website, “NerdScholar – An Unbiased Resource to Help Students Choose the Right School, Find Scholarships, and Navigate Their Financial Aid,” with my guest Joseph Audette, VP at NerdScholar.

Listen to last Saturday’s show in our College Smart Radio archives, where we discussed, “SoFi- A Resource Connecting Student and Graduate Borrowers with Alumni Investors,” with my guest Daniel Macklin, SoFi Co-Founder. It’s all important information you won’t want to miss out on.Thanks for listening!

Featured Find: Opinion: 4 Reasons to Take a Gap Year 

Ah, the freshman year icebreaker. Whether you’re enrolling in a Southeastern Conference University or a small liberal arts school, chances are you’ll spend your first two weeks of college hearing about other students’ summers while simultaneously forgetting everyone’s name. Wouldn’t it be nice if your own summertime icebreaker was a little more exciting than “I mastered freaky-fast sandwich making at Jimmy John’s?”

Enter the gap year. While no official statistics exist stating exactly how many American students take a year off between graduating from high school and starting college, both college counselors and independent programs note a rise in the gap year’s popularity. According to a 2010 Time magazine article, the number of Americans enrolling in Projects Abroad, a gap-year program that links students with volunteer jobs all over the world, had quadrupled since 2005. Yet stigma surrounding the gap year persists in the United States, with only 1.2% of first-year college students deferring admission to college for a year or more, according to 2011 data from the Higher Education Research Institute.

Read more here.

Photo Credit: kokorowashinjin

Upcoming “Tackling The Runaway Costs of College” Webinar & Workshops

Seating may be limited – Register to ensure your spot!

Most parents are not financially prepared to enter the most expensive time period of their lives, covering their child’s college education. Our 1-hour workshops provide steps you can take right now to assure you understand the cost of attendance and how you can afford college without jeopardizing your retirement.
Our next upcoming webinar and workshop are:

• Tackling the Runaway Costs of College – Webinar: Saturday, April 13, 2013 from 9:00-10:00a.m. online.
• Tackling the Runaway Costs of College – Workshop: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 from 6:30-7:30p.m. at Woodside High School.

Parents and students are welcome! Please visit our workshops page to learn more or click here to reserve your webinar seat today!

Senior Scoop: High School Seniors: Deciding on One College From All of Your Choices 

By the middle of April, all of your college acceptances will be in. I hope you are pleased with the outcome. If you have been accepted to your preferred college, then your decision is easy; done deal! Sometimes, though, that doesn’t happen and you must choose one college from a number of less favored options.

If you are unsure about which college you want to say yes to (just so you know, this is not unusual), this may signal that you don’t have enough information to make a good decision or that the information you have is incomplete or possibly disorganized. Here is a list of things to do that will help you make a good choice from Marjorie Hansen Shaevitz, Founder of adMISSION POSSIBLE.

Read them here.

Photo Credit: Justin Marty

Advice & Insight: Connect With Us For The Latest News

Are you following Westface College Planning online? Here are just a few things you missed:

Want to help your student understand how to afford college? Then check out these 5 tips on our Facebook page.

There is nothing more heart-breaking to a high school guidance counselor than for a motivated student to give up on their dream of going to college because they can’t afford it. Learn the scoop on my LinkedIn page.

Follow us on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn so you don’t miss any additional updates!

About Westface College Planning

At Westface College Planning, we are committed to helping parents through the process of making the right financial choices for their college bound students.

If you are a typical parent with college bound students, you’re probably overwhelmed by all the research necessary to help your sons and daughters make the right choices and prevent overpaying for their education.

You are not alone!

Our information packed one-hour workshops will help you:

• · Understand the true cost of college and how to afford it.
• · Learn the specific steps to take immediately to maximize financial aid.
• · Receive valuable information on scholarships and gift aid qualification.
• · Gain awareness on how to accurately compare the true cost of schools, public vs. private.
• · Develop best practices for school selection, and more!

More information at westfacecollegeplanning.com.