Riverside Brookfield High School Tuesday, September 26, 2017 College Planning Tips for Senior Parents: Quality College Education at the Best Price Riverside Brookfield High School Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Goals of Presentation What needs to be done and when it needs to be done Helpful resources for exploring cost Suggestions for reducing cost Evaluating educational quality Tips for getting the most out of a college education

Timeline September October November December January List of colleges and what they need October Work on application FAFSA – Available October 1 – File by early app deadline below. CSS Profile - Available October 1 – Northwestern University November First round of deadlines (UIUC, UIC – 11/1, ISU – 11/15) December Many schools have a scholarship deadline of 12/1. January Second round of deadlines (UIC – 1/15)

Timeline February – Applications for RB local scholarships available on RB website March – Deadline for RB local scholarship applications April – Compare financial aid awards and visit colleges. May 1st – Reply to colleges with response by this date. Summer of 2018 – Still colleges accepting applications, Summer school class?

Deadlines When is the application due? Get materials in early. Personal Essay(s) if necessary Teacher Recommendation(s) if necessary ACT Scores – actstudent.org. Report all scores. SAT Scores – College Board Transcript FAFSA earlier better than later. Deadline for a decision is May 1st.

Cost Net Cost vs. Published Cost Net Cost is the key. Net Cost determined by income and merit. Good to have public schools on the list Net Price Averages* (Tuition, Room, Board): 4-year In-state Public: $14,210 4-year Private: $26,080 (*According to College Board in 2017)

Cost Out-of-state public colleges can be cheaper than in-state public colleges. Published Total Costs 2016-2017 on College Navigator In-State Public Schools Out-of-State* UIUC - $30,064 University of Nebraska-Lincoln - $22,322 (24 and 3.0) UIC - $30,034 Kansas - $27,445 (w/24 and 3.25) NIU - $28,964 Wisconsin-Milwaukee - $27,674 ISU - $28,197 Ball State (IN) - $25,833 (w/3.3) SIUC - $27,708 Central Michigan - $22,922 (w/2.75 GPA) WIU - $25,045 Winona State (MN) (w/25 ACT) - $21,427 EIU - $23,343 Murray State (KY) - $20,035 ($17,000 w/26 ACT) SIUE - $23,827 Northern Michigan - $20,064** University of Kansas - $21,500 (w/24 and 3.25) *Approximate **Some GPA and ACT/SAT minimums

Cost - Midwest Student Exchange Program Collection of private and public colleges offering discounts to IL residents Public colleges offer tuition at no more than 150% of the in-state rate Private colleges offer at least a 10% discount Example of Ball State

Cost Public colleges are not necessarily cheaper than private ones. Published prices usually are higher, but private colleges can be more generous with financial aid. Income and merit are prime determinants of aid. Example: University of Chicago tuition, room, board, fees, expenses Published Price: $68,942 Family with income of $85,000 cost is about $8,842 Family with income of $120,000 cost is about $16,742 Example: Monmouth College (Monmouth, IL) Published tuition, room, and board: $46,550 Income of $85,000, 28 ACT & 3.75 GPA, cost is $15,240 Income of $85,000, 22 ACT & 3.3 GPA, cost is $16,650

Cost Cast a wide net. Apply to about five to seven schools. One or two in-state public schools Four or five private schools Research what schools have more generous financial aid. (collegenavigator.gov) Use a college’s Net Price Calculator. (All colleges have one on their websites. Around 125 schools use College Board’s calculator.)

Cost – College Navigator Valparaiso (IN) Loyola (Chicago)

Cost – College Navigator – Hope (MI)

Cost – Net Price Calculator

Cost - Award Letters Consumer Finance Protection Bureau Example

Award Letter

American Opportunity Tax Credit Lifetime Learning Tax Credit Cost – Tax Benefits American Opportunity Tax Credit Lifetime Learning Tax Credit Tuition and Fees Tax Deduction Student Loan Interest Deduction

Evaluating Educational Quality Rankings? Forbes Gallup Poll National Science Foundation Daily Beast* US News WSJ #1 Williams Harvard Cal Tech Columbia Princeton Penn State #2 Stanford Harvey Mudd Amherst Texas A&M #3 Yale MIT Davidson Illinois #4 West Point Reed Dartmouth Purdue #5 Berkley Swarthmore Arizona State #6 Notre Dame Carleton Chicago Michigan #7 Georgia Tech #8 Grinnell Barnard Duke Maryland #9 Claremont McKenna Rice Penn Florida #10 UCLA Middlebury Carnegie Mellon *According to Daily Beast’s 2012“Most Rigorous Colleges” List

Evaluating Educational Quality Selectivity ≠ Quality Dale and Krueger (2011) - Comparison of Lifetime Earnings Between Similar Students Attending Highly Selective Schools and Those Attending Less Selective Ones Student’s personal qualities have most significant impact on lifetime earning potential. Pascarella and Terenzini (2005) - Student’s work ethic may play a larger role than a particular college’s quality. Gladwell (2008) - Last fifty Americans to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry or Medicine? Over half earned their bachelors’ degrees at large state schools or smaller, lesser-known schools.

Evaluating Educational Quality Nobel Prize Winners in Last Thirty Years Chemistry: UCLA, (2) Michigan, Nebraska, UC-Riverside, BYU, Georgia Institute of Technology, City College of NY (2) Augsburg, Lawrence, Berea, Ohio Wesleyan, Dayton, Rollins, Harvard (4), Chicago, Brandeis, Berea, Dartmouth, Rice, M.I.T., Grinnell, Stanford, Columbia Medicine: UC-San Diego, UC-Santa Barbara, UC-Berkeley, Minnesota, Texas, Washington (2), North Carolina, Illinois, Hunter (NY), Brooklyn, McGill (Montreal) Antioch, Gettysburg, Union (KY), Holy Cross (MA), Washington and Lee, Oberlin, Case Western, DePauw, Hamilton Brown, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Yale, Columbia (2), Cornell, Dartmouth, CalTech, M.I.T., Amherst

Evaluating Educational Quality Quality is difficult to define, but here is some other data to explore. CollegeResults.org Graduation Rate (collegenavigator.gov, collegeresults.org) U of I – 84%, ISU – 71%, NCC – 68%, DePaul 68%, NIU – 55%

Underrated and Overlooked Illinois Wesleyan (Average ACT 28) Hope College (26) Kalamazoo College (28) University of Minnesota – Morris (25) Elmhurst College (24) Lewis University (23) SIU-Edwardsville (23) DePauw (27) St John’s (MN) (26)

Fit Certain programs that are necessary? Location? Majors? Co-ops? Location? Philosophy of Education? Religious Orientation? Size? Setting?

Alternative Credit – AP, CLEP, Online AP Credit Marquette CLEP (College Level Examination Program) DePaul Community College (summers, online) Triton MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) https://www.coursera.org/specializations/learn-spanish https://www.udacity.com

Helpful Resources College Board College Navigator College Solution (collegesolution.com) College Results (collegeresults.org) RB Student Services Midwest Student Exchange Program (MSEP) FinAid.org Edvisors.com

Tips for College* Consider working. Visit multiple classes during the first two weeks of classes. Visit all your professors during office hours at least once. Learn how to write well. Write papers in three sittings. Don’t succumb to the “Two Cultures” by focusing on either humanities or science. Become proficient in both. Study abroad – the more foreign, the better Get to know at least one professor well. Make your bed. Learn outside the classroom. *Adapted from The Thinking Student’s Guide to College by Andrew Roberts

Thanks and Questions