Best Strategies for Winning More Scholarships and Financial Aid

Outstanding. So I am really looking forward to tonight's webinar. And tonight I wanted to introduce my right-hand woman, Miss Carrie Anderson, who is going to be helping answer questions, helping supporting you, and ultimately helping you navigate the process. So, Carrie, welcome.

Welcome, everyone. I'm excited to be here, and I'm here to help.

Outstanding. So we're gonna get started right on time. Go ahead and grab something to drink. I am then going to open up the screen and let you all get your mindset ready to go. So we're good to go. Let's go ahead and go to slideshow. Play from current slide. Okay, so as you're thinking about tonight, I'd like you to put which one of these things you would like to learn about. If you could only learn about one of them, what would it be? The ultimate desire that I have for you is that you get your questions answered. And I'm sure you would like A through H. I completely get that, and I, I'm hoping I can give you all that. But if I need to prioritize, I really wanna make sure. So please put A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H. And when you hit H, if you're like, oh my gosh, I just throw up my hands. I'm just overwhelmed and confused. Like, I need all of it. That would be your go-to for age.

Hey, Shellee Howard.

Yes.

Someone just said half the text is off the left side of the screen, but I see it fine. So I'm not sure what that's about.

Okay. Can somebody confirm other than Carrie that she can see the whole screen? Because I wanna make sure you get everything. It's not my intention to only show you part of it.

Okay. Someone else said that too.

Interesting.

I know that is interesting.

I wonder if it's because I'm on a normal screen versus my laptop.

But then other people can see it, which is strange.

Yeah. So I— it might be how you're viewing it. I will just let you know that I will verbalize everything. I'm not sure why some screens are formatting different, but I will definitely look into that. And also we're gonna send you the recording. So just know you're really not any— I promise the recording will be everything. So I apologize for that formatting uniqueness. But we're not gonna be on PowerPoint for long. So go ahead and put that in the chat if you have shared which of those is most important to you this evening. Second thing I'd like you to, to write down is where geography you're calling in from and what is the age of your students. I want to speak— if you're from Tennessee, I want to speak about Tennessee colleges. If you're from California, I want to make sure we add the UCs. If you're from Texas, I want to make sure we have Rice in there. So this is about you. I can take it any which way because I've been doing this so long. And so I really want you to get the most out of it. So again, answer A through H. A being 7 ways to decrease the cost of college. B being 12 factors that affect if your student will be awarded scholarships and financial aid. C, 8 ways to assure that your student gets an affordable college degree. D, 10 secrets to find and win scholarships. E, common mistakes that can cost you thousands of dollars on college and how to avoid them. F, what colleges are looking for in today's students. It's not what you think it is. G, the correct approach to filling out financial aid forms to protect your retirement and savings. And H, I'm just feeling confused, not prepared, frustrated, overwhelmed. And, you know, it's kind of competitive. So I want to honor you here. And then secondly, I definitely want to find out where you're located. Carrie, can you give some shoutouts of what people are answering so I can have an idea?

Absolutely. Okay. I saw North Carolina. Um, let me back up here. Okay, so we've got Southern California, California, New Jersey. Son is 17, junior, um, ages 12 and 9. Massachusetts, a 19-year-old. Washington, DC. Another Texas, 17 years old, 12 years old. We're all over the board, which I love. Absolutely. UT Austin. It sounds like he is already attending there. He's 19. Okay, 13 years old. Northern Virginia High School ages. New York City, 17. Arizona, 18 starting this fall. Oh my gosh, Nigeria. Excellent. Kids in Houston, 18 and 20. This is so awesome, you guys.

Okay, so that gives me a really good warm-up. So how I can help you best. So we're gonna go ahead and jump right in. I value your time. We are going to really focus in on those places and the age group. Now, because we have from 12 to 20, we're pretty much going to have the full spectrum. So I just want you to know it's not my choice. It's just everybody's here, and I, I want to honor that. So today, Carrie and I are going to be leading, and we're going to talk about the best strategy for winning more scholarships and financial aid. Carrie is going to be helping me on the backside if you have questions. I want to get through the information so then I can answer your questions live. So just know I may answer your question as I go through the presentation. And so we hope to get to everything to make your time valuable. So here we go. For those of you who don't know me, right, we have families all over the world. I like to tell families why I do these for free. College Ready was actually established in 2008. Actually, the summer prior to that application season. And why do I share that with you? Because this young man right here in the center, he was my why. He was my firstborn. He came home and he said, Mom, I know exactly what I want to do and where I want to go. And I was like, what? Who are you? I still don't know what I want to do. He says, yeah, Mom, I want to be a brain surgeon and go to one of those top colleges. Can you help me?. And it was truly a mic drop, like a, oh yeah, I got this, no problem. And that was why I do this, because back then there was nobody talking about this. Truly, it was something that was just starting to get on the radar. Now, 1 in 3 families use an independent college consultant. Why is that? Because schools are, are large, and, uh, high school consultants have heavy caseloads. They're dealing with the mental ill, they're dealing with the tardies, they're dealing with the truancies. They have a lot on their plate. It's not that they're not well-meaning, it's just there's not enough time in the day. And so I want to be totally transparent tonight. I want to teach you how you can do this. That's what I want to do. But if you're a parent like me and you're busy and you're working and you have other kids and you're like, I don't have time or desire to figure all this out, that's where I started in this process. So what did I do? I did what every good parent does. I went to his high school counselor and it was the summer going into 9th grade. And I said, listen, my son has some big goals. Can he tell you about them? And she goes, oh yeah, sure. And he says, well, I want to go to a, a top-tier college and I want to be a brain surgeon. And she looked at him and she said, why would you waste your time and money doing that? Insurances were ruined, that industry, and you won't make any money. And he looked at me, right? Big eyes, like, can you believe this is actually happening? And I was crushed because now it was up to me. Like you as a parent, right? We weigh this heavily. I remember there were nights I stayed up all night going, we don't have any medicine in our family. We have no idea how to get into a, a top-tier Ivy League school. So what did I do? I went back to school and I got my master's degree, and then I became a certified independent college consultant for UC San Diego. And then I started touring 25 colleges a semester, and I am still touring colleges 17 years later. I am going back to some of the ones I visited way back when to make sure that they haven't changed so, so much in 17 years. I'm here to tell you they have changed dramatically. So that's my why. But that even gets better. So that young man did exactly what I asked him to do. And I know that, that was kind of rare because I do have 4 kids. And he got into all of his colleges. He got only one no. And he had a full ride to USC and Harvard matched it. So for everybody who wants to— is thinking, thinking, thinking, how did he do that? Because Harvard doesn't give merit. Well, there's a thing called financial negotiation, and I'm going to share that with you tonight. And I lived it as a parent because I saved a lot of money in a 529, and I almost lost his scholarship because I was such a good saver. Don't go throwing your 529 out the window, please. I am not a financial advisor, and I am not trying to sell you any financial anything. So tonight you get to just relax and enjoy learning how you can help your child and then decide, do you want to do it? Do you want us to do it, or do you want your child to navigate it on your own? That's ultimately the 3 opportunities that I want you to consider. So the next student I want to talk about is this young lady right here at Ryan's graduation. And here's her graduation. She went to the University of Alabama and CBU, and she's now a registered nurse. And in, in the pediatric emergency room, just living her dream. Um, because she didn't have any college debt, she was able to buy a home at 25 years old. These are life-changing things that I'm trying to help families understand. And then of course there's the, the third, my second son. My stepson actually went through this process. He wanted to do it on his own. He was like, you know, my first, my first, my older sibling went to Harvard, the other one went to Alabama. I want to try this on my own. And so I honored that. And he just graduated in 3 years with a major and a minor, debt-free. And it has just been such a beautiful thing to watch. He did at the last minute panic and I had to step in, but You know, the bottom line is, because I had been planning and strategizing and talking to all of my kids, they knew what they needed to do. It was just a matter of doing it. And that's what I'm hoping to share with you tonight. So the first question I always get asked, when is the best time to start? And I'm going to give you two answers because there are two answers. The best time to start is when your child is mature enough to go into a museum and ask questions, or to go into a library and want a book. They have curi— intellectual curiosity. That's when the best time to start talking about colleges. So when you're visiting the East Coast, stop by Harvard or MIT or Boston or NYU. I mean, there's so many great schools. So that's the best time on one side. On the other side, if you want scholarships, the best time is now. We start students as young as 7th and 8th grade because those families want the big money. And it takes time, and it takes a plan, and it takes strategy. So for all of you on here who are seniors or in college and you're looking for the big money, as much as I want to help you, my, my limits are very limited. There's still hope, but it's not as easy as starting when they're in 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th. I'm gonna talk about the FAFSA and the SAI and the CSS Profile because we are specialists in return on investment of your education. So Carrie's here. I'm here. We're leaning in. We wanna help you, and we're gonna go ahead and dive right in. So, as I mentioned, this may be going off your screen, and I apologize. But in case you would like to know how we do this, I'm actually gonna show you right now how we do it. I'm willing to show you because I've created this process over the last 17 years. When I did it with my firstborn, it was 33 spreadsheets and a lot of tears. When I did it with my second born, I created what I'm going to share with you. So at the end of this workshop, I'm gonna be totally transparent. You can decide— I wanna do— you can decide that you wanna do this for or with your teenager, and I'll give you the pros and cons. Or you can decide you would rather do what you're good at, and I can show you all the different ways we can help you. We have 7 different options. Or you can leave this all up to your teenager and see what happens. All of those are opportunities, and that's what I'm hoping to show you. So I'm gonna go ahead and jump right in and share with you how we're able to help our students over the last 2 years get over $23 or— I think we're at $23 or $29. We're at a lot of millions. And so I really want to share what that looks like. So step 1 in this process is really helping your teenager figure out who they are, what matters. Carrie, can you see my screen okay?

I can perfectly.

Excellent. So we're gonna dive right in. The very first thing that you wanna do with your students, whatever age they may be, is you wanna talk about their future. But if you have any judgment at all in your tone, they're going to think that you maybe don't support them. So just kind of be aware in how and when you talk about this. I'm speaking from total experience of working with my own students or my own children. So here's the first thing we're going to talk about. We want your child to be more than just get into a college. We want them to be successful adults and reduce the overwhelm. We wanna help them and your family pick a major, pick a trade or a college, pick a career, don't go into debt, know if a robot's be— gonna be doing it in 5 years before they even apply to college. This can all be done. It's not something extra unique.. It's just knowing how to do it. So you can go to this website. I built it for you. It's called crfuturenow.com, and you can sit with your student and talk about this with them. And if it goes great, you're off to a great start. If it gets a little sideways, just know I'm always here for you. So the next thing is I'd like to let you know that I have a bestselling book. It's called How to Send Your Student to College Without Losing Your Mind or Your Money. And I wrote it because I lost a bet to my firstborn. When he handed me his diploma for Harvard, he said, Mom, where's the book that you promised? I cannot believe he remembered that that was our bet, but I did write the book and it became a bestseller. That book is available to you on Amazon, or if you make an appointment to meet with Carrie or myself. The next thing is our approach. We have several. We have group, we have do-it-yourself, we have online, we have one-to-one custom. We have all of it. It just depends on what your family needs. This is really about how we can support you. As I spoke a little bit about how this all got started, I wanna mention one last thing, and that is our mission. College Ready is on a mission to help over a million families get into college and graduate debt-free. We're also on a mission to making our world a better place, and we're doing this by mentoring our college-ready and See Our Future Now students. And this year alone, we have built 3 schools in Uganda, and I'm going to deliver in another 20 days 9 suitcases of their passion projects. So I can talk about this all day long. If you're curious, go to— can you put it in the chat for me? All right, let's dive in. So if this is your family dilemma, my teen has no plans for the future, they spend too much time on their cell phone, this is how we help them. The first thing we do with a student when we meet with them is we help them to figure out who they are, what matters to them, how others see them, how they see themselves. And then we do a bunch of assessments, but we don't stop there. We're able to then map out based on all of these assessments, what is the best career for their gifts and talents and advocacy. And then we map out, here are the best careers. Not only that, we tell them, here's how much money you can make at that career right out of high school or college. And will a robot be doing it in 5 years? Again, it's not just about throwing assessments at a student. It's helping them unpack it and helping them understand. Part of our program is teaching financial literacy, and our students can be certified as such. We help students who want to be influencers, entrepreneurs, tradespeople, college, Master's, PhD, all the way through. So just know we're all about your child's future, and we want to help map it out. You can do that as well. Here's the second most common problem that I hear from families: we don't know where to start. And this has really been a challenge because depending on where you're sitting in this Zoom room, you may feel frustrated that you didn't know about this sooner, You may feel relieved that you didn't wait until it was too late. But wherever you're at, just know, be the superhero for somebody else and let them know that this is available. It is so incredibly important that everybody knows what happened to my children is nothing different than can happen to yours. You know, my son graduating Harvard completely debt-free going on to UC San Diego Medical School, only taking on $30,000 in total. I'm sorry, I have somebody texting in from the webinar. Um, is super important to understand. He's 30 years old and he'll graduate with $30,000 total in debt as an orthopedic surgeon. That's return on investment, right? That's exactly what we're talking about. So I really want to be mindful that you can do this. My kids are no different than yours. So part of our program is education, and what we do is called the Knowledge Vault. This is one of our programs that we offer, but it's more about what you need to know. Your student needs an academic strategy. They need to have their assessments and careers outlined. They need a test strategy, a leadership strategy, extracurricular strategy, recommender strategy. Essay strategy. They need to understand how they're going to show colleges their positioning, their standout strategy. How are they going to show they're more than just a GPA and a test score? How are they going to customize and stay in their own lane? How are they going to prepare for college as a plan and not a second afterthought? And then ultimately having a financial strategy for how you will fund the gap. All of those are so important, right? And you're thinking, that's a lot, but that's not it. There are actually 97 things it takes to get prepared for college. And if you want to do it with scholarships, there's even more. So college is not like it used to be. I tease my family all the time. Back when I went to college, I applied to 2 schools, and the most stressful part is I couldn't find a stamp because it was a paper envelope. It's no longer like that. So if you're feeling like, gosh, maybe we need a little bit of support, okay, there's testing. You need to have a test strategy. Do you take the ACT, the SAT, the PSAT? How many times? What score? When to take it? Where to take it? How many times to take it? That's all very important. If you're looking for scholarships, we have a billion of them. Billion. I mean, there's so many amazing scholarships right now. There's a $10,000 scholarship if you're a vegan. There are some great large scholarships. For those of you shoppers in the, in the house, Nordstrom has a fantastic scholarship. They have to do it in their junior year of high school. So as you can see, like, there's just so many details and there's so many opportunities. How do you know where to start? I will tell you that the third most important part of this process is the essay. The essay is going to show colleges through their voice who they are and what matters, and it has to be done exactly well.. It has to be perfect. There's no texting the essay. There's no not answering the prompt, but just writing free. It has to be the way it has to be. Then there's this thing called demonstrated interest. This demonstrated interest is critical because colleges are now paying attention of how many times you've shown interest towards them. Maybe you're like, you know what, Shellee, I, I've got it. I might— my kid can get into college. I'm just worried about how I'm gonna pay for it. So I always tell families, if you don't— if they don't get in and they don't get the big institutional scholarships and they don't get the big independent scholarships, there's always the FAFSA. But if they don't get in, there's no worry about the FAFSA. So put the, the map in place to get the right kind of support. Now I'm going to talk about the family who's feeling overwhelmed. I'm going to dive a little bit deeper into here because of the way you answered the questions. I want to customize it to what it is your family needs. So I'm going to go ahead and pull up exactly how we do this our students. No secrets, Carrie. Can I do it?

Yes, you can.

All right, here we go. So I am going to share with you how we're able to support our students right here. This is called our vault. This is Vincent. He is my fake senior. I had this vault custom built after my son and I battled it out And it was tough, and thank goodness our relationship was intact. But Vincent, he's my student that I'm gonna share with you, and this is how we do it. So in here I have my 17 years of intellectual property. I have built a custom strategy for Vincent so he knows what research opportunities, what internships, what should he be doing over the summer? How should he prepare for testing? He has the opportunity to have a link to all the resources to get him anything that he needs. He even has a link to help him figure out his passions, his positioning, his standout strategy. So that's the first thing. The second thing is testing. I talked about when should you do it, how should you do it, where should you do it, all of that. Has a strategy to it, right? Other than that, how would a student know what test score they need? If— I will give you a hint— if your student doesn't get the test score they want on a practice test, they're not going to get it on a real test. Doesn't happen like that. Now let's talk about what it takes to get into the right school. You may be thinking, how is this going to do scholarships. I'm going to show you how we tie this in, how our students are able to get the big money. That is an important piece to all of this. So let's take a school like, I don't know, let's pick on Harvard. So Harvard, right, great school. Really important to look at the— how am I going to get opportunities for money here? First thing you'll notice, 87% graduate within 4 years. But what if you don't fall into that? Now you're talking about a whole nother year of tuition. So be mindful of all of the retention rates. Think about who applied, who admitted, and who actually enrolled. Then you can see on the GPA, if Harvard has an average of a 4.0 and your student has a 4.0, That's one of 7 things they're gonna get in and get money. Then you look at here, the test scores. If your students on the left have the score they need, there's no money. If they're in the middle, they have a good shot. If they're on the right, they have a really good shot. Are you starting to see how the money comes together? You can see the cost of attendance for Harvard right now is $83,000. Something, something. When my son went back in 2012, it was 63. So if this number scares you, it is a big number. But they are a generous school. 57% of students who are at Harvard are receiving some kind of grant aid. So we want our families to know before they apply what are their chances. And we want them to know How are they gonna get in? Because not every college has every major. This floors some students. They're like, but Harvard's a great school. And I'm like, I don't disagree. My son was regenerative biology and he was pre-med. So they had his major that he wanted, which was great. But if your student wants to do biostatistics, they don't have it. This is not a good school for a student who wants biostatistics. It is so important. Your student needs the academic fit, the social fit, and the financial fit for success. Here's where the parents get shocked. For Harvard, there are 13 essays for one college application. 13! You're thinking, that's one school. Yes. What does that mean to your student? That means they need 13 things to talk about. If they're spending all their time on a sport, they get to talk about the sport once, or being on stage once, or being ASB president once, whatever that is. That's important. So our students know when they sign up with this, here are the essays they're going to have to write. Here are the activities, honors, and awards they're gonna need. Here are the scholarship opportunities. This is all something that you can do on your own. You have to do the research. Just be careful what you Google because, as you know, you could end up in the wrong place. Then we, we want families to know that you need a plan because this can be incredibly overwhelming. Remember how, how I said there's a lot to get accomplished? And so we help students do 3 things at a time. We want them to know why they need to do it, when they need to do it, how they need to do it, and how to be successful at it. And so we prioritize it for them. We give them all the hyperlinks, the due dates, and the deadlines. Then when they're working on it, they move it over. We get updated. When they're completed, they move it to complete. The goal is When this column and this column become here, they're college ready. That's when the big money comes. Okay, are you starting to see that it's not just apply to a bunch of $100 scholarships? The whole strategy is all about money. This is where the big money comes in. So I'm sure you've heard of early action, restrictive early action, regular decision, early decision, priority decision, scholarship priority. All of those are reality, and every college gets to do 'em how they wanna do it. So if you are going to apply to Harvard as restrictive early action, you need to know that Harvard has rules about that. And if you apply that way and you don't follow the rules, even if you get into Harvard, you are disqualified. They have control. College is a business, and they're having control. The only way to gain control is knowledge, and that is why I do what I do. I want you guys to know this. When it comes to applying, there's nobody that's gonna tell your student how, when, where, how, what, why, any of it. So somebody, you, the student, grandparent, whomever, is going to need to figure out all of this information I'm going to show you. What application? What are the supplements? Do they need a high school transcript, mid-year grade report? What test scores? How to do— how to give the test scores? How to receive the letters of recommendation, the secondary school report? How to prepare for the interview, creative supplements, completing the FAFSA and the CSS Profile, all with due dates and deadlines. Then you're going to want to map out when the student is working on it, have they submitted it, when was it submitted, did they submit their test scores, what was their first major, what was their second major, and have they heard back. That is one school. So keep in mind that every single school has its own way of doing it. So you can see that some schools have a lot, Some schools have a little less. Some schools have a lot, a lot. And you are going to wanna make sure and double-check and triple-check, because if you're 1 minute late and the computer crashes, there's no forgiveness. Then I talked about assessments, and then I talked about writing. But what I will tell you about the writing is writing equals scholarship money. You're thinking, what? Yes, standout strategy equals colleges want them and they throw money at them. The essay is critical, and parents, this is where I'm going to help you understand. If you're gonna do this, be very, very careful. Colleges know if you're helping heavy-handedly write the essay or edit the essay. It used to be period, double space. Now it's period, single space. That can get an application from a maybe to a no in a hot second. If the college application and the essay have different, um, voices, then you're in a whole nother situation. They know somebody else is writing the essay. What we do is we help the student in, um, many different ways. We have strategizing, we have boot camps, we have one-to-ones, we have group sessions. We're helping them to figure out— here are all of their essays, here is everything that they've done, which ones do they need to match, and what story will they tell to help them stand out and be positioned properly. Again, you can do all of this. I want you to be— just know that These are opportunities, but your 17-year-old is not going to be prepared to do any of this. And unfortunately, I've never met a high school English teacher who is ready to take on this challenge because it's not a typical high school essay. It is a college application essay. And so those are the things that are going to be really important. How am I doing on time, Carrie?

We are at a little after 6:30.

Excellent. I've got some time, so I get to pour into you guys a little bit longer. So now we're gonna talk about how are— how do I get the scholarships? How do I get the big money, Shellee? That's what you're asking, and that's what I wanna give you. So here we go. I'm gonna jump right back in, and I'm gonna share with you how you can do this. All right, so we're going to start here, and we're going to play from here. All right, so first thing you may be asking is, hmm, what about— should my, should my student even go to college because it is so expensive? Well, that's something to think about. I always say, if then, what if they don't go to college? Let's talk about it. We're talking about what kind of job. How will they know what to do after high school? How will they make the most money they need to be successful in whatever adult life they choose? College will provide more opportunity in most cases, but not all. Some students will have connections they make in college that will keep them employed for the rest of their life. But what if they don't want college? What if they want a gap year? Well, so they can continue to live with their parents. They can go to a trade school. They can start their own business. They can be an influencer, or the big question mark. The big question mark is what plan is in place to help them with that question mark? That's important for everybody to have a conversation about. I'm gonna grab a quick sip. Okay, so here's the problem. College admissions is overwhelming. The solution is knowledge. I'm gonna go through this as quick as I can because I want it— I want to educate you all. Here's the important piece. You could learn to do your taxes or hire a CPA. Bookkeeper. You can sell your own home or you hire a realtor. You can prepare your child for college or you can get help. That's all we're talking about here. So now let's do it. So most people want to talk about how to pay for college. I just showed you how to get in very rapidly. Now I'm going to talk about the grants, the scholarships, and how to get that. So the first thing you have to understand is college is a business, and they need you as much as you need them. And I know that's hard to imagine, but I also want you to know that if they want your student, they will throw money at them. That is what I want you to take away. So in the email that you were sent out, I promised 7 ways to decrease the cost of college, and here it is. Number 1 is a strong GPA. With rigor. If your school offers AP or IB or dual enrollment, those are all very important. Test scores. I talked about dual enrollment and AP. Looking for colleges with strong merit scholarships. Choosing a college that will graduate in 4 years. Looking for out-of-state public colleges or international schools with special pricing. Look for private schools that meet 100% of need. The number one reason families go into debt is not having a balanced college list, and that is the critical piece. What affects college admissions? All of this does. It's not just a GPA and a test score. Now, keep in mind, at certain schools, if you don't have a certain GPA, you can't even get past the, the person who's just kind of weeding out the applicants. So you do need a GPA and a test score. But admissions has changed. Some schools look at a weighted GPA, some look at an unweighted, some look at only 10th and 11th, some look at only STEM. So you have to understand there's many ways that you're— you need to prepare to look at this college admissions process, right? There's the, the test scores, the class ranking, extracurricular activities. How are they unique? Essays, interest skills— yes, they really do care about their passion— letters of recommendation, diversity and leadership, and the college interview. These are all what affects college admissions. Many families will say, but Shellee Howard, on the U.S. News and World Report, it says this. What I want to share with you is you can't always believe what people want you to believe because admission yield is a very fabricated opportunity for colleges to look different than they actually are. And it's important that you educate yourself and your child of why they're applying to a school. If they said because it's ranked number 2 for engineering in U.S. News and World Report, That is not enough to believe it's a good fit for that student. So dig deeper. Colleges have what's called a strategic enrollment manager. And I want to share this in a minute, for a minute, because many families are online and they're listening to all of the hubbub about my child had a perfect this and a perfect that and they didn't get in. And that is because the Strategic Enrollment Manager, their job is to make sure that they don't have too many business students, that they don't have too many visual and performing arts students, because every major needs to be represented, right? I showed you not every college has every major. And so your student may be great, but there may be better ones in the small department that they have. So it's important to realize some of this may not make sense to you, but we completely understand how it works. I talked about a great GPA and how to stand out. I talked about test scores and the importance. For those of you whose students are still telling you they're optional, I would highly encourage you to persuade them to test prep and take a test. It is the quickest way to a free degree. They don't need a perfect test score, but they definitely need a test score. So let's talk about a case study, right? Here is a student because I want you to kind of see how this all goes together. So Marcus is a freshman in high school His dream is UCLA. He has a 4.1 GPA and wants to go into engineering. But Marcus also loves, loves, loves to play his guitar. And he really wants to be part of the music program. So what we did is we interviewed the music department at UCLA and found out they have trouble finding a bassoon player. Well, guess what? Marcus says, I would love to learn how to play the bassoon. Marcus got accepted and he received gift money. So understand that little things can make a big difference. It's what you don't know that's going to cost you. The essay, as I spoke about, is really about matching and highlighting the gifts and the talents and the advocacy of the student. You wanna look at their extracurricular, their passion, their talent, their leadership, their community service, their geography, their— what makes the student unique, how their recommenders will talk about them, and do some brainstorming. All very important. The roadmap to success needs to be a map. It's not, um, I want them to just go to schools in my state. That's not a strategy. That is confining, but that's all it is at best. And so I want you to think about analyzing school algorithms, what universities need and want, how to stand out from those students who are applying to that school and from your high school. Students have to stand out. Colleges want students to come in and make their school amazing. They're not looking for students to just come and take an education and leave. You need to understand that it's— the student is doing the hard work, but if they don't market themselves properly, colleges will never know how amazing your child is. This is probably the number one thing I see that goes wrong. When students do this on their own, and I'll give you an example. A student says to me, Shellee Howard, I am part of the National Honor Society. That is their activity that they want to post. What they haven't told me is, at their school, is it a pizza party after school, or is it a rigorous competition where, you know, 20 out of 580 students who applied by interview and essay got in where they do this and lead others to do this. And do you see the difference? If they don't tell colleges what it is, they don't know. At one school, NHS is a pizza party. At another school, it is a really intense process. They need to understand that socially What's on their Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn and Snapchat? All of this is up for grabs. They need to understand if they're a scholar athlete or an artist or performing artist, how are they going to put all that profile together? What are the scholar opportunity scholarship opportunities for that student? So what our student, our College consultants, what we do and what you can do as a parent is create a strategic college plan. Understand what are the best major choices for your child and how are they going to get into those majors and what is the best college. Have a strategic plan on when to take the test, where to take the test, how to take the test, and how to prepare to the— to get the test and the score they need. Help them to create a passion with purpose project that's gonna help them stand out and lead others to create change. Help them to know, is their extracurricular good, better, or best? Help them to know how are they going to map out their essays and what is going to help them stand out. Help them to know what are the best and most competitive colleges for financial negotiations and merit scholarships. Help them to know how to gain and align schools and family values, how to graduate in 4 years. Right now, California State schools are taking a minimum of 5 years with at least half the majors because they're so overcrowded. They're capping the units at 16 units a semester. If you do the math, they're not getting out in 4 years. That is opportunity costs of not having a job or retirement. Or a car, or being able to feed their themselves. You know, think about what does it mean for their major? Do they need to go to NYU if they're gonna be a botanist? Do they need to go to Harvard if they're gonna be an entrepreneur? There are strategies that everything needs to line up and have a plan. I promised you in 8 ways to assure that your student gets an affordable college degree. Ready? Here we go. Take the most challenging classes and get all A's. Do not just take the easy classes and get A's. That's not gonna get them money. Have a strategic plan. Test prep and prepare for your PSAT. If they score well their junior year, they have the potential of getting a free education. Take AP, honors, IB, dual enrollment, college classes, challenge themselves, right? Every college class they take now is a dual enrollment. They're not gonna have to pay for college credits, which could be $1,000 a credit. That's how you save the money. Have a strategy or plan as to which colleges to apply to. This is the number one way. Number 1, to assure that your student gets affordable college degree. Because if your student is applying to colleges based on the location or the football team, like my daughter did, or the dorms, or, you know, there's a million reasons, that's not a strategy. That is a guess. It's kind of like throwing darts at a dartboard. You may hit it, but chances are you're probably not. Plan your college search by using tools that are legit. There's a lot of bait and switch going on out there. Be very careful. Look for colleges with strong financial packages and track, right? Are they graduating their students in 4 years, and how many of them graduate with a job, a career? That is what I'm talking about. Leverage financial awards. That's it. What can you do? Right? This is you as a family. You can assess your family finances. I would encourage you to make an appointment with Carrie. Carrie, can you put your link in? We can tell you what colleges think you should be able to pay. We will run your student aid index at no charge. Our gift to you, because we don't want you to pick colleges that your family is not going to be able to afford. There's way too many great colleges out there. Decide whether the student's desire at college is a want or a need. Do they want to go here, or do they need to go here? Determine if your— if the major they pick will pay for their wants and needs after graduation. Right? I can't tell you how many teenagers I get to talk to when I ask them, what is it— how much will it cost to live on your own? They don't even know how much electricity costs, let alone how much it's going to cost to live on their own. That is a question that's very important because they can't take out a loan on their own. They have no assets. So that means you're co-signing for a loan for somebody who doesn't understand how much $300,000 in loans is going to them to pay back. Note the graduation rate. Understand, is that college successful? Learn about the acceptance rate at the college, and, and, you know, how should your student apply? Consider the size of the college. These are all strategies. So here's the question: do you know how much it will cost you if your child picks the wrong college. This is the transfer student, or maybe one student who's on here who's going, oh my gosh, I wish I would have known this way before I picked a college I can't afford. All the time, not picking on you, but this is how you do it. You have to be very careful because when you transfer, not every college class wherever you're at is going to transfer to the next college. And what I say College is a business. What does that mean? They're going to tell you as many times as they can, no, that won't transfer. No, that won't transfer. Why? They want you to pay for it at their school. This can be incredibly frustrating for a student. And yes, we help transfer students, but it is not the most efficient way of doing it. Even community college to a 4-year institution is not cheaper than doing it right the first time. So it's important to understand that. I spoke about this is not just for the wealthy. This is for everybody. We have programs that start for from $275 and go up. If that is a problem, college is going to take your breath away. So prepare and, and think about this. Here are some of the questions that you may be thinking. My student doesn't know what they want to major in. Is community college a better option? Right now, at many, not all, many community colleges, 6% are going on to get a 4-year degree because they can't get a class, so they get a job, they start making money., and then they don't want to be a starving student, and then they say, I like my job, I'm just going to stay here and not get my college degree. Or they meet their significant other in community college and they decide together that that's not what they want to pursue. So it's not just, is it better? It's, is it better for your child? Are Ivy League schools the best option? Absolutely not for every student. It was for sure for my firstborn. He was with his people, but it wasn't for my second born. And so it's important to know your student and where they're going to thrive academically, socially, and financially. Is a more expensive college going to ensure that my student gets a better job when they graduate? Absolutely not. It comes down to what does your student do with their major? After college. What if the career my student has chosen to pursue will not make enough money to cover their college debt? Then I would seriously look at doing another college major. If you stay till the end, I am gonna tell you my son's strategy to get into college and graduate debt-free. It is important for everybody to know that it is available. We're gonna switch gears now and really focus in on financial aid and scholarships. And I have just a few more minutes. So unfortunately, we're not gonna dig as deep as I want, but I will go through this very rapid. There's need-based, merit-based, and institutional-based. And it's important to know that your income is not too high. Your child's grades are not too low. Even if you own a home, there's money. There is aid for more than just special groups. It's not, um, it's not that hard to apply, um, and school— high school advisors are overtaxed and underpaid, and they're really struggling to help your student. Here are the 10 secrets to help you, and right after this, I'm going to answer questions. So go ahead and put your questions that you have in the Q&A or in the chat. And I will answer them as soon as I finish the section. So number 1, the reality is that most full-ride scholarships come from picking the right college, getting merit and/or athletic scholarships. It's important to understand that a student can use their athletics to get noticed. They can decide that that's not what they want to do, but academically, that is the surefire way to get money for college. Private scholarships are available to everyone. You can start applying to private scholarships when they are in middle school or college, all the way through college. So just know, right, the FAFSA looks at the second semester of the sophomore year and the first semester of the junior year. You want to get your financial house in order before then so You will receive the best scholarships. There are legitimate websites to help with the scholarship search. Be very careful to give your private information about owning a home or a car because you will be solicited. So just be mindful of who you give your email to. Number 4, look for scholarships for your employer, for employer credit unions, department stores, and even high school PTAs. There are no tricks but good old-fashioned hard work. I told my own children, treat this like a part-time job, and if it's not making you enough money, then you might want to consider a part-time job. All right, passions equal scholarships all day long. We teach our students at EmpowerEducation.World. If your student wants to belong to that, there is no cost. So here again, We're giving to your families because we want you to be successful. Number 7, there's lots of scholarships for your background. Number 8, if scholarships advertise no essays, be very careful and run. Number 9, if the student does not look for scholarships, they're not going to come looking for them. And so the last one is have your students follow the directions carefully. That's probably the number 1 thing I will tell everybody on this call. Is if you don't complete the FAFSA correctly, you're in the same boat as 91% of the people who complete the FAFSA. So that is the number one way to get big scholarships is complete the FAFSA and do it properly and correctly. And with that, I'm gonna go ahead and open it up to questions. Carrie, can you go ahead and share some questions with me? Sure.

The first one, have you worked with naval or airfare academies? If yes, what are your thoughts overall on that path?

So we have worked with a lot of students who want to go in as an officer, right? It can be any Air Force, it can be naval, it can— I mean, we've worked with all of them. The important thing to realize is it's like applying as an athlete or as a special major, because you need to have recommendations from certain people. You need to have set your strategy up to align with that type of school. So we have been very successful in that. We have currently have a water player right now for the Navy, and he's doing really well. So lots of opportunities. So yes. Happy to help.

Awesome. Okay, next question. Will applying for financial aid impact the changes of admission?

No, it will not. Now, keep in mind, there are, there are things on the internet that will tell you opposite of that, but I'm going to tell you what we're seeing is it's not. The only thing I will tell you, if you apply early decision, which is a binding decision, you will have to pay full price, and you'll have to get rid of all the other schools and not know if you've received any scholarships. So if you want any kind of money, be very careful. Early decision, right? It's binding. You're telling the college, if you let me in, I will pay you the full price, and it is a business. You have a 1.23% better chance of getting accepted. That is the reality of the stats that we're seeing. So, but let's think about this. Do you want to get into a school and pay full price that you can't afford? And now what are you going to do? That is a very scary proposition. Most schools are called need-blind, which means the financial aid department doesn't talk to the admissions department. And that is a fact. They really do toe the line because they're trying to give everybody the same opportunity. Great question.

Okay, next question. Can you help a student going into their sophomore year at a private university, very good grades, working in their field of psychology with children, single mother with her own business as a certified therapist, has some financial aid but could use more?

So if you mean help them financially, the only thing you have left is things like work study. So that is definitely something that I can help you with. You can do financial negotiations, you can do financial reconsiderations, and you can do independent scholarships. And that is all that's left. So everything I showed you is all for students who have not hit the button yes and then try to figure out how to pay it later. So those are the— there are options, but they are much more limited.

All right, Tamra, I am curious what my best resource is for navigating the FAFSA with a recent divorce in regards to EFC.

So right now, EFC is now called SAI, Student Aid Index. That's number one. Number two is you have to know what's on the FAFSA and what's not on the FAFSA. So Carrie and I can help you understand what that looks like. And the easiest way— I don't want you to have to share your personal story here with us. We are going to gift you a 30-minute discovery call, and we want to help you with those unique questions. At some schools, you'll have to complete the FAFSA, and only one parent and one child has to do it. At other schools, you're going to have to complete the CSS Profile. And the FAFSA, and both parents, no matter who they are, as long as they had that child biologically, is going to have to show their finances. That is a challenge. I understand that, and I can help you navigate that. But just know we're specialists in this. As if, if you ask the question of how you can do it, I would read the FAFSA at least 2 or 3 times, and then I would get to know what the FAFSA asks for and what they don't and how to set yourself up. All of this needs to happen before the second semester of your sophomore year in high school and the first semester of your junior year. Okay, it's a lot. I get it. You're probably working. One or two jobs, you're struggling to make ends meet. I understand, that was me, I get it. So just know we're here to help, but that is a reality. Um, FAFSA is very unique and it did change this year, so the things that were true last year are not true this year. Good question, Carrie.

Hey, next question: How do 529 accounts and other brokerage accounts under your child's name affect them receiving grants and scholarships?

It will kill them. I have no nice way to put it. It's going to hurt them. It's so sad. It— don't shoot the messenger. It breaks my heart. I was that parent when my son was born. I put a lot of money in a 529 because I wanted to be a responsible parent, and when Harvard found out they wanted to give his scholarship to somebody else, I quickly moved that money down to my second child. That took care of child number 1. Be strategic, be mindful, understand the 529 can be helpful for some families and it can sink your ship for other families. That is the, the, the reason why I became a specialist because it was my finances and my family and I had to figure this out. I completed the FAFSA 9 times., and I read it 3 times on my own. So please know you can do it. It's just going to take a lot of deep diving and a lot of commitment on your side.

Carrie, right? Uh, Rachel says, or is asking, when completing the FAFSA, do I need to put in spouse's info when they're not biological parent?

If you're married filing jointly, yes. Okay.

Um, let's see. How does your program work in terms of cost and when to start? My child is a rising 7th grader.

Awesome. So we start students as young as 7th grade all the way through. So we get students 7th grade, 8th grade, 9th grade, 10th grade, 11th grade, and 12th grade. We even get them up to 2 weeks before applications are due. Um, so really the best time is now. And we are going to gift you a 30-minute discovery call because I will be honest and let you know, is your child ready? And if not, I will give you resources and then I will circle back with you in 6 months and then we can reassess it. If a child's not ready, this can overwhelm them and become more of a problem than it is helpful. So it's important to understand just starting a student because everybody else is starting in 7th grade is not a great strategy. It's what, what's best for that individual child. Our program starts at $275 and goes on up depending on how much you want to be involved into it and how much you want to hand your student off and have us do it. So it really just depends on how much support that you need, and we're happy to show you all of the different options. We are completely transparent.

Alright, and let's see, Tiffany is asking, do colleges look at weighted or unweighted class rank?

Depends on the college. So every college is gonna do it different, and that's what I was explaining is College A may look at class ranking, but if your school doesn't rank, how are they gonna look at class ranking, right? So then they're gonna ask your counselor for a report., and that counselor is going to have to say at what percentage your child is in the class. It's the same thing as a class ranking, they just do it different. So every school is going to ask differently, and just know you're going to need to figure out how to calculate that GPA per school, per their requirements.

All right, and it looks like we have one more from Lisa. Do we offer essay editing service packages only?

Say that one more time, Carrie. I was reading the chat.

Okay, do we offer essay editing servicing packages only?

Um, we do offer them. Um, that is an option, but I am going to be straight up honest, where most mistakes are made is in the application because the student doesn't know how to brag or boast or to really align and, and have positioning So if you are looking for just essay editing, definitely reach out to, to us and we'll send you the essay editing packages. The essays need to be polished. We do not write them, we polish them. And be very clear about that because colleges know. Tell your student to keep AI out of the equation because they're ready. Go ahead, Carrie.

Um, last one here, I think I've covered them all, is from Ifeoma, and she said that she wrote us, um, an email today regarding support with her kids. So we'll respond directly to her via email. Ifeoma, thank you for your question again.

Outstanding. Well, thank you all for your time. I did it. I hopefully you got everything you're looking for. Carrie, can you put in the chat one more time how they can reach us? Because 30 minutes can answer a lot of these questions, especially about the FAFSA, the CSS Profile, the SAI. Could we— can answer, you know, if your child is doing all of these extracurriculars, right? Are they spending their time wisely? So we can assess how college-ready your student is in a very short time, and that is our gift to you. So thank you all so much. We're here to support you. We are grateful for your time, and thank you. Have a great evening.

Thanks, everyone.