[{"video_title": "Applying to the right number of colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So, you always want to apply to three different types of schools. You want to apply to your REACH schools. Your REACH schools are going to be those schools that you're not necessarily confident that you can get into, but you have a strong pull towards wanting to apply to Yale, let's say. But you are a 3.8 GPA student, your SAT scores just aren't as strong enough and don't match what they outline as their requirements. You can definitely apply to those schools. We call them REACH schools, but you can write a compelling enough essay that you might catch the admissions department's attention to read over your essay and say, you know, we want to actually meet the students, see what the student is about, and bring them onto our campus. We think they have enough value and enough of a story in their background that they could bring diversity to our campus, something unique about them."}, {"video_title": "Applying to the right number of colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "But you are a 3.8 GPA student, your SAT scores just aren't as strong enough and don't match what they outline as their requirements. You can definitely apply to those schools. We call them REACH schools, but you can write a compelling enough essay that you might catch the admissions department's attention to read over your essay and say, you know, we want to actually meet the students, see what the student is about, and bring them onto our campus. We think they have enough value and enough of a story in their background that they could bring diversity to our campus, something unique about them. Then you have your FIT schools. Those schools that are right within range with your grades and your test scores. Then you have your backup schools."}, {"video_title": "Applying to the right number of colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "We think they have enough value and enough of a story in their background that they could bring diversity to our campus, something unique about them. Then you have your FIT schools. Those schools that are right within range with your grades and your test scores. Then you have your backup schools. So you are determined to go to college, that's where you want to be, and so we always want to make sure that you have some sort of backup just in case. So these might be your schools that perhaps don't meet as high a GPA or high scores as you have, and those are called safeties or schools that you can be pretty sure will admit you. We usually take the concept of applying for REACH schools, for best fit schools, and for backup schools."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "We're here to talk about how to know whether or not you qualify for need-based aid. Yeah, so the answer to this question is unfortunately complicated because the formula that the U.S. Department of Education and the schools themselves use to determine whether you or your family qualifies for need-based aid is also complicated. First of all, the government and the schools have to determine whether you are a dependent. That is, whether you have received over half of your support from your parents in the last couple of years. They will always look at your student income and assets, but if you are a dependent, which most high school students are, they will also look at things like your parents' income, the number of dependents your parents have, the type and kind of assets they possess, the age of your oldest parent, your parents' retirement contributions, and how many kids your parents have in college at the same time. Your EFC can also be strongly affected by whether family assets are in your student name or in your parents' name. Okay, so after you submit all this information, what do the government and schools do with all this?"}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "That is, whether you have received over half of your support from your parents in the last couple of years. They will always look at your student income and assets, but if you are a dependent, which most high school students are, they will also look at things like your parents' income, the number of dependents your parents have, the type and kind of assets they possess, the age of your oldest parent, your parents' retirement contributions, and how many kids your parents have in college at the same time. Your EFC can also be strongly affected by whether family assets are in your student name or in your parents' name. Okay, so after you submit all this information, what do the government and schools do with all this? So based on all this information, the federal government and schools will calculate something called your Expected Family Contribution, or EFC, which represents the amount of money they feel that you can afford to pay for one year of college education. For example, they might say that your family can afford $10,000 a year or $35,000 a year based on a computer analysis of all the factors I mentioned above. Unfortunately, and this is key, your EFC in no way really represents what your family can actually afford to pay for college."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "Okay, so after you submit all this information, what do the government and schools do with all this? So based on all this information, the federal government and schools will calculate something called your Expected Family Contribution, or EFC, which represents the amount of money they feel that you can afford to pay for one year of college education. For example, they might say that your family can afford $10,000 a year or $35,000 a year based on a computer analysis of all the factors I mentioned above. Unfortunately, and this is key, your EFC in no way really represents what your family can actually afford to pay for college. So many families are stunned at how much the government and schools feel you can afford to pay. That's why it's really important to get an estimate of your EFC as early in high school as possible so that you can figure out which schools you can really afford. And how is my EFC calculated?"}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "Unfortunately, and this is key, your EFC in no way really represents what your family can actually afford to pay for college. So many families are stunned at how much the government and schools feel you can afford to pay. That's why it's really important to get an estimate of your EFC as early in high school as possible so that you can figure out which schools you can really afford. And how is my EFC calculated? Your actual EFC is calculated when you fill out one, and sometimes two, important financial aid forms in the year before you go to college. The first form, called the VAVSA, is required by all American colleges and universities if you want any form of need-based assistance. Then in addition, some schools, about 250, require you to complete both the VAVSA and an additional form called the CSS profile, which stands for College Scholarship Service Profile."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "And how is my EFC calculated? Your actual EFC is calculated when you fill out one, and sometimes two, important financial aid forms in the year before you go to college. The first form, called the VAVSA, is required by all American colleges and universities if you want any form of need-based assistance. Then in addition, some schools, about 250, require you to complete both the VAVSA and an additional form called the CSS profile, which stands for College Scholarship Service Profile. This form is administered by the College Board, which is the organization that also administers the SAT and SAT subject tests. So if you have to fill out both the VAVSA and the profile, are you going to get one EFC calculated from that, or could they be different EFCs for each form? So if the school requires just the VAVSA, the U.S. Department of Education will calculate what's called your Federal Methodology EFC."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "Then in addition, some schools, about 250, require you to complete both the VAVSA and an additional form called the CSS profile, which stands for College Scholarship Service Profile. This form is administered by the College Board, which is the organization that also administers the SAT and SAT subject tests. So if you have to fill out both the VAVSA and the profile, are you going to get one EFC calculated from that, or could they be different EFCs for each form? So if the school requires just the VAVSA, the U.S. Department of Education will calculate what's called your Federal Methodology EFC. And then the schools that use the VAVSA will use this EFC to determine the kind of need-based aid you get from the federal government, like student loans or Pell Grants. And sometimes they will also use that federal EFC to determine what grants and scholarships you get from the schools themselves. However, roughly 250 schools require you to complete both the VAVSA and the CSS profile, and in those cases they will calculate a second EFC called the Institutional EFC that will be used to determine how much of these schools' own need-based aid they will give you."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "So if the school requires just the VAVSA, the U.S. Department of Education will calculate what's called your Federal Methodology EFC. And then the schools that use the VAVSA will use this EFC to determine the kind of need-based aid you get from the federal government, like student loans or Pell Grants. And sometimes they will also use that federal EFC to determine what grants and scholarships you get from the schools themselves. However, roughly 250 schools require you to complete both the VAVSA and the CSS profile, and in those cases they will calculate a second EFC called the Institutional EFC that will be used to determine how much of these schools' own need-based aid they will give you. A subset of schools that use the CSS profile also use a third methodology to calculate their own awards, and this is called the Consensus Methodology, as if you weren't confused enough. So in sum, you can actually have three different EFCs depending on the schools you're applying to. The VAVSA will calculate what's called your Federal EFC, and your Federal EFC will be used to determine how much federal aid you receive, in the form of student loans perhaps, or in the form of, for instance, Pell Grants or SEAD grants."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "However, roughly 250 schools require you to complete both the VAVSA and the CSS profile, and in those cases they will calculate a second EFC called the Institutional EFC that will be used to determine how much of these schools' own need-based aid they will give you. A subset of schools that use the CSS profile also use a third methodology to calculate their own awards, and this is called the Consensus Methodology, as if you weren't confused enough. So in sum, you can actually have three different EFCs depending on the schools you're applying to. The VAVSA will calculate what's called your Federal EFC, and your Federal EFC will be used to determine how much federal aid you receive, in the form of student loans perhaps, or in the form of, for instance, Pell Grants or SEAD grants. Schools that only use the VAVSA will use the Federal EFC to also calculate what they give you in terms of their own institutional aid coming from their own school. Schools that require you to fill out both the VAVSA and the CSS profile will actually calculate two different EFCs. And again, they'll use the Federal EFC to calculate your federal aid, but they'll use what's called the Institutional Methodology EFC to calculate what they will give you in terms of their own institutional aid."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "The VAVSA will calculate what's called your Federal EFC, and your Federal EFC will be used to determine how much federal aid you receive, in the form of student loans perhaps, or in the form of, for instance, Pell Grants or SEAD grants. Schools that only use the VAVSA will use the Federal EFC to also calculate what they give you in terms of their own institutional aid coming from their own school. Schools that require you to fill out both the VAVSA and the CSS profile will actually calculate two different EFCs. And again, they'll use the Federal EFC to calculate your federal aid, but they'll use what's called the Institutional Methodology EFC to calculate what they will give you in terms of their own institutional aid. And these EFCs can be very, very different from each other. And then a subset of the schools that use the CSS profile will potentially calculate a third EFC called the Consensus Methodology EFC. So for those schools, they may use the Federal EFC to calculate federal aid, and the Consensus Methodology EFC to calculate their own institutional aid."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "And again, they'll use the Federal EFC to calculate your federal aid, but they'll use what's called the Institutional Methodology EFC to calculate what they will give you in terms of their own institutional aid. And these EFCs can be very, very different from each other. And then a subset of the schools that use the CSS profile will potentially calculate a third EFC called the Consensus Methodology EFC. So for those schools, they may use the Federal EFC to calculate federal aid, and the Consensus Methodology EFC to calculate their own institutional aid. Got it. Okay. So which schools tend to use the CSS profile?"}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "So for those schools, they may use the Federal EFC to calculate federal aid, and the Consensus Methodology EFC to calculate their own institutional aid. Got it. Okay. So which schools tend to use the CSS profile? The CSS profile is used by a very specific list of about 250 schools. These schools tend to be the more elite private schools, although there are a few sort of flagship state public schools across the country that do use the CSS profile. These schools tend to be the most generous, actually, when it comes to need-based aid because they tend to be the schools that have larger endowments."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "So which schools tend to use the CSS profile? The CSS profile is used by a very specific list of about 250 schools. These schools tend to be the more elite private schools, although there are a few sort of flagship state public schools across the country that do use the CSS profile. These schools tend to be the most generous, actually, when it comes to need-based aid because they tend to be the schools that have larger endowments. However, because they have more money to give away, they're going to dig more deeply into each family's financial picture to figure out who needs the assistance the most. Okay, so what are the key indicators that are going to help me estimate what my EFC is going to be and whether or not my family and I are eligible for need-based aid? Generally the overriding factor in determining your EFC and obviously then your eligibility for need-based aid is your family's adjusted gross income, or AGI."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "These schools tend to be the most generous, actually, when it comes to need-based aid because they tend to be the schools that have larger endowments. However, because they have more money to give away, they're going to dig more deeply into each family's financial picture to figure out who needs the assistance the most. Okay, so what are the key indicators that are going to help me estimate what my EFC is going to be and whether or not my family and I are eligible for need-based aid? Generally the overriding factor in determining your EFC and obviously then your eligibility for need-based aid is your family's adjusted gross income, or AGI. And that's found on the last line of the first page of the federal tax return. Also, the number of dependents you or your parents have are going to affect that EFC strongly. And of course, the other thing that affects your costs are the annual cost of the school you will be attending."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "Generally the overriding factor in determining your EFC and obviously then your eligibility for need-based aid is your family's adjusted gross income, or AGI. And that's found on the last line of the first page of the federal tax return. Also, the number of dependents you or your parents have are going to affect that EFC strongly. And of course, the other thing that affects your costs are the annual cost of the school you will be attending. Basically, I always tell families that if their AGI is under $100,000 per year, they are definitely going to qualify for aid at almost every school, unless the value of their assets puts them over the need-based threshold. So what would be an example of that? So an example would be a family that has a relatively low AGI, let's say an AGI of $60,000 per year, but these parents own a whole lot of property in which they have a whole lot of equity, so the value of their assets is so high that even though their income is low, they're still not going to qualify for need-based aid."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "And of course, the other thing that affects your costs are the annual cost of the school you will be attending. Basically, I always tell families that if their AGI is under $100,000 per year, they are definitely going to qualify for aid at almost every school, unless the value of their assets puts them over the need-based threshold. So what would be an example of that? So an example would be a family that has a relatively low AGI, let's say an AGI of $60,000 per year, but these parents own a whole lot of property in which they have a whole lot of equity, so the value of their assets is so high that even though their income is low, they're still not going to qualify for need-based aid. Then, if your family has an AGI between $100,000 and $150,000, you should qualify again, they should qualify again for at least some aid at many institutions. Again, as long as the value of their assets isn't too high. For institutions that have the very highest costs, you might even qualify for a little aid between $150,000 and $200,000 of AGI."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "So an example would be a family that has a relatively low AGI, let's say an AGI of $60,000 per year, but these parents own a whole lot of property in which they have a whole lot of equity, so the value of their assets is so high that even though their income is low, they're still not going to qualify for need-based aid. Then, if your family has an AGI between $100,000 and $150,000, you should qualify again, they should qualify again for at least some aid at many institutions. Again, as long as the value of their assets isn't too high. For institutions that have the very highest costs, you might even qualify for a little aid between $150,000 and $200,000 of AGI. Above $200,000 of AGI, your family is probably going to qualify for very little need-based aid, if any at all, even at the most expensive schools. But of course, this also depends completely on the number of dependents you and your parents have. I've seen families with six kids, three of whom are in college, that will affect and reduce the cost of education for any one child."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "For institutions that have the very highest costs, you might even qualify for a little aid between $150,000 and $200,000 of AGI. Above $200,000 of AGI, your family is probably going to qualify for very little need-based aid, if any at all, even at the most expensive schools. But of course, this also depends completely on the number of dependents you and your parents have. I've seen families with six kids, three of whom are in college, that will affect and reduce the cost of education for any one child. And is there anywhere that I can go ahead of time to try and accurately calculate what my EFC is going to be? Yeah, that's a really good question. Schools are required by federal law to put a net price calculator on their websites, where you can go to calculate your EFC."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "I've seen families with six kids, three of whom are in college, that will affect and reduce the cost of education for any one child. And is there anywhere that I can go ahead of time to try and accurately calculate what my EFC is going to be? Yeah, that's a really good question. Schools are required by federal law to put a net price calculator on their websites, where you can go to calculate your EFC. Unfortunately, this law, when Congress wrote it, did not require schools to keep their cost information current. So unfortunately, many schools have calculators that are many years out of date. You can also find a fairly decent EFC calculator on the College Board's website at bigfuture.collegeboard.org."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "Schools are required by federal law to put a net price calculator on their websites, where you can go to calculate your EFC. Unfortunately, this law, when Congress wrote it, did not require schools to keep their cost information current. So unfortunately, many schools have calculators that are many years out of date. You can also find a fairly decent EFC calculator on the College Board's website at bigfuture.collegeboard.org. Again, it's not as accurate as I'd like it to be, but sometimes it's the best EFC estimator you're going to have. And once I complete the FAFSA and the CSS profile, will I know what my EFCs are right away? Interestingly, not always."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "You can also find a fairly decent EFC calculator on the College Board's website at bigfuture.collegeboard.org. Again, it's not as accurate as I'd like it to be, but sometimes it's the best EFC estimator you're going to have. And once I complete the FAFSA and the CSS profile, will I know what my EFCs are right away? Interestingly, not always. Once you complete the FAFSA, you will receive something by email called a Student Aid Report or SAR from the federal government, and it will list your federal EFC. Unfortunately, however, the College Board and schools that require the CSS profile never really tell you what your actual institutional methodology EFC is, even after you complete the profile. So this is the money that the schools will be giving you?"}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "Interestingly, not always. Once you complete the FAFSA, you will receive something by email called a Student Aid Report or SAR from the federal government, and it will list your federal EFC. Unfortunately, however, the College Board and schools that require the CSS profile never really tell you what your actual institutional methodology EFC is, even after you complete the profile. So this is the money that the schools will be giving you? Correct. It's not only the money they'll be giving you, but it's the number that they use to arrive at what they give you. So they have come up with this EFC, this Institutional Methodology EFC, but they don't always really tell you what it is unless you ask."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "So this is the money that the schools will be giving you? Correct. It's not only the money they'll be giving you, but it's the number that they use to arrive at what they give you. So they have come up with this EFC, this Institutional Methodology EFC, but they don't always really tell you what it is unless you ask. In other words, you won't find it on your financial aid award letter anywhere, and you actually have to call the financial aid offices and ask for how they arrived at your college costs because they just don't make it transparent. So are you saying that colleges always meet all costs over and above my EFC, or is that not the case? Yeah, again, it's complicated."}, {"video_title": "How do I know if I qualify for need-based aid.mp3", "Sentence": "So they have come up with this EFC, this Institutional Methodology EFC, but they don't always really tell you what it is unless you ask. In other words, you won't find it on your financial aid award letter anywhere, and you actually have to call the financial aid offices and ask for how they arrived at your college costs because they just don't make it transparent. So are you saying that colleges always meet all costs over and above my EFC, or is that not the case? Yeah, again, it's complicated. There are actually only about 60 schools in the country that will meet all of your costs over and above your calculated EFC. Most schools will only meet a percentage of your actual calculated financial need. Any percentage of need a school doesn't meet is your responsibility to pay."}, {"video_title": "Student story Standardized tests.mp3", "Sentence": "Personally, I'm not really a big test taker, so one of my biggest fears was being really scared and anxious when I would take the test. But then I took a step back and really reflected on, well, how am I going to give my best? I'm really close friends with a lot of girls, and thankfully we love to study together, so that was good to have people to rely on. And it was also important to not just take the test once, but take it multiple times so that we can just practice through longer periods of times. And we gave each other more than a month just to prepare. Preparation doesn't just happen overnight or in a couple weeks, but really understanding this is the date when the test comes and this is how long we're going to prepare for it. And with me, I decided to take both the SAT and ACT because I wanted to see whether I had a higher score in another test such as the ACT."}, {"video_title": "Visiting campus.mp3", "Sentence": "So, a lot of schools now are doing fly-in programs either in the fall before you even have applied or once you've applied and been admitted, they also may pay for you to come and visit then. So, it's, again, always worth asking questions. If you really want to visit a school, it's always worth calling that school and saying, hey, look, I'm a low-income student. Do you have any programs where I might be able to come and visit? And it's, again, a lot of schools will take an opportunity to try to get you onto their campus. Some may have an application process and some are competitive, some aren't as competitive. But again, it's definitely worth looking into."}, {"video_title": "Visiting campus.mp3", "Sentence": "Do you have any programs where I might be able to come and visit? And it's, again, a lot of schools will take an opportunity to try to get you onto their campus. Some may have an application process and some are competitive, some aren't as competitive. But again, it's definitely worth looking into. So, not all students get a chance to visit, but it's always worth asking questions to see if there are opportunities where the school may be able to help you do that so you can make some good decisions. Start visiting colleges just in your neighborhood, just so that you get a sense of the difference between a small school and a large school and a school that's an urban campus and a rural campus. So, looking for as many diversity variables will begin to give you a sense of what you like and where you think you're going to learn best."}, {"video_title": "Visiting campus.mp3", "Sentence": "But again, it's definitely worth looking into. So, not all students get a chance to visit, but it's always worth asking questions to see if there are opportunities where the school may be able to help you do that so you can make some good decisions. Start visiting colleges just in your neighborhood, just so that you get a sense of the difference between a small school and a large school and a school that's an urban campus and a rural campus. So, looking for as many diversity variables will begin to give you a sense of what you like and where you think you're going to learn best. Most students will say that a campus visit is one of the most important things they're going to do in helping them determine if the school is going to be a good match for them. But things you can do, typically on the website you can see most schools will offer daily information sessions and tours. I think that's probably a good starting point for a lot of students."}, {"video_title": "Visiting campus.mp3", "Sentence": "So, looking for as many diversity variables will begin to give you a sense of what you like and where you think you're going to learn best. Most students will say that a campus visit is one of the most important things they're going to do in helping them determine if the school is going to be a good match for them. But things you can do, typically on the website you can see most schools will offer daily information sessions and tours. I think that's probably a good starting point for a lot of students. Some of them you have to sign up ahead of time, some of you can just come to the campus and do that. And again, it's a good general starting point. There are some schools that will offer interviews."}, {"video_title": "Visiting campus.mp3", "Sentence": "I think that's probably a good starting point for a lot of students. Some of them you have to sign up ahead of time, some of you can just come to the campus and do that. And again, it's a good general starting point. There are some schools that will offer interviews. Some of them might be evaluative, some of them might just be informational. And again, you can decide is that a step you want to take, but doing interviews can be an important part for you to get feedback from a college admissions person about specific questions you have. But I would also definitely get off the beaten path this as well."}, {"video_title": "Visiting campus.mp3", "Sentence": "There are some schools that will offer interviews. Some of them might be evaluative, some of them might just be informational. And again, you can decide is that a step you want to take, but doing interviews can be an important part for you to get feedback from a college admissions person about specific questions you have. But I would also definitely get off the beaten path this as well. So if you have time, you may also want to be able to schedule some other kinds of things while you're there. So if you're really interested in theater, you might be able to schedule an opportunity to talk with somebody in the theater department and what the opportunities might be. You might want to just spend some time in the student center and sort of ask questions from some random students there who aren't part of the admissions office just to get their take on different kinds of things."}, {"video_title": "Visiting campus.mp3", "Sentence": "But I would also definitely get off the beaten path this as well. So if you have time, you may also want to be able to schedule some other kinds of things while you're there. So if you're really interested in theater, you might be able to schedule an opportunity to talk with somebody in the theater department and what the opportunities might be. You might want to just spend some time in the student center and sort of ask questions from some random students there who aren't part of the admissions office just to get their take on different kinds of things. You might have an opportunity to sit in a class. So if you're doing a school year, you might be able to schedule it where a lot of opportunities, a lot of schools will let you sit in on classes so you can get a take on that. So if you're interested in, I think I might want a big school, what is it like to be in a lecture hall of 300 students, you might get a chance to do that."}, {"video_title": "Visiting campus.mp3", "Sentence": "You might want to just spend some time in the student center and sort of ask questions from some random students there who aren't part of the admissions office just to get their take on different kinds of things. You might have an opportunity to sit in a class. So if you're doing a school year, you might be able to schedule it where a lot of opportunities, a lot of schools will let you sit in on classes so you can get a take on that. So if you're interested in, I think I might want a big school, what is it like to be in a lecture hall of 300 students, you might get a chance to do that. Find out what the class size, the class sizes, okay? Ask yourself, do I like being at a big college where a lot of students or does a smaller environment work for me best? What do the dormitories look like?"}, {"video_title": "Visiting campus.mp3", "Sentence": "So if you're interested in, I think I might want a big school, what is it like to be in a lecture hall of 300 students, you might get a chance to do that. Find out what the class size, the class sizes, okay? Ask yourself, do I like being at a big college where a lot of students or does a smaller environment work for me best? What do the dormitories look like? What are some of the classes that you'll be taking during your first year? What are the resources, for example, do they have, if I have problems, let's say with writing and my writing assignments. Do they have tutorials on that?"}, {"video_title": "Visiting campus.mp3", "Sentence": "What do the dormitories look like? What are some of the classes that you'll be taking during your first year? What are the resources, for example, do they have, if I have problems, let's say with writing and my writing assignments. Do they have tutorials on that? I would also, and I used to recruit for graduate students, but I would always say to students, ask if you can talk to other students. There are some schools that let you do an overnight. So you can actually spend a night there and see what a typical night is like."}, {"video_title": "Visiting campus.mp3", "Sentence": "Do they have tutorials on that? I would also, and I used to recruit for graduate students, but I would always say to students, ask if you can talk to other students. There are some schools that let you do an overnight. So you can actually spend a night there and see what a typical night is like. Go to the library, what is the dorm like at night? What are the kids talking about? So a lot of those things can be very helpful."}, {"video_title": "Visiting campus.mp3", "Sentence": "So you can actually spend a night there and see what a typical night is like. Go to the library, what is the dorm like at night? What are the kids talking about? So a lot of those things can be very helpful. The summertime is a really important, is a very popular time to visit because students are out of class and you have the opportunity to go, but a lot of campuses are very different in the summer, so you have to remember that. If you have the opportunity to go during the school year, that's probably ideal, but that's a little bit more difficult. So again, using a campus visit wisely can be incredibly helpful in the process."}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "Sean, one of the biggest things that students and also parents are really concerned about is how to pay for college. And one of the things that excites students and parents the most is free money, so scholarships and grants. Let's dig into that. Where does that money come from and how do students get it? Sure. So I think there's a couple different places that students can find that kind of money. One of the first ones might be merit-based aid."}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "Where does that money come from and how do students get it? Sure. So I think there's a couple different places that students can find that kind of money. One of the first ones might be merit-based aid. And merit-based aid is typically given by the college for students who have specific talents in certain kinds of things. So what sort of talents would actually get you that kind of aid? So there are schools that give out merit-based money based on really strong academics."}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "One of the first ones might be merit-based aid. And merit-based aid is typically given by the college for students who have specific talents in certain kinds of things. So what sort of talents would actually get you that kind of aid? So there are schools that give out merit-based money based on really strong academics. It might be on a musical ability or an artistic ability. It could be on leadership or community service experiences you've had. So there's multiple different ways that schools may give out that money."}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "So there are schools that give out merit-based money based on really strong academics. It might be on a musical ability or an artistic ability. It could be on leadership or community service experiences you've had. So there's multiple different ways that schools may give out that money. And I imagine then that sports scholarships, which are sort of some of the most well-known type of scholarships out there, probably fall into this type of merit-based scholarship then. Correct. And are schools the only place that give it or are there also other organizations where students can apply to get some merit-based scholarships?"}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "So there's multiple different ways that schools may give out that money. And I imagine then that sports scholarships, which are sort of some of the most well-known type of scholarships out there, probably fall into this type of merit-based scholarship then. Correct. And are schools the only place that give it or are there also other organizations where students can apply to get some merit-based scholarships? So there are definitely merit scholarships that come from private \u2013 or scholarships come from private companies and corporations and community groups as well. And again, they may be renewable. They may be just for one year only."}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "And are schools the only place that give it or are there also other organizations where students can apply to get some merit-based scholarships? So there are definitely merit scholarships that come from private \u2013 or scholarships come from private companies and corporations and community groups as well. And again, they may be renewable. They may be just for one year only. But again, there are many, many places where students can go and find different opportunities to apply for these, anywhere from maybe $500 to $30,000. Fastweb.com is a free site that's a great place that students can look online for different types of opportunities. And they generally tend to have a lot of local opportunities in their own community that their high schools probably have as well."}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "They may be just for one year only. But again, there are many, many places where students can go and find different opportunities to apply for these, anywhere from maybe $500 to $30,000. Fastweb.com is a free site that's a great place that students can look online for different types of opportunities. And they generally tend to have a lot of local opportunities in their own community that their high schools probably have as well. Great. And in addition to merit-based aid, you mentioned there was sort of another place where a lot of money comes from. Talk me through that."}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "And they generally tend to have a lot of local opportunities in their own community that their high schools probably have as well. Great. And in addition to merit-based aid, you mentioned there was sort of another place where a lot of money comes from. Talk me through that. The other kind of aid you will find is mostly need-based aid. And that's based on a very different set of criteria. And that need-based aid comes from sort of your family's income and family's situation."}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "Talk me through that. The other kind of aid you will find is mostly need-based aid. And that's based on a very different set of criteria. And that need-based aid comes from sort of your family's income and family's situation. And based on \u2013 off of that, schools will also offer money, need-based aid for you. So the way that that happens is schools are going to ask you to fill out some forms. The first one is called the FAFSA, the F-A-F-S-A, which stands for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid."}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "And that need-based aid comes from sort of your family's income and family's situation. And based on \u2013 off of that, schools will also offer money, need-based aid for you. So the way that that happens is schools are going to ask you to fill out some forms. The first one is called the FAFSA, the F-A-F-S-A, which stands for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. And remember that free part of that. There are a couple of sites out there that will happily do the FAFSA for you and charge you for it. So be sure you're on the right website, fafsa.ed.gov."}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "The first one is called the FAFSA, the F-A-F-S-A, which stands for the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. And remember that free part of that. There are a couple of sites out there that will happily do the FAFSA for you and charge you for it. So be sure you're on the right website, fafsa.ed.gov. That website is what you will use. There's one other form that a lot of schools use, and that's called the CSS Profile. And that's found on the College Board website."}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "So be sure you're on the right website, fafsa.ed.gov. That website is what you will use. There's one other form that a lot of schools use, and that's called the CSS Profile. And that's found on the College Board website. But those are two forms that look at your family's finances in a little bit different way. And based on those two forms, a college will determine how much your family should be able to contribute to need-based aid \u2013 to your education. So say that those two forms determine that your family can pay $10,000 towards a $60,000 education."}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "And that's found on the College Board website. But those are two forms that look at your family's finances in a little bit different way. And based on those two forms, a college will determine how much your family should be able to contribute to need-based aid \u2013 to your education. So say that those two forms determine that your family can pay $10,000 towards a $60,000 education. Then the school is going to come up with that extra $50,000 to make it possible for you to come. And how they do that \u2013 hopefully a good portion of that will be scholarship aid that you will not pay back. Great."}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "So say that those two forms determine that your family can pay $10,000 towards a $60,000 education. Then the school is going to come up with that extra $50,000 to make it possible for you to come. And how they do that \u2013 hopefully a good portion of that will be scholarship aid that you will not pay back. Great. And so, just to make sure I understand, you're going to fill out the FAFSA and maybe the profile for some schools. They're going to give some sort of estimation as to what your family can pay, and then the school is going to cover the rest. Right."}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. And so, just to make sure I understand, you're going to fill out the FAFSA and maybe the profile for some schools. They're going to give some sort of estimation as to what your family can pay, and then the school is going to cover the rest. Right. And remember that all those two forms do is determine an estimated family contribution. That's all they do. What the schools do with them varies greatly depending on their financial aid policies."}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "Right. And remember that all those two forms do is determine an estimated family contribution. That's all they do. What the schools do with them varies greatly depending on their financial aid policies. So again, hopefully \u2013 again, if there's a $50,000 need that is still there, the hope is that that will be a school that will give the great majority of that in scholarship aid, which you will not have to repay. Gotcha. And so this is where sort of those need-based scholarships come from."}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "What the schools do with them varies greatly depending on their financial aid policies. So again, hopefully \u2013 again, if there's a $50,000 need that is still there, the hope is that that will be a school that will give the great majority of that in scholarship aid, which you will not have to repay. Gotcha. And so this is where sort of those need-based scholarships come from. Correct. Once you fill out the FAFSA and it's coming sort of directly from the school \u2013 are the schools paying for it? Is that coming from the government as a combination?"}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "And so this is where sort of those need-based scholarships come from. Correct. Once you fill out the FAFSA and it's coming sort of directly from the school \u2013 are the schools paying for it? Is that coming from the government as a combination? Probably a combination. So there are federal funds that are available to students, especially from lower-income backgrounds. So that's sort of like the Pell Grant, the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, things like that?"}, {"video_title": "Types of grants and scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "Is that coming from the government as a combination? Probably a combination. So there are federal funds that are available to students, especially from lower-income backgrounds. So that's sort of like the Pell Grant, the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant, things like that? Correct. And then the schools usually have their own general scholarship fund that they also pull from as well. Great."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "Sean, one of the big decisions that students face is when to actually apply for college. Can you kind of walk me through how to think about that decision? Sure. So there are basically three different types of applying that students will do. One type of it is in early programs. A second is rolling admission. And the third is just regular admission."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "So there are basically three different types of applying that students will do. One type of it is in early programs. A second is rolling admission. And the third is just regular admission. Great. And what are sort of, what do each of those mean? What are the differences?"}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "And the third is just regular admission. Great. And what are sort of, what do each of those mean? What are the differences? So in the early process, there's typically three different programs that students may want to take advantage of. There's early decision, restrictive early action, and there's also just regular early action. Great."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "What are the differences? So in the early process, there's typically three different programs that students may want to take advantage of. There's early decision, restrictive early action, and there's also just regular early action. Great. And can you explain what each of those are? So the nice thing is that they generally all use about the same time frame. So generally the time frame is applications due sometime in early November, typically November 1."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. And can you explain what each of those are? So the nice thing is that they generally all use about the same time frame. So generally the time frame is applications due sometime in early November, typically November 1. And you generally will find out the decision sometime in the middle of December, usually around December 15. But then there are differences between the different programs. So within early decision, that is considered a binding process."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "So generally the time frame is applications due sometime in early November, typically November 1. And you generally will find out the decision sometime in the middle of December, usually around December 15. But then there are differences between the different programs. So within early decision, that is considered a binding process. So if you apply to the school by November 1 and you're admitted by December 15, the expectation is you're going to attend that school. With restrictive early action and early action, they are both programs that allow students to apply to them, be admitted, but then still make decisions on other schools. So you're not obligated to attend."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "So within early decision, that is considered a binding process. So if you apply to the school by November 1 and you're admitted by December 15, the expectation is you're going to attend that school. With restrictive early action and early action, they are both programs that allow students to apply to them, be admitted, but then still make decisions on other schools. So you're not obligated to attend. The difference between the two programs is restrictive early action, there are just a handful of schools in this category, but you can only apply to them and other public schools early. You can apply to how many ever you want, regular decision, but only that school and public institutions. Early action programs allow you to apply to as many other schools as you want to."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "So you're not obligated to attend. The difference between the two programs is restrictive early action, there are just a handful of schools in this category, but you can only apply to them and other public schools early. You can apply to how many ever you want, regular decision, but only that school and public institutions. Early action programs allow you to apply to as many other schools as you want to. There's no restrictions. Great. And so let me make sure I understand."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "Early action programs allow you to apply to as many other schools as you want to. There's no restrictions. Great. And so let me make sure I understand. So in early decision, if I apply there and I get in, I'm committed and I'm supposed to go. With both of the early action programs, I'm not committed. And so it's just a way to kind of figure out early if I'm in."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "And so let me make sure I understand. So in early decision, if I apply there and I get in, I'm committed and I'm supposed to go. With both of the early action programs, I'm not committed. And so it's just a way to kind of figure out early if I'm in. The only difference between restrictive versus non-restrictive is the restrictive, I'm not supposed to apply to other private schools early. Whereas in the non-restrictive early action, the standard early action, I can apply to anywhere else early. Pretty much."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "And so it's just a way to kind of figure out early if I'm in. The only difference between restrictive versus non-restrictive is the restrictive, I'm not supposed to apply to other private schools early. Whereas in the non-restrictive early action, the standard early action, I can apply to anywhere else early. Pretty much. Yep. Great. Makes a lot of sense."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "Pretty much. Yep. Great. Makes a lot of sense. So Sean, you mentioned rolling. Can you tell me a little bit more about how that works? Sure."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "Makes a lot of sense. So Sean, you mentioned rolling. Can you tell me a little bit more about how that works? Sure. So rolling programs are used mostly by sort of non-selective or selective schools. And generally within a, say, a four week or five week period, they will typically, if you would get all your material in by a date, four weeks later they will typically have a decision for you. And again, that's good for the school in terms of them starting to create their class."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "Sure. So rolling programs are used mostly by sort of non-selective or selective schools. And generally within a, say, a four week or five week period, they will typically, if you would get all your material in by a date, four weeks later they will typically have a decision for you. And again, that's good for the school in terms of them starting to create their class. And for you as a student, it may be certainly a school that you're interested in, but it allows you to get information earlier, like, yes, I'm admitted. I already can kind of put that in my yes category and maybe tail the rest of my list based off of that admission. Great."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "And again, that's good for the school in terms of them starting to create their class. And for you as a student, it may be certainly a school that you're interested in, but it allows you to get information earlier, like, yes, I'm admitted. I already can kind of put that in my yes category and maybe tail the rest of my list based off of that admission. Great. So it sounds like rolling is sort of a great way to get potentially an acceptance early on in the process. It is. And know you're going to college."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. So it sounds like rolling is sort of a great way to get potentially an acceptance early on in the process. It is. And know you're going to college. Yep. Awesome. And then the final thing you mentioned was regular decision."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "And know you're going to college. Yep. Awesome. And then the final thing you mentioned was regular decision. I take it that's sort of the standard way that people have applied to college in the past. Right. And again, the time frame varies a little bit, but most regular decisions usually are sometime in January that the application is due, into February, somewhere in there."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "And then the final thing you mentioned was regular decision. I take it that's sort of the standard way that people have applied to college in the past. Right. And again, the time frame varies a little bit, but most regular decisions usually are sometime in January that the application is due, into February, somewhere in there. And then generally you will find out by mid-March if you've been admitted or not. And again, the great majority of kids that apply to college will use a regular system. You may have heard, you know, you hear a lot about the early processes at these really, really selective schools, but the great majority of kids actually use the regular decision process."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "And again, the time frame varies a little bit, but most regular decisions usually are sometime in January that the application is due, into February, somewhere in there. And then generally you will find out by mid-March if you've been admitted or not. And again, the great majority of kids that apply to college will use a regular system. You may have heard, you know, you hear a lot about the early processes at these really, really selective schools, but the great majority of kids actually use the regular decision process. Great. Well, that actually kind of brings me to my next question, which is, who should be applying early versus rolling versus regular? And so let's actually start with early and specifically early decision."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "You may have heard, you know, you hear a lot about the early processes at these really, really selective schools, but the great majority of kids actually use the regular decision process. Great. Well, that actually kind of brings me to my next question, which is, who should be applying early versus rolling versus regular? And so let's actually start with early and specifically early decision. Right. Which students should be applying early decision? So since it's a binding decision you're making, you really have to do a good job of really doing your research and doing your homework and really knowing that that school that you're choosing is your top choice."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "And so let's actually start with early and specifically early decision. Right. Which students should be applying early decision? So since it's a binding decision you're making, you really have to do a good job of really doing your research and doing your homework and really knowing that that school that you're choosing is your top choice. So again, it's about making sure you go through the research process, maybe visiting, if not visiting, making sure you're on the web and really doing your homework. Especially as a low-income student, you also want to check all of these schools. Every school by law has a financial aid calculator on their website, and that can also help you figure out what your financial aid package may look like, because obviously you don't want to get into a binding situation of the financial aid that you don't think that will work for your family."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "So since it's a binding decision you're making, you really have to do a good job of really doing your research and doing your homework and really knowing that that school that you're choosing is your top choice. So again, it's about making sure you go through the research process, maybe visiting, if not visiting, making sure you're on the web and really doing your homework. Especially as a low-income student, you also want to check all of these schools. Every school by law has a financial aid calculator on their website, and that can also help you figure out what your financial aid package may look like, because obviously you don't want to get into a binding situation of the financial aid that you don't think that will work for your family. You also want to do your homework and make sure that the financial aid looks like it will work for your family. So if all of that lines up and you know it's your first choice, then that's a great reason to go ahead and try your luck applying early. So why exactly would I do that rather than waiting for the regular decision?"}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "Every school by law has a financial aid calculator on their website, and that can also help you figure out what your financial aid package may look like, because obviously you don't want to get into a binding situation of the financial aid that you don't think that will work for your family. You also want to do your homework and make sure that the financial aid looks like it will work for your family. So if all of that lines up and you know it's your first choice, then that's a great reason to go ahead and try your luck applying early. So why exactly would I do that rather than waiting for the regular decision? Will I have a better chance potentially? So a lot of these schools in the early decision process take a higher percentage of kids. And again, it may be an opportunity just for you to say, this is the school I want, I want them to know right up front."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "So why exactly would I do that rather than waiting for the regular decision? Will I have a better chance potentially? So a lot of these schools in the early decision process take a higher percentage of kids. And again, it may be an opportunity just for you to say, this is the school I want, I want them to know right up front. And if you get in, you're done by December 15th, you're not waiting until March, and you can sort of enjoy the rest of your senior year without worrying about the college piece. So there is a bit of a, in some areas, a strategic advantage to do something early. I will also say in the last three or four years, there still tends to be a lot of money left for students in the early process."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "And again, it may be an opportunity just for you to say, this is the school I want, I want them to know right up front. And if you get in, you're done by December 15th, you're not waiting until March, and you can sort of enjoy the rest of your senior year without worrying about the college piece. So there is a bit of a, in some areas, a strategic advantage to do something early. I will also say in the last three or four years, there still tends to be a lot of money left for students in the early process. As you get into the regular rounds, sometimes there's not quite as much financial aid left. So in some ways, you may actually have an opportunity to get a little bit more money in an early process. Great."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "I will also say in the last three or four years, there still tends to be a lot of money left for students in the early process. As you get into the regular rounds, sometimes there's not quite as much financial aid left. So in some ways, you may actually have an opportunity to get a little bit more money in an early process. Great. So let's actually move on to some of the other early options. You mentioned your restrictive early action, early action. In general, given that they're not binding, so the school won't know if you're going to be accepted, going there or not when they accept you, who should be applying early action?"}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. So let's actually move on to some of the other early options. You mentioned your restrictive early action, early action. In general, given that they're not binding, so the school won't know if you're going to be accepted, going there or not when they accept you, who should be applying early action? Again, I think it's an opportunity for students on the student side to say, hey, these are schools that I know I'm interested in. If you could find out some information by December saying, yes, I'm admitted to these two, but no, I didn't get into these two, it might help you in terms of how other schools you may want to apply to. Your early action school may be your very top choice school."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "In general, given that they're not binding, so the school won't know if you're going to be accepted, going there or not when they accept you, who should be applying early action? Again, I think it's an opportunity for students on the student side to say, hey, these are schools that I know I'm interested in. If you could find out some information by December saying, yes, I'm admitted to these two, but no, I didn't get into these two, it might help you in terms of how other schools you may want to apply to. Your early action school may be your very top choice school. And again, if you get in by December 15th, you may be thrilled and be done with the process. It also, for kids who are first generation or low income kids where financial aid is a big issue, it also doesn't lock you in. So you have the opportunity to get into that school, see what the package is, but then apply regular decision and see maybe if you get other packages that are better from other schools."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "Your early action school may be your very top choice school. And again, if you get in by December 15th, you may be thrilled and be done with the process. It also, for kids who are first generation or low income kids where financial aid is a big issue, it also doesn't lock you in. So you have the opportunity to get into that school, see what the package is, but then apply regular decision and see maybe if you get other packages that are better from other schools. Great. And what about rolling? And I think we talked about this a little bit, just to make sure that I'm clear."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "So you have the opportunity to get into that school, see what the package is, but then apply regular decision and see maybe if you get other packages that are better from other schools. Great. And what about rolling? And I think we talked about this a little bit, just to make sure that I'm clear. Who should definitely be applying rolling admissions or should at least be considering a rolling admissions school? So a lot of schools, again, that use the rolling process, not all, but a lot, it's an opportunity for you to get your information and application in early. They know you have some interest because you've done it, say, in September, October, November."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "And I think we talked about this a little bit, just to make sure that I'm clear. Who should definitely be applying rolling admissions or should at least be considering a rolling admissions school? So a lot of schools, again, that use the rolling process, not all, but a lot, it's an opportunity for you to get your information and application in early. They know you have some interest because you've done it, say, in September, October, November. And again, there may be a little bit more money left. And if you wait to the very end of the process, they may be running low on money for financial aid. So there may be an opportunity for you to really have some money available to you."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "They know you have some interest because you've done it, say, in September, October, November. And again, there may be a little bit more money left. And if you wait to the very end of the process, they may be running low on money for financial aid. So there may be an opportunity for you to really have some money available to you. The other things about all early programs, both rolling and early action, early decision programs, is they're not going to get a chance to look at a lot of your senior year work. So you better be really happy with your freshman, sophomore, and junior year work and have all your testing done that's necessary by those deadlines. Because if you don't, then you may want to wait until you get all of that in place and then apply regular decision."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "So there may be an opportunity for you to really have some money available to you. The other things about all early programs, both rolling and early action, early decision programs, is they're not going to get a chance to look at a lot of your senior year work. So you better be really happy with your freshman, sophomore, and junior year work and have all your testing done that's necessary by those deadlines. Because if you don't, then you may want to wait until you get all of that in place and then apply regular decision. Okay. So it sounds like both early and rolling, it's really for students who feel good about their freshman through junior year work, who don't feel like they need first semester senior year to show an improvement. Correct."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "Because if you don't, then you may want to wait until you get all of that in place and then apply regular decision. Okay. So it sounds like both early and rolling, it's really for students who feel good about their freshman through junior year work, who don't feel like they need first semester senior year to show an improvement. Correct. Let me make sure I get that down. And what about regular decision? Who are the people who should definitely just wait for regular decision and put some of these earlier rolling options aside?"}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "Correct. Let me make sure I get that down. And what about regular decision? Who are the people who should definitely just wait for regular decision and put some of these earlier rolling options aside? Again, I think if there's, in your research process, if you're not far along in it, you need a lot more time after November 1st to really do all your research, you're not going to be ready to really make a good application to an early decision or an early action or a rolling school. You really need to have done your research and know a little bit about that school to be able to talk in essays and all that sort of thing. So you need to have your work done to really be a good early applicant."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "Who are the people who should definitely just wait for regular decision and put some of these earlier rolling options aside? Again, I think if there's, in your research process, if you're not far along in it, you need a lot more time after November 1st to really do all your research, you're not going to be ready to really make a good application to an early decision or an early action or a rolling school. You really need to have done your research and know a little bit about that school to be able to talk in essays and all that sort of thing. So you need to have your work done to really be a good early applicant. If not, regular is a much better place for you to be in this process. Again, in general, if you really want to compare financial aid packages across a wide variety of schools, applying regular gives you, again, there's no binding, there's no thing that's going to be holding you down. And again, even though that may not happen in early action, you may not really find any schools that have early action programs that you're really excited about."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "So you need to have your work done to really be a good early applicant. If not, regular is a much better place for you to be in this process. Again, in general, if you really want to compare financial aid packages across a wide variety of schools, applying regular gives you, again, there's no binding, there's no thing that's going to be holding you down. And again, even though that may not happen in early action, you may not really find any schools that have early action programs that you're really excited about. So it may just be worth waiting until regular decision as well. Okay, great. And let me just make sure I've got it all clear."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "And again, even though that may not happen in early action, you may not really find any schools that have early action programs that you're really excited about. So it may just be worth waiting until regular decision as well. Okay, great. And let me just make sure I've got it all clear. So with early decision, I apply, it's binding, whatever they give me, I'm going to go. And are there any circumstances where I could get out of that? So there is a circumstance where, again, if it's for financial aid reasons, so say that you did a calculator, it looked like you were going to get a good package, but in actuality there were some things that happened in the financial aid package will not work for your family."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "And let me just make sure I've got it all clear. So with early decision, I apply, it's binding, whatever they give me, I'm going to go. And are there any circumstances where I could get out of that? So there is a circumstance where, again, if it's for financial aid reasons, so say that you did a calculator, it looked like you were going to get a good package, but in actuality there were some things that happened in the financial aid package will not work for your family. Schools will typically let you out of that decision, but generally then you're out of their pool as well. Okay, so those extenuating circumstances aside, I'm committed with an early decision application, but I get the answer early. And it may increase my chance of getting into a particular school a little bit."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "So there is a circumstance where, again, if it's for financial aid reasons, so say that you did a calculator, it looked like you were going to get a good package, but in actuality there were some things that happened in the financial aid package will not work for your family. Schools will typically let you out of that decision, but generally then you're out of their pool as well. Okay, so those extenuating circumstances aside, I'm committed with an early decision application, but I get the answer early. And it may increase my chance of getting into a particular school a little bit. Potentially. Potentially. There's early action options where I'm not committed, but I do get the information early."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "And it may increase my chance of getting into a particular school a little bit. Potentially. Potentially. There's early action options where I'm not committed, but I do get the information early. And again, for schools that kind of give financial aid on a, can run out of financial aid later on in the season, this might give you access to that financial aid earlier on. Potentially. Again, school by school, but potentially."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "There's early action options where I'm not committed, but I do get the information early. And again, for schools that kind of give financial aid on a, can run out of financial aid later on in the season, this might give you access to that financial aid earlier on. Potentially. Again, school by school, but potentially. Rolling admissions, they're kind of letting you in as you're applying, four to five week turnaround. Again, the earlier you kind of get that in, the better. You get the answer early, and you also may have access to additional financial aid, potentially."}, {"video_title": "Deciding when to apply Early vs. regular decision.mp3", "Sentence": "Again, school by school, but potentially. Rolling admissions, they're kind of letting you in as you're applying, four to five week turnaround. Again, the earlier you kind of get that in, the better. You get the answer early, and you also may have access to additional financial aid, potentially. And then regular decision is for folks who want to compare several offers, or maybe just a little farther behind in their process, and want to make sure that they kind of have everything set before they apply. Okay, great. Thank you so much, Jonathan."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Applying to college.mp3", "Sentence": "That's obviously a very memorable time in your life. So as you know from the other videos, I was pretty set on applying to MIT. So early on, and this was back in the pre-internet days, as soon as it was available, I contacted them. They mailed me the actual packet that you used to fill out. And I got it from the other schools that I applied to. And obviously, you fill out all the forms, your data, your standardized test scores. You had to send copies from the college board to those schools."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Applying to college.mp3", "Sentence": "They mailed me the actual packet that you used to fill out. And I got it from the other schools that I applied to. And obviously, you fill out all the forms, your data, your standardized test scores. You had to send copies from the college board to those schools. But then, when you're doing the application at that point, one of the things that you have a lot of control over, your grades and your standardized test scores are kind of already there, are your essays and your recommendations. And I remember the first pass that I took on my essay. And it was, I think I wrote something that I thought that they wanted to read."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Applying to college.mp3", "Sentence": "You had to send copies from the college board to those schools. But then, when you're doing the application at that point, one of the things that you have a lot of control over, your grades and your standardized test scores are kind of already there, are your essays and your recommendations. And I remember the first pass that I took on my essay. And it was, I think I wrote something that I thought that they wanted to read. And I had my sister review it, who was at that point an undergrad at Brown. And she said, Sal, this is a lame essay. You just look like another one of the thousands of applications that they're going to get."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Applying to college.mp3", "Sentence": "And it was, I think I wrote something that I thought that they wanted to read. And I had my sister review it, who was at that point an undergrad at Brown. And she said, Sal, this is a lame essay. You just look like another one of the thousands of applications that they're going to get. I know you as a person. You have a lot of personality. You're sometimes a little eccentric."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Applying to college.mp3", "Sentence": "You just look like another one of the thousands of applications that they're going to get. I know you as a person. You have a lot of personality. You're sometimes a little eccentric. Let that come out in the essay. Don't go too far. But show who you are."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Applying to college.mp3", "Sentence": "You're sometimes a little eccentric. Let that come out in the essay. Don't go too far. But show who you are. Don't try to be someone that you're not, on either extreme. And so she said, you're a singer in a heavy metal band. Let them know about that."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Applying to college.mp3", "Sentence": "But show who you are. Don't try to be someone that you're not, on either extreme. And so she said, you're a singer in a heavy metal band. Let them know about that. Express yourself. And so I did. And once again, I didn't go too far."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Applying to college.mp3", "Sentence": "Let them know about that. Express yourself. And so I did. And once again, I didn't go too far. I didn't try to be something that I'm not. I tried my best to show what I am. And I guess it did work out at the end."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Applying to college.mp3", "Sentence": "And once again, I didn't go too far. I didn't try to be something that I'm not. I tried my best to show what I am. And I guess it did work out at the end. The other piece, a very important piece, is the recommendations. And for me, my three recommendations, one came from Miss Kennedy, who was our advisor for the school newspaper. I was the art editor."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Applying to college.mp3", "Sentence": "And I guess it did work out at the end. The other piece, a very important piece, is the recommendations. And for me, my three recommendations, one came from Miss Kennedy, who was our advisor for the school newspaper. I was the art editor. So I had worked a lot with her. So she knew a lot about how I work, my personality, my strengths and weaknesses. My other recommendation was Mr. Hernandez, who was a math teacher, but was also the advisor for the math team."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Applying to college.mp3", "Sentence": "I was the art editor. So I had worked a lot with her. So she knew a lot about how I work, my personality, my strengths and weaknesses. My other recommendation was Mr. Hernandez, who was a math teacher, but was also the advisor for the math team. And I was the captain. So he could write a lot about, we'd gone on trips together and gone to competitions. So he knew me really well."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Applying to college.mp3", "Sentence": "My other recommendation was Mr. Hernandez, who was a math teacher, but was also the advisor for the math team. And I was the captain. So he could write a lot about, we'd gone on trips together and gone to competitions. So he knew me really well. And then my third recommendation was Dr. Jairo Santania, professor at University of New Orleans. I had taken several classes with him. And I'd also been a research assistant with him that previous summer."}, {"video_title": "Overview Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "I think it can be so overwhelming, just the sheer number of schools. When you open up a guidebook and the guidebook is more than a thousand pages long, you just wonder where do you even start? But I think students who keep an open mind can do really well in the process because there are so many wonderful institutions out there and probably schools that you might never have even heard of. So if you're willing to go outside of your comfort zone, if you're willing to go to a school that you maybe haven't heard of or in a part of the country that you're not really familiar with, you can really open up many, many doors for yourself. I think the process starts, you know, let's start with academics. And so a student thinking a little bit about what they've done in the last three or four years with their academics, the classes they've taken, which classes they've really liked. Is it because of the teacher?"}, {"video_title": "Overview Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "So if you're willing to go outside of your comfort zone, if you're willing to go to a school that you maybe haven't heard of or in a part of the country that you're not really familiar with, you can really open up many, many doors for yourself. I think the process starts, you know, let's start with academics. And so a student thinking a little bit about what they've done in the last three or four years with their academics, the classes they've taken, which classes they've really liked. Is it because of the teacher? Is it because of the subject? Is it because of the way it was taught? And really starting to think about, you know, what they may want to study in college and to think about, you know, the way that that material is delivered."}, {"video_title": "Overview Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "Is it because of the teacher? Is it because of the subject? Is it because of the way it was taught? And really starting to think about, you know, what they may want to study in college and to think about, you know, the way that that material is delivered. Was it in lecture format? Did they do more group work? Did they do discussion-based conversations?"}, {"video_title": "Overview Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "And really starting to think about, you know, what they may want to study in college and to think about, you know, the way that that material is delivered. Was it in lecture format? Did they do more group work? Did they do discussion-based conversations? And really thinking about what are the ways that they learn best, right? Ultimately for me when I'm talking with students, especially low-income students that are, you know, looking at this process with sort of, you know, not a lot of help in the process, really thinking about how to put yourself in a position to be really successful in college. So thinking through those sorts of things, thinking through a little bit about community, right?"}, {"video_title": "Overview Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "Did they do discussion-based conversations? And really thinking about what are the ways that they learn best, right? Ultimately for me when I'm talking with students, especially low-income students that are, you know, looking at this process with sort of, you know, not a lot of help in the process, really thinking about how to put yourself in a position to be really successful in college. So thinking through those sorts of things, thinking through a little bit about community, right? So what kind of community are you going to be in? Who's in that community? Where are they from?"}, {"video_title": "Overview Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "So thinking through those sorts of things, thinking through a little bit about community, right? So what kind of community are you going to be in? Who's in that community? Where are they from? Are they all from the local area? Are they from a national pool and an international pool? If you're an underrepresented student, an international student, those sorts of things, is there a population on that campus?"}, {"video_title": "Overview Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "Where are they from? Are they all from the local area? Are they from a national pool and an international pool? If you're an underrepresented student, an international student, those sorts of things, is there a population on that campus? If that's important to you, you know, you can look at those sorts of factors. Extracurricular activities, you know, the things that you're doing now in high school are the things you want to continue to do. So maybe you're a flute player and you want to continue to play in college, although you think you may want to be a biology major."}, {"video_title": "Overview Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "If you're an underrepresented student, an international student, those sorts of things, is there a population on that campus? If that's important to you, you know, you can look at those sorts of factors. Extracurricular activities, you know, the things that you're doing now in high school are the things you want to continue to do. So maybe you're a flute player and you want to continue to play in college, although you think you may want to be a biology major. Or is there a school where you can still be in the band and the symphony but be a biology major? Ask questions, anything that comes to your mind, ask the question. There's no question that somebody else hasn't thought about or that you should feel, oh, that's a stupid question."}, {"video_title": "Overview Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "So maybe you're a flute player and you want to continue to play in college, although you think you may want to be a biology major. Or is there a school where you can still be in the band and the symphony but be a biology major? Ask questions, anything that comes to your mind, ask the question. There's no question that somebody else hasn't thought about or that you should feel, oh, that's a stupid question. I won't ask them that. Sometimes I think students become stuck on one school when in fact there is no one perfect school out there for them. And in fact there are many, many, many schools that will be a good fit."}, {"video_title": "Watch out for scholarship displacement!!.mp3", "Sentence": "One thing you should know is that colleges can actually reduce their own financial aid package on a dollar-for-dollar basis by the amount of any outside scholarships you receive. So, for instance, if you received an outside scholarship from a private corporation or from a private philanthropic organization like the Soroptimist Club, this is called scholarship displacement or stacking. Now, if you receive an outside scholarship, the schools will first look potentially to see if you have any unmet need that they were not able to meet in their own financial aid packages. The vast majority of schools will allow you to reduce any unmet need you have with the outside scholarship before they reduce their own aid package. And then, if there is no unmet need, most schools will first reduce the loans they're giving you before they reduce the free money or the grants and scholarships. This is very individual to each school, however. It's great if they reduce the loan package because that means there's less money you have to pay back, especially when the private or outside scholarship is free money."}, {"video_title": "Watch out for scholarship displacement!!.mp3", "Sentence": "The vast majority of schools will allow you to reduce any unmet need you have with the outside scholarship before they reduce their own aid package. And then, if there is no unmet need, most schools will first reduce the loans they're giving you before they reduce the free money or the grants and scholarships. This is very individual to each school, however. It's great if they reduce the loan package because that means there's less money you have to pay back, especially when the private or outside scholarship is free money. However, again, it really depends on the school, and there are still a minority of schools who will actually reduce their own grants and scholarships by the amount of the outside scholarship. So, in that case, it really doesn't matter if you have the private scholarship or not. Either way, you're not going to get any more money."}, {"video_title": "Watch out for scholarship displacement!!.mp3", "Sentence": "It's great if they reduce the loan package because that means there's less money you have to pay back, especially when the private or outside scholarship is free money. However, again, it really depends on the school, and there are still a minority of schools who will actually reduce their own grants and scholarships by the amount of the outside scholarship. So, in that case, it really doesn't matter if you have the private scholarship or not. Either way, you're not going to get any more money. So an example would be, let's say a college gives you a $15,000 grant and a $15,000 loan, and you have a $10,000 outside scholarship from a private corporation. Hopefully, the college would reduce the $15,000 loan package first, so all of a sudden you're only having to pay $5,000 in loans back. But it is conceivable that they will reduce their grant package by $10,000, in which case it's kind of a wash in terms of having that outside scholarship."}, {"video_title": "Watch out for scholarship displacement!!.mp3", "Sentence": "Either way, you're not going to get any more money. So an example would be, let's say a college gives you a $15,000 grant and a $15,000 loan, and you have a $10,000 outside scholarship from a private corporation. Hopefully, the college would reduce the $15,000 loan package first, so all of a sudden you're only having to pay $5,000 in loans back. But it is conceivable that they will reduce their grant package by $10,000, in which case it's kind of a wash in terms of having that outside scholarship. Some aid they will never reduce. This is called first-dollar aid, and an example of that would be the Pell Grant, which is going to be $5,775 each year. In that case, the Pell Grant is a lump sum that is never reduced because the federal government really has enough money to cover that, regardless of whether you have outside scholarships or not."}, {"video_title": "Watch out for scholarship displacement!!.mp3", "Sentence": "But it is conceivable that they will reduce their grant package by $10,000, in which case it's kind of a wash in terms of having that outside scholarship. Some aid they will never reduce. This is called first-dollar aid, and an example of that would be the Pell Grant, which is going to be $5,775 each year. In that case, the Pell Grant is a lump sum that is never reduced because the federal government really has enough money to cover that, regardless of whether you have outside scholarships or not. You are required to report all of your outside private scholarships to your university. So you really need to check with those schools first before you go spending lots of time and effort on applying for outside scholarships to see how they treat outside scholarship in determining their aid packages or in reducing their aid packages. Also realize that outside private scholarships are usually, although not always, only one-year awards."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story College admissions.mp3", "Sentence": "I just wanted to welcome you to this resource on navigating the college, I guess, application, admissions, and paying for process. And, you know, for me, this is a super important thing. College was a big part of my life. Obviously, we all know you learn a lot in college, but it also opens up your mind. You have, it's important to be in a community that really challenges you between your peers, your professors. I met my wife in college. Many of the same people that I worked with in college, I remember I had a, I was in a entrepreneurship competition my junior year, and many of the people who were on my team then, I'm still working with now, 20 years later, on Khan Academy."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story College admissions.mp3", "Sentence": "Obviously, we all know you learn a lot in college, but it also opens up your mind. You have, it's important to be in a community that really challenges you between your peers, your professors. I met my wife in college. Many of the same people that I worked with in college, I remember I had a, I was in a entrepreneurship competition my junior year, and many of the people who were on my team then, I'm still working with now, 20 years later, on Khan Academy. And I, I think it'd be fair to say if I hadn't had that experience, Khan Academy might not exist. And because college can be such a mind-expanding and eye-opening experience, it's really important that everyone realizes that it's actually more accessible than most people think. When I was a kid, my mom raised us as a single mother, and I just assumed that we would never be able to afford a selective, private, four-year university."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story College admissions.mp3", "Sentence": "Many of the same people that I worked with in college, I remember I had a, I was in a entrepreneurship competition my junior year, and many of the people who were on my team then, I'm still working with now, 20 years later, on Khan Academy. And I, I think it'd be fair to say if I hadn't had that experience, Khan Academy might not exist. And because college can be such a mind-expanding and eye-opening experience, it's really important that everyone realizes that it's actually more accessible than most people think. When I was a kid, my mom raised us as a single mother, and I just assumed that we would never be able to afford a selective, private, four-year university. But my sister, who was three years older, when she applied to college, she got into actually several really good schools, and her first choice, when she applied, you know, when I looked at the actual dollar amount for the tuitions, there's no way, that was actually, the tuition at that university was more than my mom made in a year. But they gave my sister a financial aid package, some was contributed by my mother, but my sister had to take on a loan, do some work-study, but they made it so that she could go, and that opened the possibilities for me. When I, when it was my time, I applied where I thought that I could thrive the most, and I applied for financial aid, and like my sister, they made it possible for me to have that, that very rich and, and important experience in my own life."}, {"video_title": "Comparing public vs. private colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "Sean, can you tell us a little bit more about the difference between public and private schools? Sure. Private schools tend to be privately owned. Public schools are generally state run. The number of students in general, they vary quite a bit, but most public institutions tend to be larger, whereas private schools can be large schools as well, but also might be much smaller institutions as well. And that sort of correlates a little bit to class size. So at private institutions, one of the strengths of them tend to be that they keep their class sizes smaller, not all, but a lot will have, say, a class size of, say, 18 students in a class, whereas public institutions may have larger class sizes, more lecture style classes than, say, discussion style classes."}, {"video_title": "Comparing public vs. private colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "Public schools are generally state run. The number of students in general, they vary quite a bit, but most public institutions tend to be larger, whereas private schools can be large schools as well, but also might be much smaller institutions as well. And that sort of correlates a little bit to class size. So at private institutions, one of the strengths of them tend to be that they keep their class sizes smaller, not all, but a lot will have, say, a class size of, say, 18 students in a class, whereas public institutions may have larger class sizes, more lecture style classes than, say, discussion style classes. With those institutions, though, even one of the real strengths of public schools is they tend to be more affordable. Their overall price tag is less. But with private schools, a lot of them are pretty well funded, and so if you are a low-income student looking at this, and you see a price tag of $60,000 for an education, one of the things you want to make sure you look at closely, though, is what kind of financial aid do they have, because there are lots of private schools that do a very good job of financial aid and may cost the same amount as a public school."}, {"video_title": "Comparing public vs. private colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So at private institutions, one of the strengths of them tend to be that they keep their class sizes smaller, not all, but a lot will have, say, a class size of, say, 18 students in a class, whereas public institutions may have larger class sizes, more lecture style classes than, say, discussion style classes. With those institutions, though, even one of the real strengths of public schools is they tend to be more affordable. Their overall price tag is less. But with private schools, a lot of them are pretty well funded, and so if you are a low-income student looking at this, and you see a price tag of $60,000 for an education, one of the things you want to make sure you look at closely, though, is what kind of financial aid do they have, because there are lots of private schools that do a very good job of financial aid and may cost the same amount as a public school. I've actually been in several situations over my career where the private school was much less expensive than a public school. So there are different factors to look at as you compare both schools. Great."}, {"video_title": "Comparing vocational vs 2 year vs 4 year colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "And Sean did admissions at Williams, Occidental, Harvard, and Stanford, as well as working with several community-based organizations. Sean, thanks so much for being here today. Happy to be here. Thanks. So Sean, we want to get started with one of the first questions that students often face in the college admissions process. And that is sort of vocational programs versus two-year programs versus four-year programs. What are they and sort of what do they offer?"}, {"video_title": "Comparing vocational vs 2 year vs 4 year colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "Thanks. So Sean, we want to get started with one of the first questions that students often face in the college admissions process. And that is sort of vocational programs versus two-year programs versus four-year programs. What are they and sort of what do they offer? Let's go ahead and get started with vocational programs. What are they all about? So vocational schools tend to teach specialized trades, things like plumbing, heating, potentially automotive skills, and so forth."}, {"video_title": "Comparing vocational vs 2 year vs 4 year colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "What are they and sort of what do they offer? Let's go ahead and get started with vocational programs. What are they all about? So vocational schools tend to teach specialized trades, things like plumbing, heating, potentially automotive skills, and so forth. And so students who are looking at this area coming out of high school tend to be wanting to focus in, have a real specific interest, want to get that training. The training may be anywhere between six months and potentially two years. And then they come out with very applicable skills in a particular area."}, {"video_title": "Comparing vocational vs 2 year vs 4 year colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So vocational schools tend to teach specialized trades, things like plumbing, heating, potentially automotive skills, and so forth. And so students who are looking at this area coming out of high school tend to be wanting to focus in, have a real specific interest, want to get that training. The training may be anywhere between six months and potentially two years. And then they come out with very applicable skills in a particular area. Great. And Sean, how does the vocational program differ from a two-year or a four-year college degree? Right."}, {"video_title": "Comparing vocational vs 2 year vs 4 year colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "And then they come out with very applicable skills in a particular area. Great. And Sean, how does the vocational program differ from a two-year or a four-year college degree? Right. So a two-year or a four-year degree is a two-year degree is an associate's degree. That's generally what you get when you finish a two-year program. When you finish a four-year program, you typically get a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science, so a BS or a BA."}, {"video_title": "Comparing vocational vs 2 year vs 4 year colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "Right. So a two-year or a four-year degree is a two-year degree is an associate's degree. That's generally what you get when you finish a two-year program. When you finish a four-year program, you typically get a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science, so a BS or a BA. In a two-year program, the sort of strengths of that tend to be they give students a little bit of flexibility. You can go part-time. You can go full-time."}, {"video_title": "Comparing vocational vs 2 year vs 4 year colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "When you finish a four-year program, you typically get a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science, so a BS or a BA. In a two-year program, the sort of strengths of that tend to be they give students a little bit of flexibility. You can go part-time. You can go full-time. It allows students who may need to work or may just not be sure that higher education is the direction they want to go in. It lets them sort of take some courses without making a bigger financial commitment right away. So it has that."}, {"video_title": "Comparing vocational vs 2 year vs 4 year colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "You can go full-time. It allows students who may need to work or may just not be sure that higher education is the direction they want to go in. It lets them sort of take some courses without making a bigger financial commitment right away. So it has that. You can get more specialized degrees. You can come out ready to be a dental hygienist or go into law enforcement, different things like that. Or you can take more of a broader program and maybe want to then transfer on to a four-year school."}, {"video_title": "Comparing vocational vs 2 year vs 4 year colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So it has that. You can get more specialized degrees. You can come out ready to be a dental hygienist or go into law enforcement, different things like that. Or you can take more of a broader program and maybe want to then transfer on to a four-year school. So you can take the two years that you got, say you were studying biology as something you're really interested in, and then apply that towards a four-year degree. So you're already two years into it, and you have two years left at a school that has a four-year degree. Great."}, {"video_title": "Comparing vocational vs 2 year vs 4 year colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "Or you can take more of a broader program and maybe want to then transfer on to a four-year school. So you can take the two years that you got, say you were studying biology as something you're really interested in, and then apply that towards a four-year degree. So you're already two years into it, and you have two years left at a school that has a four-year degree. Great. So then why would students choose, for instance, to go to a four-year degree directly rather than starting with a two-year degree? It's going to give you a bit more, I think, flexibility and probably more options. So usually they have a broader curriculum at these kinds of schools."}, {"video_title": "Comparing vocational vs 2 year vs 4 year colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. So then why would students choose, for instance, to go to a four-year degree directly rather than starting with a two-year degree? It's going to give you a bit more, I think, flexibility and probably more options. So usually they have a broader curriculum at these kinds of schools. It allows you to sort of have other options as well. So things like arts, music, theater, athletic opportunities that are there, potentially abroad opportunities as well. And this four-year degree can be in a variety of different areas."}, {"video_title": "Comparing vocational vs 2 year vs 4 year colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So usually they have a broader curriculum at these kinds of schools. It allows you to sort of have other options as well. So things like arts, music, theater, athletic opportunities that are there, potentially abroad opportunities as well. And this four-year degree can be in a variety of different areas. And those areas, though, will give you more\u2014that degree after four years will give you more flexibility. Most employers now look at a four-year degree as sort of the starting point in their hiring process. Great."}, {"video_title": "Comparing vocational vs 2 year vs 4 year colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "And this four-year degree can be in a variety of different areas. And those areas, though, will give you more\u2014that degree after four years will give you more flexibility. Most employers now look at a four-year degree as sort of the starting point in their hiring process. Great. And are there specific careers you can think of where a four-year degree is required? So the beauty of a four-year degree is it's going to really, I think, prepare you in a lot of different areas. Things like graduate programs in medical school, law school, business school, those sorts of things."}, {"video_title": "Comparing vocational vs 2 year vs 4 year colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. And are there specific careers you can think of where a four-year degree is required? So the beauty of a four-year degree is it's going to really, I think, prepare you in a lot of different areas. Things like graduate programs in medical school, law school, business school, those sorts of things. It also allows you to go into a whole host\u2014probably the spectrum of jobs that are out there. A four-year degree is sort of that starting point to get into those different areas. So if it's in technology, if it's in education, if it's in law, if it's in medicine, if it's in whatever, that sort of degree that's really going to give you that sort of starting point."}, {"video_title": "Comparing vocational vs 2 year vs 4 year colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "Things like graduate programs in medical school, law school, business school, those sorts of things. It also allows you to go into a whole host\u2014probably the spectrum of jobs that are out there. A four-year degree is sort of that starting point to get into those different areas. So if it's in technology, if it's in education, if it's in law, if it's in medicine, if it's in whatever, that sort of degree that's really going to give you that sort of starting point. Great. And so it sounds like, if I'm understanding correctly, the four-year degree really gives you a lot of flexibility after you've finished, whereas the two-year degree is really flexible in part while you're doing the degree itself. It is, and it's going to be a little bit more limiting."}, {"video_title": "Comparing vocational vs 2 year vs 4 year colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So if it's in technology, if it's in education, if it's in law, if it's in medicine, if it's in whatever, that sort of degree that's really going to give you that sort of starting point. Great. And so it sounds like, if I'm understanding correctly, the four-year degree really gives you a lot of flexibility after you've finished, whereas the two-year degree is really flexible in part while you're doing the degree itself. It is, and it's going to be a little bit more limiting. There won't be as many job opportunities. There's lots of job opportunities that are very much suited for an AA degree, but there's going to definitely be a limit in terms of all these other opportunities that are really looking for a four-year degree. Great."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on diversity.mp3", "Sentence": "Many colleges now, if not all, have information and what they call demographics of the student population. And that's important for you to look at because that's one of the kind of scary transitioning to college is, gee, everybody is different from me. And that can be frightening. And you need that support of other students who share your background. So that becomes... And you also want to know, as much as you can find out, is how much the university or the college is putting resources into supporting students from different backgrounds. Okay? So look into that."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on diversity.mp3", "Sentence": "And you need that support of other students who share your background. So that becomes... And you also want to know, as much as you can find out, is how much the university or the college is putting resources into supporting students from different backgrounds. Okay? So look into that. Find out if there's a diversity office. So find out if there are other academic resources there. Find out how do they recruit students from different backgrounds."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on diversity.mp3", "Sentence": "So look into that. Find out if there's a diversity office. So find out if there are other academic resources there. Find out how do they recruit students from different backgrounds. That all will give you indicators of how serious and committed the college is about supporting students from different backgrounds. And that becomes very, very important. You want to succeed when you go to college."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "And I think the way to think about an interview is very much a conversation. Admissions people, by nature, are chatty people. They like getting to know you. They're not really looking to catch you in anything. They want to have a good conversation with you and see what you're interested in and really try to get to know you. So coming into that interview, I was always looking for students, A, who had, one, done their homework about my school. So did they come in knowing a lot about my institution and ready to sort of talk about that, how it fits them, but also how they might contribute to it."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "They're not really looking to catch you in anything. They want to have a good conversation with you and see what you're interested in and really try to get to know you. So coming into that interview, I was always looking for students, A, who had, one, done their homework about my school. So did they come in knowing a lot about my institution and ready to sort of talk about that, how it fits them, but also how they might contribute to it. Talk about your experiences. Talk about what you've been involved with. Add a layer of depth that we wouldn't know if we just read an essay or saw the activity listed on a resume."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "So did they come in knowing a lot about my institution and ready to sort of talk about that, how it fits them, but also how they might contribute to it. Talk about your experiences. Talk about what you've been involved with. Add a layer of depth that we wouldn't know if we just read an essay or saw the activity listed on a resume. If you want to apply to selective and highly selective schools, you need to learn how to talk about yourself. That's a skill, and especially doing it in a verbal way. A lot of students, I would say to them, it could be very easy if I said, tell me a little bit about how your best friend would describe you."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "Add a layer of depth that we wouldn't know if we just read an essay or saw the activity listed on a resume. If you want to apply to selective and highly selective schools, you need to learn how to talk about yourself. That's a skill, and especially doing it in a verbal way. A lot of students, I would say to them, it could be very easy if I said, tell me a little bit about how your best friend would describe you. In your head, you could probably come up with several examples and things they might say, but to say that out loud for the first time might be a difficult thing to do. I know a lot of students who would actually not like that question at all because they don't like talking about themselves. If I gave them the option of, you can write me a two-page paper about how your best friend would describe you, or you could stick yourself in the eye with your pen."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "A lot of students, I would say to them, it could be very easy if I said, tell me a little bit about how your best friend would describe you. In your head, you could probably come up with several examples and things they might say, but to say that out loud for the first time might be a difficult thing to do. I know a lot of students who would actually not like that question at all because they don't like talking about themselves. If I gave them the option of, you can write me a two-page paper about how your best friend would describe you, or you could stick yourself in the eye with your pen. What would be less painful? A lot of kids would go, boom, be done, and be excited about that because they're not used to talking about themselves. So going into an interview, you definitely want to be thinking about, what am I comfortable with?"}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "If I gave them the option of, you can write me a two-page paper about how your best friend would describe you, or you could stick yourself in the eye with your pen. What would be less painful? A lot of kids would go, boom, be done, and be excited about that because they're not used to talking about themselves. So going into an interview, you definitely want to be thinking about, what am I comfortable with? How can I talk about myself? And in different areas of my life, so my academic life, my extracurricular life, maybe a little about my family. These are all areas that interviewers might talk about."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "So going into an interview, you definitely want to be thinking about, what am I comfortable with? How can I talk about myself? And in different areas of my life, so my academic life, my extracurricular life, maybe a little about my family. These are all areas that interviewers might talk about. What you want to do to prepare yourself is not think of it as a formal job interview, but an opportunity for you to learn more about the institution and to discuss your interest in that institution, why you're applying to that school. Maybe there's a particular program or a particular professor that you're interested in learning more about that really sort of encouraged you to apply to that institution. Prepare yourself by becoming prepared with questions to ask that interviewer."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "These are all areas that interviewers might talk about. What you want to do to prepare yourself is not think of it as a formal job interview, but an opportunity for you to learn more about the institution and to discuss your interest in that institution, why you're applying to that school. Maybe there's a particular program or a particular professor that you're interested in learning more about that really sort of encouraged you to apply to that institution. Prepare yourself by becoming prepared with questions to ask that interviewer. And don't ask them questions you can get out of the guidebook. Ask them questions that they can answer personally. A lot of times, it might be a recent graduate."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "Prepare yourself by becoming prepared with questions to ask that interviewer. And don't ask them questions you can get out of the guidebook. Ask them questions that they can answer personally. A lot of times, it might be a recent graduate. Ask them what their experience is like. Was it what they thought it was going to be like? What has it been since they've graduated?"}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "A lot of times, it might be a recent graduate. Ask them what their experience is like. Was it what they thought it was going to be like? What has it been since they've graduated? Have they liked the alumni network in terms of helping them get jobs? If it's somebody who's my age, you can ask them a little bit about how long have you worked here? What's your take on this school?"}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "What has it been since they've graduated? Have they liked the alumni network in terms of helping them get jobs? If it's somebody who's my age, you can ask them a little bit about how long have you worked here? What's your take on this school? What do you think the strengths are? Or look, I'm really interested in double majoring. I know I can, but how easy is that?"}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "What's your take on this school? What do you think the strengths are? Or look, I'm really interested in double majoring. I know I can, but how easy is that? Because that's hard to differentiate in the catalog. A really hard thing is, can you tell me a little bit about what you think the philosophy of student life is here? I think that's a great question to ask, because that's really what students want to get at."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "I know I can, but how easy is that? Because that's hard to differentiate in the catalog. A really hard thing is, can you tell me a little bit about what you think the philosophy of student life is here? I think that's a great question to ask, because that's really what students want to get at. But especially if they're in the summer and kids aren't around, that's really hard to figure out. And of course, be prepared to answer questions about yourself, about what interests you, what you love about not only school, but your other interests and hobbies, and also to engage that interviewer in a more conversation-like setting. They're not going to sit there and shoot various questions at you."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "I think that's a great question to ask, because that's really what students want to get at. But especially if they're in the summer and kids aren't around, that's really hard to figure out. And of course, be prepared to answer questions about yourself, about what interests you, what you love about not only school, but your other interests and hobbies, and also to engage that interviewer in a more conversation-like setting. They're not going to sit there and shoot various questions at you. They might ask you a couple questions, but it really is just to get a conversation going. Admissions officers are going to ask you questions in the academic arena, right? So and that's fair game."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "They're not going to sit there and shoot various questions at you. They might ask you a couple questions, but it really is just to get a conversation going. Admissions officers are going to ask you questions in the academic arena, right? So and that's fair game. So what are you excited about? What subjects have you really loved in high school? Are those things you want to continue with in college?"}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "So and that's fair game. So what are you excited about? What subjects have you really loved in high school? Are those things you want to continue with in college? Is there a certain teacher or a certain way of teaching that's really got you excited about this? I think all of that is fair game. I always talk to students and say, look, make sure you're able to articulate why you love math."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "Are those things you want to continue with in college? Is there a certain teacher or a certain way of teaching that's really got you excited about this? I think all of that is fair game. I always talk to students and say, look, make sure you're able to articulate why you love math. Not just that I'm a math guy, but why? What gets you excited about math? And why do you think you'd be a good fit to, what about the Williams math program would be really exciting for you here?"}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "I always talk to students and say, look, make sure you're able to articulate why you love math. Not just that I'm a math guy, but why? What gets you excited about math? And why do you think you'd be a good fit to, what about the Williams math program would be really exciting for you here? So academics is a game. If you say, I love the 60s and I spent a lot of time reading about the 60s and I was an American studies major, I love that time period too. You've opened yourself up to me asking you a lot of questions about that."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "And why do you think you'd be a good fit to, what about the Williams math program would be really exciting for you here? So academics is a game. If you say, I love the 60s and I spent a lot of time reading about the 60s and I was an American studies major, I love that time period too. You've opened yourself up to me asking you a lot of questions about that. If you don't know about that stuff, you open the gate. I think it's fair game for me to go into that gate. It's not fair for an admissions officer to say, what do you think about the art from the 19th century?"}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "You've opened yourself up to me asking you a lot of questions about that. If you don't know about that stuff, you open the gate. I think it's fair game for me to go into that gate. It's not fair for an admissions officer to say, what do you think about the art from the 19th century? What's your favorite period? And because you may have no interest in that, right? But if you say, I love art from the 19th century and I'm an art history major, I may go right into that."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "It's not fair for an admissions officer to say, what do you think about the art from the 19th century? What's your favorite period? And because you may have no interest in that, right? But if you say, I love art from the 19th century and I'm an art history major, I may go right into that. So again, academics is always gonna be on the table. They're gonna certainly wanna know about your extracurriculars. What are you involved in?"}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "But if you say, I love art from the 19th century and I'm an art history major, I may go right into that. So again, academics is always gonna be on the table. They're gonna certainly wanna know about your extracurriculars. What are you involved in? What do you like? What do you think you might wanna do in college? If you're talking about something that you've done, talk about the why behind what you've done."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "What are you involved in? What do you like? What do you think you might wanna do in college? If you're talking about something that you've done, talk about the why behind what you've done. Talk about the passion, talk about the energy, talk about the time that you put into it. Talk about the emotions of the experience as opposed to thinking there's a certain thing that we want to hear or just worrying about your articulation. Some colleges have a secondary purpose for college interviews."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "If you're talking about something that you've done, talk about the why behind what you've done. Talk about the passion, talk about the energy, talk about the time that you put into it. Talk about the emotions of the experience as opposed to thinking there's a certain thing that we want to hear or just worrying about your articulation. Some colleges have a secondary purpose for college interviews. And that is to sort of gauge how much interest you have in them. If you go to a website, if you go to the college website, it'll give you some information about what's the purpose of the interview, but also is it required? Is it not required?"}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "Some colleges have a secondary purpose for college interviews. And that is to sort of gauge how much interest you have in them. If you go to a website, if you go to the college website, it'll give you some information about what's the purpose of the interview, but also is it required? Is it not required? Those sorts of things. And if the interview is strongly suggested or required, obviously that's something you probably wanna take advantage of. And schools will look at that and see especially if it's strongly required, I'm sorry, strongly encouraged and you don't take advantage of that."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "Is it not required? Those sorts of things. And if the interview is strongly suggested or required, obviously that's something you probably wanna take advantage of. And schools will look at that and see especially if it's strongly required, I'm sorry, strongly encouraged and you don't take advantage of that. The school may read that as, you're just not as interested in us. I know from personal experience, we've had schools that will say to us, your students are within two hours of us. Unless they're from a low-income background and don't have the opportunity to come to us, we're gonna expect them to come."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "And schools will look at that and see especially if it's strongly required, I'm sorry, strongly encouraged and you don't take advantage of that. The school may read that as, you're just not as interested in us. I know from personal experience, we've had schools that will say to us, your students are within two hours of us. Unless they're from a low-income background and don't have the opportunity to come to us, we're gonna expect them to come. And if they don't and do a tour, do an information session, maybe do our interview, we're probably gonna read that as being less interested. If you are granted an interview and feel like you may not be able to participate for whatever reason, maybe it's distance, maybe it's a scheduling issue, it's okay to let that institution know and communicate with them and perhaps offer an alternative, such as a phone interview or Skype interview. Again, some schools, they're gonna put a lot of emphasis on an interview."}, {"video_title": "Succeeding at the college admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "Unless they're from a low-income background and don't have the opportunity to come to us, we're gonna expect them to come. And if they don't and do a tour, do an information session, maybe do our interview, we're probably gonna read that as being less interested. If you are granted an interview and feel like you may not be able to participate for whatever reason, maybe it's distance, maybe it's a scheduling issue, it's okay to let that institution know and communicate with them and perhaps offer an alternative, such as a phone interview or Skype interview. Again, some schools, they're gonna put a lot of emphasis on an interview. A lot of other schools may not have any. So it's understanding sort of what the process is with the interview as well. So again, it's something you're gonna potentially do in this process and it's something you get prepared for."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on location, size, and housing.mp3", "Sentence": "Sean, one of the big things that students often think about is what type of campus they're looking for. So if I'm a student, how should I be kind of approaching that process? Sure. So I think the first thing you'd want to think about is sort of location. How far away from home do you want to be and what that means to you? So thinking a little bit about sort of distance. Weather sometimes plays into that."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on location, size, and housing.mp3", "Sentence": "So I think the first thing you'd want to think about is sort of location. How far away from home do you want to be and what that means to you? So thinking a little bit about sort of distance. Weather sometimes plays into that. Do you want to be in a different climate, the same climate? What does that mean? So certainly the first thing that students think about is distance and location."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on location, size, and housing.mp3", "Sentence": "Weather sometimes plays into that. Do you want to be in a different climate, the same climate? What does that mean? So certainly the first thing that students think about is distance and location. Great. And are there sort of some benefits that you've seen of students you've worked with staying close to home or going farther away? Sure enough, for lots of students there are different reasons they may want to do that."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on location, size, and housing.mp3", "Sentence": "So certainly the first thing that students think about is distance and location. Great. And are there sort of some benefits that you've seen of students you've worked with staying close to home or going farther away? Sure enough, for lots of students there are different reasons they may want to do that. I think it's always worth, I think a lot of students at first will say, well, I want to stay close to home just because that's what's comfortable, that's what's natural. But I would push, you know, any of you out there listening to this to think about going to schools that may be a little bit further away because those schools may have things that you get from being away from home and not having quick access to home, especially around independence, but also just, again, really having to engage in that community that you're in because you can't easily get home on a bus ride or something like that. Great."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on location, size, and housing.mp3", "Sentence": "Sure enough, for lots of students there are different reasons they may want to do that. I think it's always worth, I think a lot of students at first will say, well, I want to stay close to home just because that's what's comfortable, that's what's natural. But I would push, you know, any of you out there listening to this to think about going to schools that may be a little bit further away because those schools may have things that you get from being away from home and not having quick access to home, especially around independence, but also just, again, really having to engage in that community that you're in because you can't easily get home on a bus ride or something like that. Great. That makes sense. What about size of school? Because obviously for students, for me if I'm talking as a student, it's going to have a big impact on the campus feel, depending on how many students are out there."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on location, size, and housing.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. That makes sense. What about size of school? Because obviously for students, for me if I'm talking as a student, it's going to have a big impact on the campus feel, depending on how many students are out there. So let's start with defining. Schools typically fall into three categories. There are small schools, and those small schools generally fall between, you know, upwards of maybe 3,000 students, 0 to 3,000 students."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on location, size, and housing.mp3", "Sentence": "Because obviously for students, for me if I'm talking as a student, it's going to have a big impact on the campus feel, depending on how many students are out there. So let's start with defining. Schools typically fall into three categories. There are small schools, and those small schools generally fall between, you know, upwards of maybe 3,000 students, 0 to 3,000 students. Sort of medium-sized schools, and those schools are generally probably from 3,000 to, say, 10,000 students. And the third type is large schools, and again, large schools are probably 10,000 plus. And some of those schools can be upwards of, you know, Ohio State University, University of Michigan, schools like that can be upwards of almost 40,000 students."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on location, size, and housing.mp3", "Sentence": "There are small schools, and those small schools generally fall between, you know, upwards of maybe 3,000 students, 0 to 3,000 students. Sort of medium-sized schools, and those schools are generally probably from 3,000 to, say, 10,000 students. And the third type is large schools, and again, large schools are probably 10,000 plus. And some of those schools can be upwards of, you know, Ohio State University, University of Michigan, schools like that can be upwards of almost 40,000 students. So again, there can be very, very big schools out there. And how does the size of the student body sort of impact the college experience? You know, you as a student need to think about, you know, what do I want in my experience?"}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on location, size, and housing.mp3", "Sentence": "And some of those schools can be upwards of, you know, Ohio State University, University of Michigan, schools like that can be upwards of almost 40,000 students. So again, there can be very, very big schools out there. And how does the size of the student body sort of impact the college experience? You know, you as a student need to think about, you know, what do I want in my experience? So smaller schools tend to be much more community-focused. Lots of smaller schools tend to be in more rural to suburban areas. So again, the community is really very important there."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on location, size, and housing.mp3", "Sentence": "You know, you as a student need to think about, you know, what do I want in my experience? So smaller schools tend to be much more community-focused. Lots of smaller schools tend to be in more rural to suburban areas. So again, the community is really very important there. I would say probably 90 percent of students typically live on campus at small schools. When you get into medium and larger schools, you know, that number may vary quite a bit. It could be the same."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on location, size, and housing.mp3", "Sentence": "So again, the community is really very important there. I would say probably 90 percent of students typically live on campus at small schools. When you get into medium and larger schools, you know, that number may vary quite a bit. It could be the same. It could be, again, 90 percent of students live on campus. Or it might be as low as, say, 10 percent or 20 percent of the students live on campus. And not that one is better or worse than another, but it's just a different experience."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on location, size, and housing.mp3", "Sentence": "It could be the same. It could be, again, 90 percent of students live on campus. Or it might be as low as, say, 10 percent or 20 percent of the students live on campus. And not that one is better or worse than another, but it's just a different experience. And if you're looking for a community experience, you may want to be looking at schools that, you know, again, have a lot of the student body living on campus. Great. And let's talk a little bit more about housing."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on location, size, and housing.mp3", "Sentence": "And not that one is better or worse than another, but it's just a different experience. And if you're looking for a community experience, you may want to be looking at schools that, you know, again, have a lot of the student body living on campus. Great. And let's talk a little bit more about housing. Is there, do schools sort of guarantee that you can live on campus if you need to? Or how is that actually going to work for me as a student? Right."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on location, size, and housing.mp3", "Sentence": "And let's talk a little bit more about housing. Is there, do schools sort of guarantee that you can live on campus if you need to? Or how is that actually going to work for me as a student? Right. So housing is going to vary, again, by school. And it's one of the things you should have on your list as you're researching colleges, what percentage live on campus, but also is there a guarantee of housing for four years, for three years, and so forth. So you have a good idea of what you're getting into."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on location, size, and housing.mp3", "Sentence": "Right. So housing is going to vary, again, by school. And it's one of the things you should have on your list as you're researching colleges, what percentage live on campus, but also is there a guarantee of housing for four years, for three years, and so forth. So you have a good idea of what you're getting into. Depending on the school and where it's located, it might be much cheaper. So if you're a first-generation college student or a low-income college student, you know, it may be cheaper for you if the school guarantees housing for four years because the location you're living in is very expensive and they offer the best, you know, housing at a good affordable price. Great."}, {"video_title": "Avoiding common admissions essay mistakes.mp3", "Sentence": "And those are pretty heavy duty topics. And there have been outstanding authors over the years who have tried to approach those topics and have had a difficult time in a 500 page book. And now we're asking a 17 year old to reflect on that in 750 words or less. So it's a great challenge, so be careful. I think that if you don't feel that you can trust the admissions officer to safeguard your secrets or to see you in a vulnerable light, you're gonna miss an opportunity for the admissions officer to get to know you as well as he or she possibly could. One of the biggest mistakes that students make on their application essays is to sort of make an embellished resume. So we've already seen your resume, we've already seen what you've done, what you're interested in."}, {"video_title": "Avoiding common admissions essay mistakes.mp3", "Sentence": "So it's a great challenge, so be careful. I think that if you don't feel that you can trust the admissions officer to safeguard your secrets or to see you in a vulnerable light, you're gonna miss an opportunity for the admissions officer to get to know you as well as he or she possibly could. One of the biggest mistakes that students make on their application essays is to sort of make an embellished resume. So we've already seen your resume, we've already seen what you've done, what you're interested in. Don't use the very few words you have to tell us about yourself only to talk about what you do. I think the essay is sometimes thought of as a way to show yourself off. And in reality, what it is for us is a way to understand why you do the things you do, how those things impact you, how those experiences have shaped your worldview."}, {"video_title": "Avoiding common admissions essay mistakes.mp3", "Sentence": "So we've already seen your resume, we've already seen what you've done, what you're interested in. Don't use the very few words you have to tell us about yourself only to talk about what you do. I think the essay is sometimes thought of as a way to show yourself off. And in reality, what it is for us is a way to understand why you do the things you do, how those things impact you, how those experiences have shaped your worldview. One of my pet peeves when I read admissions essays is when students describe an event without explaining the significance of it. And so if you tell me, for example, about a snowstorm, okay, sure, but what does that tell me about you? Last year I read an essay that a student wrote about his grandfather, and it was very well written, lots of wonderful imagery and good punctuation and grammar."}, {"video_title": "Avoiding common admissions essay mistakes.mp3", "Sentence": "And in reality, what it is for us is a way to understand why you do the things you do, how those things impact you, how those experiences have shaped your worldview. One of my pet peeves when I read admissions essays is when students describe an event without explaining the significance of it. And so if you tell me, for example, about a snowstorm, okay, sure, but what does that tell me about you? Last year I read an essay that a student wrote about his grandfather, and it was very well written, lots of wonderful imagery and good punctuation and grammar. But by the end of the essay, I wanted to admit the student's grandfather because it was all about him. And so I didn't learn anything about the student in that essay. And so in that case, although it was a great essay, it was not great for this purpose."}, {"video_title": "Avoiding common admissions essay mistakes.mp3", "Sentence": "Last year I read an essay that a student wrote about his grandfather, and it was very well written, lots of wonderful imagery and good punctuation and grammar. But by the end of the essay, I wanted to admit the student's grandfather because it was all about him. And so I didn't learn anything about the student in that essay. And so in that case, although it was a great essay, it was not great for this purpose. Students who are creative will sometimes think that they should have a more visually appealing essay. And so they'll create their essay to be in the shape of something that represents who they are. You know, it can be hard to read an essay that's shaped like a chalice, let's say."}, {"video_title": "Avoiding common admissions essay mistakes.mp3", "Sentence": "And so in that case, although it was a great essay, it was not great for this purpose. Students who are creative will sometimes think that they should have a more visually appealing essay. And so they'll create their essay to be in the shape of something that represents who they are. You know, it can be hard to read an essay that's shaped like a chalice, let's say. I've also seen students take the approach of a letter to a roommate or their presidential acceptance speech that they're gonna give down the road, thanking Georgetown for the opportunity. And I think sometimes the ploy can take over the essay and you can't get past sort of the tool that they've used and you don't actually get to the student. So I think it's better to write a simple, heartfelt essay than to try to put too much time into crafting something that you think will stand out or catch our attention."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "And I remember thinking, you know, there's no way I'm going to be able to go to a school that could, you know, at that time cost $10,000 or $15,000 a year. Now those same schools cost $30,000 or $40,000 a year at least. That's the stated price for tuition. You know, my mom was a single mom. She kind of, you know, sometimes worked as a manager at a convenience store, she did a bunch of series of jobs to kind of make ends meet. We were on, depending on the year, free or reduced lunch. And so I just imagine, look, my only option is, you know, either go to a local school or get a full ride scholarship if I can."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "You know, my mom was a single mom. She kind of, you know, sometimes worked as a manager at a convenience store, she did a bunch of series of jobs to kind of make ends meet. We were on, depending on the year, free or reduced lunch. And so I just imagine, look, my only option is, you know, either go to a local school or get a full ride scholarship if I can. But then my sister opened my mind. She was three years older. She applied to Brown University, which at that time the tuition, the stated tuition was I think already in the high teens, thousands if not $20,000 a year."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "And so I just imagine, look, my only option is, you know, either go to a local school or get a full ride scholarship if I can. But then my sister opened my mind. She was three years older. She applied to Brown University, which at that time the tuition, the stated tuition was I think already in the high teens, thousands if not $20,000 a year. And when she applied, she then applied for financial aid. And I didn't even know this thing called financial aid existed. And so she got some federal grant money, she got some federal subsidized loans, Brown gave her some grant, gave her some loans."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "She applied to Brown University, which at that time the tuition, the stated tuition was I think already in the high teens, thousands if not $20,000 a year. And when she applied, she then applied for financial aid. And I didn't even know this thing called financial aid existed. And so she got some federal grant money, she got some federal subsidized loans, Brown gave her some grant, gave her some loans. Then there was some small parent contribution and she also had to do work study. But they made a package for her so that she was able to go. Now it wasn't easy."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "And so she got some federal grant money, she got some federal subsidized loans, Brown gave her some grant, gave her some loans. Then there was some small parent contribution and she also had to do work study. But they made a package for her so that she was able to go. Now it wasn't easy. She had to do some work study. My mom did have to do some contribution. She did have to take on some debt."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "Now it wasn't easy. She had to do some work study. My mom did have to do some contribution. She did have to take on some debt. But she was able to go. So that completely opened up my mind. So when I applied to college, I didn't let that be a constraint on me."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "She did have to take on some debt. But she was able to go. So that completely opened up my mind. So when I applied to college, I didn't let that be a constraint on me. I said, let me just figure out where I really want to go to college because I knew this financial aid thing existed. And what a lot of people don't realize is that some of the most selective colleges that have at least, you know, the stated tuition is high, actually have some of the best financial aid programs. They're very, very generous with their financial aid."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "So when I applied to college, I didn't let that be a constraint on me. I said, let me just figure out where I really want to go to college because I knew this financial aid thing existed. And what a lot of people don't realize is that some of the most selective colleges that have at least, you know, the stated tuition is high, actually have some of the best financial aid programs. They're very, very generous with their financial aid. And so I applied and I got into MIT and then I did the financial aid process. And it was incredibly good, I thought. It made it very, you know, I left MIT with about, I think on the order of about $30,000 in loans."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "They're very, very generous with their financial aid. And so I applied and I got into MIT and then I did the financial aid process. And it was incredibly good, I thought. It made it very, you know, I left MIT with about, I think on the order of about $30,000 in loans. I had to do some work study. But overall, it made it affordable, very doable. And for me, that $30,000 in loans, you know, I couldn't imagine a better investment in my future."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "It made it very, you know, I left MIT with about, I think on the order of about $30,000 in loans. I had to do some work study. But overall, it made it affordable, very doable. And for me, that $30,000 in loans, you know, I couldn't imagine a better investment in my future. So, you know, I would say you have to be careful. You don't want to get too far in debt. You definitely want to weigh what you're going to take on in terms of debt and aid versus what you might be able to make and career possibilities."}, {"video_title": "Student story Overcoming family obstacles to college.mp3", "Sentence": "In my country, most people didn't leave their homes at 18. It's very communal. People live together until they're married, and especially women don't really leave the house until they are married, of course. And so it was really weird and hard for my parents to understand why in America kids moved away at 18. I think part of the fear was that they would never come back or that they were leaving the nest. But it wasn't like that in my family. I assured my mom that this was a four-year thing, that I would be back, and I did come back."}, {"video_title": "Student story Overcoming family obstacles to college.mp3", "Sentence": "And so it was really weird and hard for my parents to understand why in America kids moved away at 18. I think part of the fear was that they would never come back or that they were leaving the nest. But it wasn't like that in my family. I assured my mom that this was a four-year thing, that I would be back, and I did come back. But that college was going to be a really life-changing experience, and that sometimes community colleges won't give the same experience as going to a four-year university where you can get really immersed, especially if you have the financial means. That's when they were concerned about finances. They said, if we can provide enough, if we can find enough money, then we'll let you go."}, {"video_title": "Student story Overcoming family obstacles to college.mp3", "Sentence": "I assured my mom that this was a four-year thing, that I would be back, and I did come back. But that college was going to be a really life-changing experience, and that sometimes community colleges won't give the same experience as going to a four-year university where you can get really immersed, especially if you have the financial means. That's when they were concerned about finances. They said, if we can provide enough, if we can find enough money, then we'll let you go. So financial obstacles were actually matched with cultural obstacles, but it helped for them to trust me that they had done a good job of raising me. And I had to talk to them. I had teachers talk to them."}, {"video_title": "Student story Overcoming family obstacles to college.mp3", "Sentence": "They said, if we can provide enough, if we can find enough money, then we'll let you go. So financial obstacles were actually matched with cultural obstacles, but it helped for them to trust me that they had done a good job of raising me. And I had to talk to them. I had teachers talk to them. I had people who had sent kids to colleges of their same cultural background also talk to them to look at the pros and cons. And after a few years of going to college, they actually did see how it really helped me to leave the nest and realize how much I actually loved and appreciated home that made me want to come back, because I missed them so much. And so it actually worked out for their benefit, too."}, {"video_title": "Student story Extracurriculars that carry over from high school to college.mp3", "Sentence": "And we were really good in high school. And so when I got to college, I didn't want to be on the actual team, which they call the varsity team. I wanted to be on the club team. So it's less of a time commitment, but still a time commitment. So the club team, we typically travel, we play tournaments at different schools. I've been to Georgia, Delaware, Virginia, and we are not as good as like my high school team was. And so I'm still a captain on that team."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "And today we're going to talk about brainstorming. When I'm working with students, one of the things I most frequently hear is, I don't know what to write about, nothing big or interesting has happened to me. Well, I just don't believe that. I know that every single senior has a story to tell. But the real challenge is just trying to find that story. We know ourselves, but sometimes we just can't see our own strengths. What the brainstorm exercises will help you do is to find what those strengths are, identify the stories, and then move forward to develop the essay."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "I know that every single senior has a story to tell. But the real challenge is just trying to find that story. We know ourselves, but sometimes we just can't see our own strengths. What the brainstorm exercises will help you do is to find what those strengths are, identify the stories, and then move forward to develop the essay. We're going to look at three different ways to brainstorm. You can do them all. You can try one."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "What the brainstorm exercises will help you do is to find what those strengths are, identify the stories, and then move forward to develop the essay. We're going to look at three different ways to brainstorm. You can do them all. You can try one. Oftentimes, students will say to me, well, I know what my strengths are. I'm great in math. I love drama."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "You can try one. Oftentimes, students will say to me, well, I know what my strengths are. I'm great in math. I love drama. I'm a great athlete. Those are really your talents. Those are things you do well."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "I love drama. I'm a great athlete. Those are really your talents. Those are things you do well. What we're trying to find are strengths or underlying qualities. So you might be great in math and science because you're able to take complex information and make sense of it. Or you might just be really observant."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "Those are things you do well. What we're trying to find are strengths or underlying qualities. So you might be great in math and science because you're able to take complex information and make sense of it. Or you might just be really observant. You might be more of a quiet type person who can really see things that others might not see and can make connections. That's a strength also. It's a strength, in fact, of many artists."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "Or you might just be really observant. You might be more of a quiet type person who can really see things that others might not see and can make connections. That's a strength also. It's a strength, in fact, of many artists. So no surprise, our strengths and what we love to do often relate or are intertwined. But for this essay, what we want to do is find where you really shine. The first one, we'll use an online tool."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "It's a strength, in fact, of many artists. So no surprise, our strengths and what we love to do often relate or are intertwined. But for this essay, what we want to do is find where you really shine. The first one, we'll use an online tool. And it's a personality trait tool that relies on the Myers-Briggs type indicator. One of the things that I think is great about the online tool is that oftentimes we know some of our strengths. And it's a great way to taking what you know is true about yourself but going way beyond that."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "The first one, we'll use an online tool. And it's a personality trait tool that relies on the Myers-Briggs type indicator. One of the things that I think is great about the online tool is that oftentimes we know some of our strengths. And it's a great way to taking what you know is true about yourself but going way beyond that. And it gives you a whole new set of language and ideas. Oftentimes when I'm working with students and we use the tool, they'll take the online diagnostic and they'll say, wow, that's me. Oftentimes we know what our strengths are."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "And it's a great way to taking what you know is true about yourself but going way beyond that. And it gives you a whole new set of language and ideas. Oftentimes when I'm working with students and we use the tool, they'll take the online diagnostic and they'll say, wow, that's me. Oftentimes we know what our strengths are. I know that I'm a creative type of person. But sometimes it's hard to articulate them. The test tells them things that they know about themselves deep in their heart or in their mind, but it gives them a whole new way of expressing it."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "Oftentimes we know what our strengths are. I know that I'm a creative type of person. But sometimes it's hard to articulate them. The test tells them things that they know about themselves deep in their heart or in their mind, but it gives them a whole new way of expressing it. Let's review the results from one high school senior that I coached recently. When he took the online personality test or diagnostic, his type came back as ENTJ. And that stands for, in the Myers-Briggs language, extroverted, intuitive, thinking, judging."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "The test tells them things that they know about themselves deep in their heart or in their mind, but it gives them a whole new way of expressing it. Let's review the results from one high school senior that I coached recently. When he took the online personality test or diagnostic, his type came back as ENTJ. And that stands for, in the Myers-Briggs language, extroverted, intuitive, thinking, judging. Here's what the tool said about ENTJs. They push their goals through with sheer willpower. With their extroverted nature, they're likely to push everyone else right along with them."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "And that stands for, in the Myers-Briggs language, extroverted, intuitive, thinking, judging. Here's what the tool said about ENTJs. They push their goals through with sheer willpower. With their extroverted nature, they're likely to push everyone else right along with them. Energetic. They enjoy leading teams forward, implementing plans and goals. So those are the strengths of that type of person."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "With their extroverted nature, they're likely to push everyone else right along with them. Energetic. They enjoy leading teams forward, implementing plans and goals. So those are the strengths of that type of person. So the next step we did was we took those strengths and then worked to identify when those may have showed up in his life, when they were manifested. And the more specific he could be, the better the stories that were resulting from it. For the student I was coaching, there were two traits that seemed to have the biggest, richest stories associated with him."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "So those are the strengths of that type of person. So the next step we did was we took those strengths and then worked to identify when those may have showed up in his life, when they were manifested. And the more specific he could be, the better the stories that were resulting from it. For the student I was coaching, there were two traits that seemed to have the biggest, richest stories associated with him. One was his strength of being strong-willed. The other was charismatic. Both those strengths really came into play when he was starting a new club at school, a ping pong club."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "For the student I was coaching, there were two traits that seemed to have the biggest, richest stories associated with him. One was his strength of being strong-willed. The other was charismatic. Both those strengths really came into play when he was starting a new club at school, a ping pong club. He wrote about how he gathered students in each grade to become club members, about finding a teacher who could be the champion or their advocate on campus. They needed to raise money to buy the equipment. They needed to find a place to set up the tables and organize the fundraisers."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "Both those strengths really came into play when he was starting a new club at school, a ping pong club. He wrote about how he gathered students in each grade to become club members, about finding a teacher who could be the champion or their advocate on campus. They needed to raise money to buy the equipment. They needed to find a place to set up the tables and organize the fundraisers. They did a student-teacher ping pong match to raise money for a local charity. All of those facts showed that he had a strong will. He was determined."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "They needed to find a place to set up the tables and organize the fundraisers. They did a student-teacher ping pong match to raise money for a local charity. All of those facts showed that he had a strong will. He was determined. At first when he wanted to start the club, the school said, there's plenty of clubs. We don't need it. But he found a way to make it happen."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "He was determined. At first when he wanted to start the club, the school said, there's plenty of clubs. We don't need it. But he found a way to make it happen. And that shows his strong will. He never explicitly uses those words in his essays, but by telling a story, he's able to let those strengths show. But he also realized that he was charismatic."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "But he found a way to make it happen. And that shows his strong will. He never explicitly uses those words in his essays, but by telling a story, he's able to let those strengths show. But he also realized that he was charismatic. He inspired other people to get involved. He inspired adults, the teacher, to get involved. He inspired parents to do ping pong championships and tournaments with the kids."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "But he also realized that he was charismatic. He inspired other people to get involved. He inspired adults, the teacher, to get involved. He inspired parents to do ping pong championships and tournaments with the kids. And so those were his strengths. And the story of the ping pong club helped showcase those strengths. It's important to recognize you don't need to summarize and say, I'm charismatic."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "He inspired parents to do ping pong championships and tournaments with the kids. And so those were his strengths. And the story of the ping pong club helped showcase those strengths. It's important to recognize you don't need to summarize and say, I'm charismatic. I'm strong will. If you find yourself saying, that's when I realized, or that's when I learned, or the most important lesson was. That's not necessary."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "It's important to recognize you don't need to summarize and say, I'm charismatic. I'm strong will. If you find yourself saying, that's when I realized, or that's when I learned, or the most important lesson was. That's not necessary. In fact, it takes away from your story. Let them draw those conclusions. Let's do brainstorm number two."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "That's not necessary. In fact, it takes away from your story. Let them draw those conclusions. Let's do brainstorm number two. It's called my three words. What you want to do is identify six to eight people who know you well. Think about people from different parts of your life, maybe two friends, a parent, a teacher or two, a coach, an older sibling."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "Let's do brainstorm number two. It's called my three words. What you want to do is identify six to eight people who know you well. Think about people from different parts of your life, maybe two friends, a parent, a teacher or two, a coach, an older sibling. Ask each of them the same question. What three adjectives best describe me? You can ask them in person, by phone or text."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "Think about people from different parts of your life, maybe two friends, a parent, a teacher or two, a coach, an older sibling. Ask each of them the same question. What three adjectives best describe me? You can ask them in person, by phone or text. The key is write down exactly what they tell you. Here are the results from one student that I coached in Seattle. The next step is where things really get interesting."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "You can ask them in person, by phone or text. The key is write down exactly what they tell you. Here are the results from one student that I coached in Seattle. The next step is where things really get interesting. We're going to map out the findings. Her findings clustered around three main themes, builder, problem solver, free spirit. We brainstormed a couple possibilities."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "The next step is where things really get interesting. We're going to map out the findings. Her findings clustered around three main themes, builder, problem solver, free spirit. We brainstormed a couple possibilities. She began to focus in on one example where her strengths really did shine. She worked in a summer daycare center. She was in charge of a lot of four to five year olds."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "We brainstormed a couple possibilities. She began to focus in on one example where her strengths really did shine. She worked in a summer daycare center. She was in charge of a lot of four to five year olds. The center had two clear rules, no TV, no technology. Her challenge was how do you entertain or keep occupied a lot of little kids without any sort of devices. She started building things with them."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "She was in charge of a lot of four to five year olds. The center had two clear rules, no TV, no technology. Her challenge was how do you entertain or keep occupied a lot of little kids without any sort of devices. She started building things with them. She used the constraint of no TV and no technology to figure out a work around. She had all the kids gather things around the room and each day they'd do a different project. What this showed as she started to brainstorm that idea was that she is a problem solver."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "She started building things with them. She used the constraint of no TV and no technology to figure out a work around. She had all the kids gather things around the room and each day they'd do a different project. What this showed as she started to brainstorm that idea was that she is a problem solver. She figured out a way to have the constraint not be an impediment. She found solutions around it. She wants to study childhood psychology."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "What this showed as she started to brainstorm that idea was that she is a problem solver. She figured out a way to have the constraint not be an impediment. She found solutions around it. She wants to study childhood psychology. She had the added benefit of having a story that showcased her strengths, i.e. problem solving and reinforced that interest or her area of study for college. The story is about who she's going to become."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "She wants to study childhood psychology. She had the added benefit of having a story that showcased her strengths, i.e. problem solving and reinforced that interest or her area of study for college. The story is about who she's going to become. Your essay is not a rear view mirror and a reporting of a job that you had or an event that happened in your life. You need to show development and where you're going and who you want to become. That helps the admissions officers see the type of student you will be when you're at school on their campus."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "The story is about who she's going to become. Your essay is not a rear view mirror and a reporting of a job that you had or an event that happened in your life. You need to show development and where you're going and who you want to become. That helps the admissions officers see the type of student you will be when you're at school on their campus. Now let's look at a third brainstorm. If your results don't prompt ideas, a good way to get things moving is to do free write. For one or two weeks, my recommendation is to do free write in a journal."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "That helps the admissions officers see the type of student you will be when you're at school on their campus. Now let's look at a third brainstorm. If your results don't prompt ideas, a good way to get things moving is to do free write. For one or two weeks, my recommendation is to do free write in a journal. If you'd like to see some prompts that can help you get started on those free writes, we've included them in a separate article within this resource. Once you've got your ideas mapped out as part of the brainstorm, you're going to want to start sharing them in story format and eventually write them in story format for your application. One of the great things to do is to think about the story and start to share those, socialize them, tell your friends the story, tell your parents, tell a teacher, and you'll start to see what parts of the story begin to resonate with people, where they laugh, where they say, wow, that sounds like you."}, {"video_title": "Brainstorming tips for your college essay.mp3", "Sentence": "For one or two weeks, my recommendation is to do free write in a journal. If you'd like to see some prompts that can help you get started on those free writes, we've included them in a separate article within this resource. Once you've got your ideas mapped out as part of the brainstorm, you're going to want to start sharing them in story format and eventually write them in story format for your application. One of the great things to do is to think about the story and start to share those, socialize them, tell your friends the story, tell your parents, tell a teacher, and you'll start to see what parts of the story begin to resonate with people, where they laugh, where they say, wow, that sounds like you. And you'll start to be able to shape that story and give it greater strength. So we all know that the essay is a key part of your application and it's the one area that you've got total control over. Hope these tips have helped."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "But if you do end up taking out loans, it's important to discuss what comes next. Specifically, you have to pay these loans back at some point. So today, we're going to talk about that payback process and how you can make sure it's manageable. On that note, we're very, very lucky to have personal finance expert Beth Kobliner here with us today. Beth is on the President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans, and she is also the author of the book Get a Financial Life. So Beth, thanks so much for being here with us today. It's really great to be here."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "On that note, we're very, very lucky to have personal finance expert Beth Kobliner here with us today. Beth is on the President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans, and she is also the author of the book Get a Financial Life. So Beth, thanks so much for being here with us today. It's really great to be here. All right, Beth, let's dive right in. Most students are worried about taking on too much debt for college. Are students really taking on that much debt?"}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "It's really great to be here. All right, Beth, let's dive right in. Most students are worried about taking on too much debt for college. Are students really taking on that much debt? And if so, how can I as a student make sure that the debt I take on is manageable? Right. Well, the numbers can seem really scary."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Are students really taking on that much debt? And if so, how can I as a student make sure that the debt I take on is manageable? Right. Well, the numbers can seem really scary. Most kids are taking on debt. You know, 70 percent of kids who graduate from college these days do have student loans, and they're leaving school with about $30,000 in debt, both federal and private student loans. To some extent, taking on debt is unavoidable, but it's not an awful thing either, because if you are able to get federal student loans, the interest rates are lower and you have more repayment options."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Well, the numbers can seem really scary. Most kids are taking on debt. You know, 70 percent of kids who graduate from college these days do have student loans, and they're leaving school with about $30,000 in debt, both federal and private student loans. To some extent, taking on debt is unavoidable, but it's not an awful thing either, because if you are able to get federal student loans, the interest rates are lower and you have more repayment options. And I think that's a key for a lot of people to be aware of. Great. So let's talk about these loans."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "To some extent, taking on debt is unavoidable, but it's not an awful thing either, because if you are able to get federal student loans, the interest rates are lower and you have more repayment options. And I think that's a key for a lot of people to be aware of. Great. So let's talk about these loans. And if I'm, you know, a student who's gone through college and I'm about to graduate, I've taken federal loans, what do I need to know about the repayment process? The first thing you want to know is as you're about to repay your loans, when you have federal student loans, is you want to figure out how much you owe and to whom you owe it. You probably got a new federal loan each semester, and that interest rate is fixed."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So let's talk about these loans. And if I'm, you know, a student who's gone through college and I'm about to graduate, I've taken federal loans, what do I need to know about the repayment process? The first thing you want to know is as you're about to repay your loans, when you have federal student loans, is you want to figure out how much you owe and to whom you owe it. You probably got a new federal loan each semester, and that interest rate is fixed. But then the next year when you get a new loan, that interest rate is also fixed. So you have a bunch of loans out there for many different years, often at several different interest rates. So you want to see what's out there and see who you owe."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "You probably got a new federal loan each semester, and that interest rate is fixed. But then the next year when you get a new loan, that interest rate is also fixed. So you have a bunch of loans out there for many different years, often at several different interest rates. So you want to see what's out there and see who you owe. And there's a good site, the National Student Loan Data System, nslds.ed.gov. You can click on financial aid review to find out what you owe and the company you need to pay, which is known as the loan servicer. Gotcha."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So you want to see what's out there and see who you owe. And there's a good site, the National Student Loan Data System, nslds.ed.gov. You can click on financial aid review to find out what you owe and the company you need to pay, which is known as the loan servicer. Gotcha. And that's because each of the times you take out a federal loan, it might not actually be from the same loan servicer? Correct. And the interest rate will be different and the amount will be different."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Gotcha. And that's because each of the times you take out a federal loan, it might not actually be from the same loan servicer? Correct. And the interest rate will be different and the amount will be different. But one thing you can do is consolidate all your loans at that point, which is basically mush them all together through this program called direct consolidation loan program. And it allows you to make one payment each month at a fixed interest rate. And to get more information, you can go to studentaid.gov slash consolidation."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "And the interest rate will be different and the amount will be different. But one thing you can do is consolidate all your loans at that point, which is basically mush them all together through this program called direct consolidation loan program. And it allows you to make one payment each month at a fixed interest rate. And to get more information, you can go to studentaid.gov slash consolidation. And the way consolidation loans work is it's simply the average of the interest rate for the loans you're combining rounded up a tiny bit. Great. So the consolidation actually lets me take all of these different federal loans that I've taken over the course of maybe four years, put them all together into one loan that has an average of the different interest rates, and then I can pay that back."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "And to get more information, you can go to studentaid.gov slash consolidation. And the way consolidation loans work is it's simply the average of the interest rate for the loans you're combining rounded up a tiny bit. Great. So the consolidation actually lets me take all of these different federal loans that I've taken over the course of maybe four years, put them all together into one loan that has an average of the different interest rates, and then I can pay that back. So I have a single payment every month as opposed to making a bunch of different payments to different people. Is that right? That's right."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So the consolidation actually lets me take all of these different federal loans that I've taken over the course of maybe four years, put them all together into one loan that has an average of the different interest rates, and then I can pay that back. So I have a single payment every month as opposed to making a bunch of different payments to different people. Is that right? That's right. And it's good because you limit your chance of risking missing a payment and getting into deep financial trouble, which really is, of all of this, probably one of the most important thing is you want to make your payments in a timely way. All right. So we've been talking about repaying or consolidating loans, but I may graduate and not be able to find a job right away."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "That's right. And it's good because you limit your chance of risking missing a payment and getting into deep financial trouble, which really is, of all of this, probably one of the most important thing is you want to make your payments in a timely way. All right. So we've been talking about repaying or consolidating loans, but I may graduate and not be able to find a job right away. So if that's the case, is there anything I can do or am I out of luck? Well, the fact is this is a realistic problem for a lot of young people. And the good news is for most federal student loans, you don't have to start paying them back actually until at least six months after graduating or leaving school."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So we've been talking about repaying or consolidating loans, but I may graduate and not be able to find a job right away. So if that's the case, is there anything I can do or am I out of luck? Well, the fact is this is a realistic problem for a lot of young people. And the good news is for most federal student loans, you don't have to start paying them back actually until at least six months after graduating or leaving school. But even at that point, if you can't make the payments, maybe you can't find a job or you've gone back to school, you know, grad school, you should then apply for what's called a deferment, which lets you off the hook from paying back your loans for three years or more among some other benefits it offers. If you don't qualify for a deferment, you may still get a break by applying for something called forbearance, which allows you to, you know, reduce or stop making those payments for up to 12 months at a time. That's less than deferment, but it's still a definitely helpful option."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "And the good news is for most federal student loans, you don't have to start paying them back actually until at least six months after graduating or leaving school. But even at that point, if you can't make the payments, maybe you can't find a job or you've gone back to school, you know, grad school, you should then apply for what's called a deferment, which lets you off the hook from paying back your loans for three years or more among some other benefits it offers. If you don't qualify for a deferment, you may still get a break by applying for something called forbearance, which allows you to, you know, reduce or stop making those payments for up to 12 months at a time. That's less than deferment, but it's still a definitely helpful option. You want to check out studentaid.gov slash deferment dash forbearance to get the details. Great. Well, it's wonderful to know that there is some flexibility out there if I can't begin immediately paying back those loans."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "That's less than deferment, but it's still a definitely helpful option. You want to check out studentaid.gov slash deferment dash forbearance to get the details. Great. Well, it's wonderful to know that there is some flexibility out there if I can't begin immediately paying back those loans. But when I am ready to start paying them back, what exactly do I do? Right. So this is where it gets kind of interesting."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Well, it's wonderful to know that there is some flexibility out there if I can't begin immediately paying back those loans. But when I am ready to start paying them back, what exactly do I do? Right. So this is where it gets kind of interesting. You're automatically enrolled in the standard repayment plan, which basically requires that you make the same payment every month for 10 years until the home loan is paid off. This is generally the least expensive option when it comes to paying back loans. But if you can't afford that, there are other repayment plans to choose from."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So this is where it gets kind of interesting. You're automatically enrolled in the standard repayment plan, which basically requires that you make the same payment every month for 10 years until the home loan is paid off. This is generally the least expensive option when it comes to paying back loans. But if you can't afford that, there are other repayment plans to choose from. And the best place to go to figure this all out is studentaid.gov slash repayment dash estimator. This is a really great source because you could just plug in your information to figure out which repayment plan really makes the most sense for you. Great."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "But if you can't afford that, there are other repayment plans to choose from. And the best place to go to figure this all out is studentaid.gov slash repayment dash estimator. This is a really great source because you could just plug in your information to figure out which repayment plan really makes the most sense for you. Great. Well, can you tell us a little bit more, since the standard plan is sort of the default that people are placed in, and as you said, if you can afford to do it, it tends to be the least expensive overall. Can you kind of give us an example of how it would work? Absolutely."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. Well, can you tell us a little bit more, since the standard plan is sort of the default that people are placed in, and as you said, if you can afford to do it, it tends to be the least expensive overall. Can you kind of give us an example of how it would work? Absolutely. So with the standard repayment plan, you basically pay off your loan over 10 years. And let's take an example of a student named Gabe. He's a recent graduate, and say he owes $30,000 in direct federal loans."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Absolutely. So with the standard repayment plan, you basically pay off your loan over 10 years. And let's take an example of a student named Gabe. He's a recent graduate, and say he owes $30,000 in direct federal loans. So let's assume, I'm just making some assumptions here, his interest rate is 4.7%, which is the current rate for direct loans. With the standard 10-year repayment plan, Gabe would owe $315 per month. So over 10 years, he would have had to pay back the $30,000 plus an additional $8,000 in interest."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "He's a recent graduate, and say he owes $30,000 in direct federal loans. So let's assume, I'm just making some assumptions here, his interest rate is 4.7%, which is the current rate for direct loans. With the standard 10-year repayment plan, Gabe would owe $315 per month. So over 10 years, he would have had to pay back the $30,000 plus an additional $8,000 in interest. So his total cost of the loan is $38,000. Now remember, these are just rounded up numbers that we figured out, but it generally gives you a good idea of what that standard repayment plan would cost you. Great."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So over 10 years, he would have had to pay back the $30,000 plus an additional $8,000 in interest. So his total cost of the loan is $38,000. Now remember, these are just rounded up numbers that we figured out, but it generally gives you a good idea of what that standard repayment plan would cost you. Great. So I can get this sort of information on the repayment estimator. And in addition to the standard repayment plan, what are some other options for Gabe if that $315 a month doesn't sound realistic, particularly right when he's graduating from college? Exactly."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. So I can get this sort of information on the repayment estimator. And in addition to the standard repayment plan, what are some other options for Gabe if that $315 a month doesn't sound realistic, particularly right when he's graduating from college? Exactly. So there are several others. But remember, these are all for federal loans only. But one's called the graduated repayment plan."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Exactly. So there are several others. But remember, these are all for federal loans only. But one's called the graduated repayment plan. And this is good for people who can't afford that monthly payment of $315 per month, but they're pretty sure that their income is going to increase over time. So with graduated repayment, payments start very low and manageable, and then jump up a notch every two years until it's paid off in 10 years. The downside is you're going to pay a little bit more interest over time."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "But one's called the graduated repayment plan. And this is good for people who can't afford that monthly payment of $315 per month, but they're pretty sure that their income is going to increase over time. So with graduated repayment, payments start very low and manageable, and then jump up a notch every two years until it's paid off in 10 years. The downside is you're going to pay a little bit more interest over time. So in Gabe's case, with graduated repayment, he'd pay just $180 a month for the first two years, but $530 a month for the years nine and 10. So you compare that to the $315 Gabe would pay every month with standard repayment, and clearly it's less at the beginning and more at the end. So with graduated over 10 years, he'd pay back the $30,000 plus an additional $10,000 in interest."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "The downside is you're going to pay a little bit more interest over time. So in Gabe's case, with graduated repayment, he'd pay just $180 a month for the first two years, but $530 a month for the years nine and 10. So you compare that to the $315 Gabe would pay every month with standard repayment, and clearly it's less at the beginning and more at the end. So with graduated over 10 years, he'd pay back the $30,000 plus an additional $10,000 in interest. So his total cost for the graduated plan would be about $2,000 more than standard repayment, or the total cost for the graduated plan would be $40,000. Gotcha. So for that $30,000 loan for Gabe, it sounds like if he can afford the standard repayment plan up front, he can save a little bit of money over the long term."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So with graduated over 10 years, he'd pay back the $30,000 plus an additional $10,000 in interest. So his total cost for the graduated plan would be about $2,000 more than standard repayment, or the total cost for the graduated plan would be $40,000. Gotcha. So for that $30,000 loan for Gabe, it sounds like if he can afford the standard repayment plan up front, he can save a little bit of money over the long term. But if he needs the flexibility of low payments in the beginning, he could take the graduated plan and then pay a little bit more overall. That's exactly right. Great."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So for that $30,000 loan for Gabe, it sounds like if he can afford the standard repayment plan up front, he can save a little bit of money over the long term. But if he needs the flexibility of low payments in the beginning, he could take the graduated plan and then pay a little bit more overall. That's exactly right. Great. So are there any other options that Gabe should consider, particularly if he doesn't have a very large income at the start of his career after graduating from college? Right. Well, there are other plans called income-driven repayment plans, and they basically look at your income and how much money you owe to figure out whether you can make very, very low monthly payments at first based on your income if you have a low income."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. So are there any other options that Gabe should consider, particularly if he doesn't have a very large income at the start of his career after graduating from college? Right. Well, there are other plans called income-driven repayment plans, and they basically look at your income and how much money you owe to figure out whether you can make very, very low monthly payments at first based on your income if you have a low income. The thing about these income-driven plans is that after a set number of years, your debt is actually forgiven, which is a good thing. But realistically, the best way to think about these plans is that they're a temporary option to help you while you're young and really not making very much money. But as your salary grows over time, you're probably going to have to switch back to the standard repayment plan."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Well, there are other plans called income-driven repayment plans, and they basically look at your income and how much money you owe to figure out whether you can make very, very low monthly payments at first based on your income if you have a low income. The thing about these income-driven plans is that after a set number of years, your debt is actually forgiven, which is a good thing. But realistically, the best way to think about these plans is that they're a temporary option to help you while you're young and really not making very much money. But as your salary grows over time, you're probably going to have to switch back to the standard repayment plan. Great. And that makes a lot of sense. And so, you know, speaking of income, there are obviously some career paths, you know, particularly ones that focus on public service that tend to pay less."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "But as your salary grows over time, you're probably going to have to switch back to the standard repayment plan. Great. And that makes a lot of sense. And so, you know, speaking of income, there are obviously some career paths, you know, particularly ones that focus on public service that tend to pay less. How does that factor into taking out college loans? And are there any options to sort of help people who decide to go into those sort of professions? Right."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "And so, you know, speaking of income, there are obviously some career paths, you know, particularly ones that focus on public service that tend to pay less. How does that factor into taking out college loans? And are there any options to sort of help people who decide to go into those sort of professions? Right. So if you are a do-gooder or somebody who just wants to help others, there's a program called public service loan forgiveness that you have to look into because it can be really advantageous in that it completely wipes away your remaining debt after 10 years. But to be eligible, you need to commit to a long-term job or career in teaching, public health, law enforcement, military, and you have to do so for 10 years. So with this plan, the strategy would be if you're going into public service, you'd want your monthly payments for the first 10 years to be rather low so you're not paying so much up front."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Right. So if you are a do-gooder or somebody who just wants to help others, there's a program called public service loan forgiveness that you have to look into because it can be really advantageous in that it completely wipes away your remaining debt after 10 years. But to be eligible, you need to commit to a long-term job or career in teaching, public health, law enforcement, military, and you have to do so for 10 years. So with this plan, the strategy would be if you're going into public service, you'd want your monthly payments for the first 10 years to be rather low so you're not paying so much up front. And then you're, you know, after the 10th year, if you owe a lot, the good news is with this kind of program that those debts are forgiven, which is really a great, you know, great thing for somebody who has really committed themselves to public service. If you're doing public service but you're not committing for 10 years, fewer than 10 years, say you're going to the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps or teaching in a low-income area or the military, there are other student loan forgiveness programs. You can check out studentaid.gov slash forgiveness and you can get a sense for what your options would be."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So with this plan, the strategy would be if you're going into public service, you'd want your monthly payments for the first 10 years to be rather low so you're not paying so much up front. And then you're, you know, after the 10th year, if you owe a lot, the good news is with this kind of program that those debts are forgiven, which is really a great, you know, great thing for somebody who has really committed themselves to public service. If you're doing public service but you're not committing for 10 years, fewer than 10 years, say you're going to the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps or teaching in a low-income area or the military, there are other student loan forgiveness programs. You can check out studentaid.gov slash forgiveness and you can get a sense for what your options would be. Great. So it sounds like there really is some flexibility for folks who decide to take paths that maybe don't pay as much as far as student loan repayment is concerned. Right."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "You can check out studentaid.gov slash forgiveness and you can get a sense for what your options would be. Great. So it sounds like there really is some flexibility for folks who decide to take paths that maybe don't pay as much as far as student loan repayment is concerned. Right. And help others, which is sort of a nice thing that there's some payback there. Great. And Beth, the last question I want to ask you is I've heard that there are some potential tax breaks for students who are paying back their loans that I should be aware about as I'm graduating from college and starting to repay my loans."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Right. And help others, which is sort of a nice thing that there's some payback there. Great. And Beth, the last question I want to ask you is I've heard that there are some potential tax breaks for students who are paying back their loans that I should be aware about as I'm graduating from college and starting to repay my loans. Right. Well, probably the most important is you may be able to deduct up to $2,500 of the interest you pay on your student loans each year and that would be on your taxes, on your tax return. So it definitely is worth checking it out."}, {"video_title": "Paying back your loans.mp3", "Sentence": "And Beth, the last question I want to ask you is I've heard that there are some potential tax breaks for students who are paying back their loans that I should be aware about as I'm graduating from college and starting to repay my loans. Right. Well, probably the most important is you may be able to deduct up to $2,500 of the interest you pay on your student loans each year and that would be on your taxes, on your tax return. So it definitely is worth checking it out. Great. Well, Beth, thank you so much for taking some time with us today to talk about student loan repayments and we really appreciate your time. Oh, thank you so much."}, {"video_title": "Student story Admissions essay about personal identity.mp3", "Sentence": "So I actually do remember what I wrote because it was some of the piece of writing that I'm most proud of, partly because it was edited so many times. One of which was about my relationship to writing. So I'm an English major now, so I guess it's pretty fitting that I wrote about writing back when I was applying to colleges. And basically how I came to terms that good writing isn't necessarily about using big words or anything like that, but it's actually about communicating ideas efficiently and kind of coming at it from a very like political and like social justice angle, if you can have that in English. So I actually wrote about that for one of them. And it was very important for me to communicate to the admissions committee like what my academic interests were at the time. So I think that particular topic was a helpful way to be like, I'm really interested in English and like thinking about how English functions as like a political tool."}, {"video_title": "Student story Admissions essay about personal identity.mp3", "Sentence": "And basically how I came to terms that good writing isn't necessarily about using big words or anything like that, but it's actually about communicating ideas efficiently and kind of coming at it from a very like political and like social justice angle, if you can have that in English. So I actually wrote about that for one of them. And it was very important for me to communicate to the admissions committee like what my academic interests were at the time. So I think that particular topic was a helpful way to be like, I'm really interested in English and like thinking about how English functions as like a political tool. So like that was what the first paper was about. The second paper was about, this is very silly and it sounds very silly saying it now, but I wrote about what I call the I do calculus dress. Funny I still remember this."}, {"video_title": "Student story Admissions essay about personal identity.mp3", "Sentence": "So I think that particular topic was a helpful way to be like, I'm really interested in English and like thinking about how English functions as like a political tool. So like that was what the first paper was about. The second paper was about, this is very silly and it sounds very silly saying it now, but I wrote about what I call the I do calculus dress. Funny I still remember this. And the I do calculus dress was a dress that me and my friend saw at JCPenney that was super ugly. And we had an ongoing joke that only people who do calculus would ever dare wear such an unfashionable thing. And like the I do calculus dress in my paper ended up becoming sort of this metaphor symbol for how I kind of grew into my status as a nerd at my high school, which was very uncommon."}, {"video_title": "Student story Admissions essay about personal identity.mp3", "Sentence": "Funny I still remember this. And the I do calculus dress was a dress that me and my friend saw at JCPenney that was super ugly. And we had an ongoing joke that only people who do calculus would ever dare wear such an unfashionable thing. And like the I do calculus dress in my paper ended up becoming sort of this metaphor symbol for how I kind of grew into my status as a nerd at my high school, which was very uncommon. And how I learned to stop being ashamed of the dress that fit me so well, but actually wear it proudly and be like, yeah, I'm a nerd and I'm okay with that. And I'm okay with showing that off and flaunting that. So again, this is also spoke to a little bit about how I came to be comfortable with who I was and how I was intellectually stimulated and curious."}, {"video_title": "Deciding whether to retake the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "Okay, so deciding whether to retake the test or not. A majority of students do improve their test scores when they take it a second time. In my experience, students relax a little bit more. You've seen it once already, so you tend to do a little bit better on that second time through. So, should you retake it? A couple questions you may want to ask yourself and it probably comes to maybe four different points. The first point is, you know, look at how you did and then, you know, compare that with some of the schools that you're really interested in."}, {"video_title": "Deciding whether to retake the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "You've seen it once already, so you tend to do a little bit better on that second time through. So, should you retake it? A couple questions you may want to ask yourself and it probably comes to maybe four different points. The first point is, you know, look at how you did and then, you know, compare that with some of the schools that you're really interested in. Let's use UCLA as an example. A 25 is in their 25th percentile score and a 31 is in their 75th percentile score. That basically means that 25% of the students score below a 25 and 75% score below a 31."}, {"video_title": "Deciding whether to retake the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "The first point is, you know, look at how you did and then, you know, compare that with some of the schools that you're really interested in. Let's use UCLA as an example. A 25 is in their 25th percentile score and a 31 is in their 75th percentile score. That basically means that 25% of the students score below a 25 and 75% score below a 31. So, let's say you scored a 22 on the ACT. That's your composite score and you want to go to UCLA. Well, 22 puts you in the bottom 25% of students, so you may want to consider, you know, taking the test again to improve your chances at UCLA."}, {"video_title": "Deciding whether to retake the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "That basically means that 25% of the students score below a 25 and 75% score below a 31. So, let's say you scored a 22 on the ACT. That's your composite score and you want to go to UCLA. Well, 22 puts you in the bottom 25% of students, so you may want to consider, you know, taking the test again to improve your chances at UCLA. If you scored a 30 on the ACT composite, then you are between the 25th and the 75th percentile, meaning the score is very competitive for UCLA. Another point to consider is how high was your initial score? Typically, it's easier to bring up a lower score than it is to get a few extra points at the high end."}, {"video_title": "Deciding whether to retake the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "Well, 22 puts you in the bottom 25% of students, so you may want to consider, you know, taking the test again to improve your chances at UCLA. If you scored a 30 on the ACT composite, then you are between the 25th and the 75th percentile, meaning the score is very competitive for UCLA. Another point to consider is how high was your initial score? Typically, it's easier to bring up a lower score than it is to get a few extra points at the high end. Another point to consider is, you know, how did you do on your test compared to what your expectations were? So, if you've been taking a lot of practice tests, doing a lot of studying and you got about the score that you thought you would get, you may be very happy with that. If, by chance, you were doing a lot better on your practice test, you probably have some room to improve and you may want to consider taking the ACT again."}, {"video_title": "Deciding whether to retake the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "Typically, it's easier to bring up a lower score than it is to get a few extra points at the high end. Another point to consider is, you know, how did you do on your test compared to what your expectations were? So, if you've been taking a lot of practice tests, doing a lot of studying and you got about the score that you thought you would get, you may be very happy with that. If, by chance, you were doing a lot better on your practice test, you probably have some room to improve and you may want to consider taking the ACT again. But the bottom line is, and probably the last point to make is, preparation is important. Make sure you prepare for these tests like any test you take in high school. You know, the more you study, the better you're going to do and you should take that same approach for studying for the ACT to do the best job you can."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "Happy to be here. So now what we're looking at is three different universities. And what we've done is we've taken the time to comb through the financial aid letters that each of them gave us and put it in a form that is consistent so that we can actually compare them. Sounds great. And we have the estimated cost of attendance here, tuition, room board, all that. We have subtracting out grants and scholarships, and that's giving us the net cost. So just taking a look at this top part of our financial aid comparison, what are the big things that jump out at you?"}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "Sounds great. And we have the estimated cost of attendance here, tuition, room board, all that. We have subtracting out grants and scholarships, and that's giving us the net cost. So just taking a look at this top part of our financial aid comparison, what are the big things that jump out at you? So the first thing I would look at is this net cost calculation. So clearly, these three, we've got three very different situations here. $10,000 at school A, $15,000 at school B, and $7,000 in net cost at school C, which is really interesting."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "So just taking a look at this top part of our financial aid comparison, what are the big things that jump out at you? So the first thing I would look at is this net cost calculation. So clearly, these three, we've got three very different situations here. $10,000 at school A, $15,000 at school B, and $7,000 in net cost at school C, which is really interesting. So you've got three very different options here available to you. And then I would look at, well, how did we get here? And interestingly enough, the cost of attendance at these three institutions, it's actually the most expensive institution at $60,000 that has the lowest net cost, which wouldn't be what you would always assume from the beginning, which is why I think it's good to do this exercise."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "$10,000 at school A, $15,000 at school B, and $7,000 in net cost at school C, which is really interesting. So you've got three very different options here available to you. And then I would look at, well, how did we get here? And interestingly enough, the cost of attendance at these three institutions, it's actually the most expensive institution at $60,000 that has the lowest net cost, which wouldn't be what you would always assume from the beginning, which is why I think it's good to do this exercise. Absolutely. And the net costs, if I'm remembering correctly, are actually what your family is going to owe. That's right."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "And interestingly enough, the cost of attendance at these three institutions, it's actually the most expensive institution at $60,000 that has the lowest net cost, which wouldn't be what you would always assume from the beginning, which is why I think it's good to do this exercise. Absolutely. And the net costs, if I'm remembering correctly, are actually what your family is going to owe. That's right. Or be responsible for. So in one way or another, you're responsible for that amount. The schools may be offering you some help to meet that amount through work study or loans, for example."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "That's right. Or be responsible for. So in one way or another, you're responsible for that amount. The schools may be offering you some help to meet that amount through work study or loans, for example. But it's going to come out of your pocket, either now or later. OK. So what you're saying then is because of the really pretty drastically different scholarship amounts between University A, University B, and University C, the net cost that we're paying actually is very, very different from the estimated cost of attendance that we began with."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "The schools may be offering you some help to meet that amount through work study or loans, for example. But it's going to come out of your pocket, either now or later. OK. So what you're saying then is because of the really pretty drastically different scholarship amounts between University A, University B, and University C, the net cost that we're paying actually is very, very different from the estimated cost of attendance that we began with. That's right. Great. So then once we have that net cost, what we're going to owe, either now or down the road, through work study, through loans, through my family contributing, I look below at some of the different ways that they're suggesting that I cover those net costs."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "So what you're saying then is because of the really pretty drastically different scholarship amounts between University A, University B, and University C, the net cost that we're paying actually is very, very different from the estimated cost of attendance that we began with. That's right. Great. So then once we have that net cost, what we're going to owe, either now or down the road, through work study, through loans, through my family contributing, I look below at some of the different ways that they're suggesting that I cover those net costs. And I see that they're pretty different. Let me start with University C, because they were the one that had the lowest net cost. But interestingly, they have the highest family contribution."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "So then once we have that net cost, what we're going to owe, either now or down the road, through work study, through loans, through my family contributing, I look below at some of the different ways that they're suggesting that I cover those net costs. And I see that they're pretty different. Let me start with University C, because they were the one that had the lowest net cost. But interestingly, they have the highest family contribution. So the highest amount they're actually suggesting that my family pay earlier, rather than through work study or through loans. So do people typically get family contributions that are different from different schools? It's highly possible for that to happen, even when you've submitted the same information to each school."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "But interestingly, they have the highest family contribution. So the highest amount they're actually suggesting that my family pay earlier, rather than through work study or through loans. So do people typically get family contributions that are different from different schools? It's highly possible for that to happen, even when you've submitted the same information to each school. So it really has to do with the school's own institutional policies for how they award their institutional aid. So they're going to look at that information that you've provided differently. So yes, it does happen to students all the time."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "It's highly possible for that to happen, even when you've submitted the same information to each school. So it really has to do with the school's own institutional policies for how they award their institutional aid. So they're going to look at that information that you've provided differently. So yes, it does happen to students all the time. And what I suggest, if you've got dramatically different family contributions at need-based institutions, schools that are offering need-based aid, I might go back and question the one that is expecting more of my family to just make sure that they considered everything that was in my application. OK. And in this case, my gut reaction is, based on financial aid package alone, University at Sea, in the big picture, net cost, is asking the least. And so financial aid-wise, it's the one I want to lean towards."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "So yes, it does happen to students all the time. And what I suggest, if you've got dramatically different family contributions at need-based institutions, schools that are offering need-based aid, I might go back and question the one that is expecting more of my family to just make sure that they considered everything that was in my application. OK. And in this case, my gut reaction is, based on financial aid package alone, University at Sea, in the big picture, net cost, is asking the least. And so financial aid-wise, it's the one I want to lean towards. But then I look down and say, well, maybe my family can only cover $5,000. So if I go back to University at Sea, they may be able to adjust, offer some work study, or at a minimum, perhaps package some of these Stafford loans so that I can take a loan and help to cover this. That's right."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "And so financial aid-wise, it's the one I want to lean towards. But then I look down and say, well, maybe my family can only cover $5,000. So if I go back to University at Sea, they may be able to adjust, offer some work study, or at a minimum, perhaps package some of these Stafford loans so that I can take a loan and help to cover this. That's right. I would go in and talk to University at Sea, or at least give them a call, and say, do you have work study available? Is that something that I could sign up for? And what about loans?"}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "That's right. I would go in and talk to University at Sea, or at least give them a call, and say, do you have work study available? Is that something that I could sign up for? And what about loans? So the federal loan programs, all students are going to be eligible for a minimum, as long as you're eligible for federal aid. You're eligible for a minimum of $5,500 in the Stafford loan program. Might be subsidized, might be unsubsidized, but a minimum of $5,500."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "And what about loans? So the federal loan programs, all students are going to be eligible for a minimum, as long as you're eligible for federal aid. You're eligible for a minimum of $5,500 in the Stafford loan program. Might be subsidized, might be unsubsidized, but a minimum of $5,500. So you know you're going to have at least that amount to help you with that family contribution. So they could definitely add that in here, if that was their one. And that can move this family contribution down below either of these."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "Might be subsidized, might be unsubsidized, but a minimum of $5,500. So you know you're going to have at least that amount to help you with that family contribution. So they could definitely add that in here, if that was their one. And that can move this family contribution down below either of these. So it looks like University at Sea is a very generous package. I would say so. But we know that not every university is going to be able to offer a package like this."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "And that can move this family contribution down below either of these. So it looks like University at Sea is a very generous package. I would say so. But we know that not every university is going to be able to offer a package like this. Not every student is going to get a package like this. So why don't we move between University A and University B and compare those to each other? So I look down at the family contribution, which to me, in some ways, again, gut reaction is the most important thing."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "But we know that not every university is going to be able to offer a package like this. Not every student is going to get a package like this. So why don't we move between University A and University B and compare those to each other? So I look down at the family contribution, which to me, in some ways, again, gut reaction is the most important thing. And I don't think that's what you said, net cost. Look at that first. But I see family contribution of $5,000, $5,000."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "So I look down at the family contribution, which to me, in some ways, again, gut reaction is the most important thing. And I don't think that's what you said, net cost. Look at that first. But I see family contribution of $5,000, $5,000. And I say, well, that's how much my family has to pay now. So walk me through why these aren't equal, if they're truly not. Right."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "But I see family contribution of $5,000, $5,000. And I say, well, that's how much my family has to pay now. So walk me through why these aren't equal, if they're truly not. Right. Well, what I want you to look at is the difference between the work-study that's being offered and the loans that are being offered. So at School B, they are asking for $4,500 in work-study during the year. That is significantly more than what School A is asking the student to work."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "Right. Well, what I want you to look at is the difference between the work-study that's being offered and the loans that are being offered. So at School B, they are asking for $4,500 in work-study during the year. That is significantly more than what School A is asking the student to work. Now, that might be due to a couple of different factors. Maybe at School B, the minimum wage they pay their students on campus is significantly higher. So the questions to the financial aid office would be, how many hours a week do I have to work to earn that amount?"}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "That is significantly more than what School A is asking the student to work. Now, that might be due to a couple of different factors. Maybe at School B, the minimum wage they pay their students on campus is significantly higher. So the questions to the financial aid office would be, how many hours a week do I have to work to earn that amount? And I think that would be an important thing to understand and compare School A to School B to decide if that package really is comparable. OK. And sort of similar on the loan front. I mean."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "So the questions to the financial aid office would be, how many hours a week do I have to work to earn that amount? And I think that would be an important thing to understand and compare School A to School B to decide if that package really is comparable. OK. And sort of similar on the loan front. I mean. That's right. It's obvious that School B is asking you to borrow more money than School A is. So in the long run, although you don't have to pay that right now, when you're in repayment after you've graduated from school, hopefully, you're going to have more to pay back than you would at School A. OK."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "I mean. That's right. It's obvious that School B is asking you to borrow more money than School A is. So in the long run, although you don't have to pay that right now, when you're in repayment after you've graduated from school, hopefully, you're going to have more to pay back than you would at School A. OK. I think the point is, when you look at the net cost, there's a $5,000 difference between those two schools. And it may come from different places. It's for you to consider how badly you want to be at that school and whether or not you're willing to take on that level of indebtedness or work during the academic year."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "So in the long run, although you don't have to pay that right now, when you're in repayment after you've graduated from school, hopefully, you're going to have more to pay back than you would at School A. OK. I think the point is, when you look at the net cost, there's a $5,000 difference between those two schools. And it may come from different places. It's for you to consider how badly you want to be at that school and whether or not you're willing to take on that level of indebtedness or work during the academic year. Great. Big picture. Any other things I need to be looking at when I'm comparing these three offers?"}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "It's for you to consider how badly you want to be at that school and whether or not you're willing to take on that level of indebtedness or work during the academic year. Great. Big picture. Any other things I need to be looking at when I'm comparing these three offers? I think this is a really good way to compare. By looking first at that net cost, it gives you, I think, the cleanest picture of what your costs are going to be at that school. Great."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package comparison Part 3.mp3", "Sentence": "Any other things I need to be looking at when I'm comparing these three offers? I think this is a really good way to compare. By looking first at that net cost, it gives you, I think, the cleanest picture of what your costs are going to be at that school. Great. Great. Karen, thank you so much. Thank you."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Wrapping up.mp3", "Sentence": "And from my experience, I remember, as you just learned from other videos, even when I was young, I had heard of this thing called MIT and I wanted to go there, but it was at the end of your senior year where you actually do have your options in front of you. And then the reality is, okay, I'm not just gonna go to someplace because I heard of it or because I heard it's good for this or that. I should really feel like it's a place where I can live and thrive for four years. And so I encourage you to talk to other people who graduated from that school. Learn not just what it's like academically, what's it like culturally, what's the campus like, what's the vibe like? I encourage, those brochures, actually, sometimes you might say, oh, this is just marketing material from the university and that's what they are. But they do tell you a lot about what they view themselves as, what their culture is."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Wrapping up.mp3", "Sentence": "And so I encourage you to talk to other people who graduated from that school. Learn not just what it's like academically, what's it like culturally, what's the campus like, what's the vibe like? I encourage, those brochures, actually, sometimes you might say, oh, this is just marketing material from the university and that's what they are. But they do tell you a lot about what they view themselves as, what their culture is. If you have the resources to, I didn't at the time, but if you can visit the school, especially if it's out of town, try to. If you don't have the resources, I hear there's now, there's oftentimes these fly-in programs where the school will provide resources for people to visit and make sure that it's a good fit for them. So, if I was in that position again, I would definitely have taken up the schools on that."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Wrapping up.mp3", "Sentence": "But they do tell you a lot about what they view themselves as, what their culture is. If you have the resources to, I didn't at the time, but if you can visit the school, especially if it's out of town, try to. If you don't have the resources, I hear there's now, there's oftentimes these fly-in programs where the school will provide resources for people to visit and make sure that it's a good fit for them. So, if I was in that position again, I would definitely have taken up the schools on that. And once you make that decision, figuring out the school where it's a good fit, where you feel like you're gonna be able to spend at least the next four years, then it's time to transition. And I remember that a ton. On one level, it's kind of the most exciting moment in your life and the scariest."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Wrapping up.mp3", "Sentence": "So, if I was in that position again, I would definitely have taken up the schools on that. And once you make that decision, figuring out the school where it's a good fit, where you feel like you're gonna be able to spend at least the next four years, then it's time to transition. And I remember that a ton. On one level, it's kind of the most exciting moment in your life and the scariest. I mean, there's a few other moments in your life that probably compete with it. When you're getting married, the birth of your first and actually second or third child as well. But yeah, these are all exciting moments, but this is one of them."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Wrapping up.mp3", "Sentence": "On one level, it's kind of the most exciting moment in your life and the scariest. I mean, there's a few other moments in your life that probably compete with it. When you're getting married, the birth of your first and actually second or third child as well. But yeah, these are all exciting moments, but this is one of them. And you're getting real independence. With real independence comes all sorts of possibilities, some of which are scary, new responsibilities as well. And what I remember when I was kind of going through that transition, it was really helpful."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Wrapping up.mp3", "Sentence": "But yeah, these are all exciting moments, but this is one of them. And you're getting real independence. With real independence comes all sorts of possibilities, some of which are scary, new responsibilities as well. And what I remember when I was kind of going through that transition, it was really helpful. I had an older sister. I remember right when I, I actually flew from New Orleans, which is where I grew up, to Providence, even though I was going to school in Boston, because my sister was at Brown University in Providence. And so I spent a little time living with her."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Wrapping up.mp3", "Sentence": "And what I remember when I was kind of going through that transition, it was really helpful. I had an older sister. I remember right when I, I actually flew from New Orleans, which is where I grew up, to Providence, even though I was going to school in Boston, because my sister was at Brown University in Providence. And so I spent a little time living with her. And actually, that was a really good way to kind of even ease into the, like, what's it like to be a young person living by myself? How do I do my own laundry? How do I cook for, how do I boil ramen?"}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Wrapping up.mp3", "Sentence": "And so I spent a little time living with her. And actually, that was a really good way to kind of even ease into the, like, what's it like to be a young person living by myself? How do I do my own laundry? How do I cook for, how do I boil ramen? How do I do all this? What's a meal plan? But then I went to campus orientation, and my sister told me this, and I tried to really live this."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Wrapping up.mp3", "Sentence": "How do I cook for, how do I boil ramen? How do I do all this? What's a meal plan? But then I went to campus orientation, and my sister told me this, and I tried to really live this. But when I went through orientation in the beginning of my freshman year, it was a chance to kind of be myself, but also redefine who I was. You know, in high school, there's all these, hey, well, maybe I'm not in that crowd, or I'm in that crowd. But in college, I went with a mindset, I think it was a very healthy mindset, of like, look, everyone here is new."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Wrapping up.mp3", "Sentence": "But then I went to campus orientation, and my sister told me this, and I tried to really live this. But when I went through orientation in the beginning of my freshman year, it was a chance to kind of be myself, but also redefine who I was. You know, in high school, there's all these, hey, well, maybe I'm not in that crowd, or I'm in that crowd. But in college, I went with a mindset, I think it was a very healthy mindset, of like, look, everyone here is new. Everyone here is dying to make friends. I'm gonna go out of my comfort zone, walk up to people, be nice to them, talk to them, smile at them, and build a friend circle, and talk to people that I might have been intimidated by, or that I might have not all, you know, I know as much about, or have as much in common with. And I think, you know, by the more I did that, the more I just, it just made my college experience that much better."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Wrapping up.mp3", "Sentence": "But in college, I went with a mindset, I think it was a very healthy mindset, of like, look, everyone here is new. Everyone here is dying to make friends. I'm gonna go out of my comfort zone, walk up to people, be nice to them, talk to them, smile at them, and build a friend circle, and talk to people that I might have been intimidated by, or that I might have not all, you know, I know as much about, or have as much in common with. And I think, you know, by the more I did that, the more I just, it just made my college experience that much better. So, you know, we're kind of at the end of this, how do you go to college thing, this how do you go to college journey. And it's a super exciting one. I envy a lot of you all for being in the position that you're in."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Wrapping up.mp3", "Sentence": "And I think, you know, by the more I did that, the more I just, it just made my college experience that much better. So, you know, we're kind of at the end of this, how do you go to college thing, this how do you go to college journey. And it's a super exciting one. I envy a lot of you all for being in the position that you're in. It's a really neat time of your life. But on another level, we're kind of at, just the beginning of your adventure. So hope you enjoyed this."}, {"video_title": "Requesting letters of recommendation.mp3", "Sentence": "When you have a recommendation from a theater teacher, director, or band leader, those are helpful, but they're not what we're looking for in an academic required teacher recommendation. I always encourage students to reach out to the teachers that know them best. Not the teachers that gave them the highest grade, although those might be the same people, but a teacher that knows you well is a great place to start. Oftentimes for teachers, it's going to be teachers in their most recent year, so junior and or senior year. These teachers can usually include specific examples or anecdotes about their intellectual curiosity or their participation in the classroom. And it's always wonderful, if it's at all possible, to get that full range. So possibly one letter from a humanities teacher, meaning English, history, language, and so forth."}, {"video_title": "Requesting letters of recommendation.mp3", "Sentence": "Oftentimes for teachers, it's going to be teachers in their most recent year, so junior and or senior year. These teachers can usually include specific examples or anecdotes about their intellectual curiosity or their participation in the classroom. And it's always wonderful, if it's at all possible, to get that full range. So possibly one letter from a humanities teacher, meaning English, history, language, and so forth. Another from math, science, if possible. That doesn't always work, but it doesn't help to have two English teacher recommendations. They tend to say the same type of thing regarding your writing and your involvement in class."}, {"video_title": "Requesting letters of recommendation.mp3", "Sentence": "So possibly one letter from a humanities teacher, meaning English, history, language, and so forth. Another from math, science, if possible. That doesn't always work, but it doesn't help to have two English teacher recommendations. They tend to say the same type of thing regarding your writing and your involvement in class. The week before school, plan out on a calendar when you'll be asking your teachers and when you'll ask them to send their letter. Give them ample time, I say almost a month. Talking to teachers about the things that you would like for them to highlight is definitely a key component because as much as teachers are working as hard as they can, they're often writing multiple recommendations."}, {"video_title": "Requesting letters of recommendation.mp3", "Sentence": "They tend to say the same type of thing regarding your writing and your involvement in class. The week before school, plan out on a calendar when you'll be asking your teachers and when you'll ask them to send their letter. Give them ample time, I say almost a month. Talking to teachers about the things that you would like for them to highlight is definitely a key component because as much as teachers are working as hard as they can, they're often writing multiple recommendations. And so it's easy either to forget or even to not highlight those things or overlook those things that might make a very big difference in understanding an applicant. What I recommend for students is when they go up to that teacher, instead of handing them a resume which sort of lets them know, you know, here's my grades, here's maybe my GPA, my SAT scores, and all my activities at the school, that's going to be in other parts of the application. Teachers don't need to talk about that."}, {"video_title": "Requesting letters of recommendation.mp3", "Sentence": "Talking to teachers about the things that you would like for them to highlight is definitely a key component because as much as teachers are working as hard as they can, they're often writing multiple recommendations. And so it's easy either to forget or even to not highlight those things or overlook those things that might make a very big difference in understanding an applicant. What I recommend for students is when they go up to that teacher, instead of handing them a resume which sort of lets them know, you know, here's my grades, here's maybe my GPA, my SAT scores, and all my activities at the school, that's going to be in other parts of the application. Teachers don't need to talk about that. What admissions people really want from teachers is how is that student in that class? So what I recommend for students to do is sit down with that teacher, maybe mention, give them four or five bullet points of here's why I asked you, here's where I really wanted you to write my letter of recommendation. What are things that you want to make sure comes across that maybe you can't say or feel shy expressing in the personal statement or maybe in the additional information section?"}, {"video_title": "Requesting letters of recommendation.mp3", "Sentence": "Teachers don't need to talk about that. What admissions people really want from teachers is how is that student in that class? So what I recommend for students to do is sit down with that teacher, maybe mention, give them four or five bullet points of here's why I asked you, here's where I really wanted you to write my letter of recommendation. What are things that you want to make sure comes across that maybe you can't say or feel shy expressing in the personal statement or maybe in the additional information section? We are going to be looking at these recommendations to, again, see how they're going to contribute to our campus and how they're going to contribute to the classroom specifically, how they're going to get involved. And then sometimes we can also pull on things like their resilience and their excitement and love of learning. So those are all different things that we can gather from recommendations."}, {"video_title": "Deciding whether to retake the SAT.mp3", "Sentence": "The majority of students typically tend to improve this score on the second time around, and colleges will generally look at your highest scores on the three different sections over a couple of different tests if necessary. If you're still unsure, there's a few questions to ask yourself when deciding. So the first thing would be, where do you stand with the schools that you're interested in? One way of being able to do this is to look at the data that the colleges will publish. So most schools will publish their SAT data in percentiles. What they do is give you a range. So they generally give you the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile."}, {"video_title": "Deciding whether to retake the SAT.mp3", "Sentence": "One way of being able to do this is to look at the data that the colleges will publish. So most schools will publish their SAT data in percentiles. What they do is give you a range. So they generally give you the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile. So what that means is 25% of their students fall below this range who were enrolled at the school, and 25% fall above this range who were enrolled at the school. The numbers they give you are sort of the middle group of students. And you can use that then to sort of benchmark where you are."}, {"video_title": "Deciding whether to retake the SAT.mp3", "Sentence": "So they generally give you the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile. So what that means is 25% of their students fall below this range who were enrolled at the school, and 25% fall above this range who were enrolled at the school. The numbers they give you are sort of the middle group of students. And you can use that then to sort of benchmark where you are. So if you're, let's take an example, say your critical reading score is a 500. The range at UCLA for the 25th percentile is a 560, and for the 75th percentile is a 690. So you're below that."}, {"video_title": "Deciding whether to retake the SAT.mp3", "Sentence": "And you can use that then to sort of benchmark where you are. So if you're, let's take an example, say your critical reading score is a 500. The range at UCLA for the 25th percentile is a 560, and for the 75th percentile is a 690. So you're below that. You're in that bottom 25% of the class. So my advice to you would be is to study and really try to move that score up. It would be a good idea to retake that test."}, {"video_title": "Deciding whether to retake the SAT.mp3", "Sentence": "So you're below that. You're in that bottom 25% of the class. So my advice to you would be is to study and really try to move that score up. It would be a good idea to retake that test. If you scored a 600 on the critical reading for the SAT, then you're certainly more competitive at UCLA. You are between the 25th percentile and the 75th percentile. Again, you're more competitive, but it's still maybe something, a score that you may want to think about trying to push up if you haven't studied a lot and still feel like you could do better."}, {"video_title": "Deciding whether to retake the SAT.mp3", "Sentence": "It would be a good idea to retake that test. If you scored a 600 on the critical reading for the SAT, then you're certainly more competitive at UCLA. You are between the 25th percentile and the 75th percentile. Again, you're more competitive, but it's still maybe something, a score that you may want to think about trying to push up if you haven't studied a lot and still feel like you could do better. The SAT is more than just one section. So obviously UCLA has math scores and writing scores. The math range for SAT for UCLA is a 610 to a 740."}, {"video_title": "Deciding whether to retake the SAT.mp3", "Sentence": "Again, you're more competitive, but it's still maybe something, a score that you may want to think about trying to push up if you haven't studied a lot and still feel like you could do better. The SAT is more than just one section. So obviously UCLA has math scores and writing scores. The math range for SAT for UCLA is a 610 to a 740. The writing range is a 590 to a 710. Again, you can put your scores in those ranges and see how they match up. So a second question you may want to ask yourself is what was your initial score?"}, {"video_title": "Deciding whether to retake the SAT.mp3", "Sentence": "The math range for SAT for UCLA is a 610 to a 740. The writing range is a 590 to a 710. Again, you can put your scores in those ranges and see how they match up. So a second question you may want to ask yourself is what was your initial score? It's typically easier to bring up a very low score than to get the final few points on a higher score. A third thing to maybe think about is your results compared to your expectations. So if you did a lot of studying, you took some practice exams, and you did about the same as you did on the practice test, that may be where you're going to be."}, {"video_title": "Student story Overcoming social obstacles to college.mp3", "Sentence": "I don't know. Most, most, every kid on my, where I, the block I grew up, I still go there now. I'm the only one that made it to college. The rest have, are either in jail or just got out. So, overcoming my environment was, I don't even know how to explain it. It was just huge for me because, you know, when, when you grow up in a neighborhood and you, you have friends and you know, and then you start exceeding in school and they don't, you don't really hang out with them as much and then you notice that you kind of looked at as an outsider and some people might want to, you know, participate in some of the activities they're doing just because they feel like they have to prove who they are. I saw what I wanted to do."}, {"video_title": "Student story Extracurriculars that are nontraditional.mp3", "Sentence": "So even though I didn't participate in many of the traditional extracurricular activities, I did play a large part in my family. My nephews lived with us while I was in high school, and I watched them a lot. I wanted my parents to come home to a house that was calm and tranquil and somewhere that they could somewhat relax. And I didn't want them to be doing all of the work just because my parents worked five days... well, my mom worked five days a week, my dad worked six days a week, and they deserved a break. And it was important for me to be able to help them. So I realized that when I was doing the college application process that this was considered an extracurricular because it's something that has shaped me and my experience. So I was able to put that on my college application process, not only in the extracurriculars, but I also wrote about it in my personal statement."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "He was a student at the University of New Orleans studying to be an engineer. And I asked him what this homework was. He said it was calculus. I said, well, what do you need that for? He said, oh, I'm studying to be an engineer. And I remember this conversation vividly. He remembers none of it."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "I said, well, what do you need that for? He said, oh, I'm studying to be an engineer. And I remember this conversation vividly. He remembers none of it. I then asked him, well, what does an engineer do? And he says, well, an engineer builds things, anything from cars to planes to boats to computers and, you know, whatever else. I said, well, that's what I love doing."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "He remembers none of it. I then asked him, well, what does an engineer do? And he says, well, an engineer builds things, anything from cars to planes to boats to computers and, you know, whatever else. I said, well, that's what I love doing. I want to be an engineer. And it just got into my head that, you know, that that's what I should do. And he immediately said, well, if you want to be an engineer, you should go to MIT."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "I said, well, that's what I love doing. I want to be an engineer. And it just got into my head that, you know, that that's what I should do. And he immediately said, well, if you want to be an engineer, you should go to MIT. And then I remember literally saying, well, then I will go to MIT, not knowing what MIT was, where it was, what it stood for, anything. But it was just in the back of my mind. And then by the time I got to high school, it was still there."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "And he immediately said, well, if you want to be an engineer, you should go to MIT. And then I remember literally saying, well, then I will go to MIT, not knowing what MIT was, where it was, what it stood for, anything. But it was just in the back of my mind. And then by the time I got to high school, it was still there. And at this point, I knew that it was this good engineering school up in Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But then the more that I asked around, I realized, well, you know, this is going to be a pretty competitive thing. But, you know, I did buckle down more with my studies."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "And then by the time I got to high school, it was still there. And at this point, I knew that it was this good engineering school up in Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But then the more that I asked around, I realized, well, you know, this is going to be a pretty competitive thing. But, you know, I did buckle down more with my studies. But then my junior year, when I was ready, I sat down with my guidance counselor and he said, where are you going to apply? I said, I'm going to apply to MIT. And he said, where else are you going to apply?"}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "But, you know, I did buckle down more with my studies. But then my junior year, when I was ready, I sat down with my guidance counselor and he said, where are you going to apply? I said, I'm going to apply to MIT. And he said, where else are you going to apply? And I said, no, I think I'm just going to apply to MIT. And my guidance counselor said, well, do you realize that no one from our high school has ever gotten into MIT? That there's about five people in our state, I was in Louisiana, who get in every year."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "And he said, where else are you going to apply? And I said, no, I think I'm just going to apply to MIT. And my guidance counselor said, well, do you realize that no one from our high school has ever gotten into MIT? That there's about five people in our state, I was in Louisiana, who get in every year. Maybe you should, you know, you have a shot, but maybe you should apply to a few other places. And at first I was a little dismissed. I said, no, if I don't get in, I'll just wait a year and I'll apply again."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "That there's about five people in our state, I was in Louisiana, who get in every year. Maybe you should, you know, you have a shot, but maybe you should apply to a few other places. And at first I was a little dismissed. I said, no, if I don't get in, I'll just wait a year and I'll apply again. And he's like, no, no, you really should apply to more places. And so my process was pretty imperfect. I said, OK, well, let's see."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "I said, no, if I don't get in, I'll just wait a year and I'll apply again. And he's like, no, no, you really should apply to more places. And so my process was pretty imperfect. I said, OK, well, let's see. Locally, I grew up in New Orleans. There's Tulane, very good school in New Orleans. Let me apply there."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "I said, OK, well, let's see. Locally, I grew up in New Orleans. There's Tulane, very good school in New Orleans. Let me apply there. My sister was at Brown, another excellent school. I said, let me apply there. That's where my sister is."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "Let me apply there. My sister was at Brown, another excellent school. I said, let me apply there. That's where my sister is. And then several of the really good students from my high school the last several years had gone to Rice in Houston, which also was a very good engineering school. And so I said, well, I'll apply to Rice as well. And, you know, lucky for me with this kind of ad hoc process, just knowing who I knew, it did work out."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "That's where my sister is. And then several of the really good students from my high school the last several years had gone to Rice in Houston, which also was a very good engineering school. And so I said, well, I'll apply to Rice as well. And, you know, lucky for me with this kind of ad hoc process, just knowing who I knew, it did work out. You know, obviously I got into MIT eventually, or I got into MIT. And so that worked out. But I think in hindsight, I would have done it a little bit differently."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "And, you know, lucky for me with this kind of ad hoc process, just knowing who I knew, it did work out. You know, obviously I got into MIT eventually, or I got into MIT. And so that worked out. But I think in hindsight, I would have done it a little bit differently. I probably would have broadened the number of applications I put out there. I probably would have put done more research on what are all of the you know, not just basing on what my uncle happened to tell me or what one or two friends happened to tell me. I probably should have done more research on what are all of the top engineering schools."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "But I think in hindsight, I would have done it a little bit differently. I probably would have broadened the number of applications I put out there. I probably would have put done more research on what are all of the you know, not just basing on what my uncle happened to tell me or what one or two friends happened to tell me. I probably should have done more research on what are all of the top engineering schools. I would have discovered that Stanford has an excellent engineering department. Princeton has an excellent engineering department. Cornell, Georgia Tech."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Exploring college options.mp3", "Sentence": "I probably should have done more research on what are all of the top engineering schools. I would have discovered that Stanford has an excellent engineering department. Princeton has an excellent engineering department. Cornell, Georgia Tech. I could go on and on and on. So it probably make sense for me to apply to more schools. And also to have more kind of diversity in terms of how hard it might have been to get into the different schools."}, {"video_title": "Receiving an admissions decision Admit, deny, or waitlist.mp3", "Sentence": "Okay, so this is decision day and you're about to get to decisions that you've been waiting for for some time. The outcomes can be three. One, you're admitted. Hooray for you! That's pretty exciting and so you're going to have an option immediately and that's something you should jump up and down about. Two, you aren't admitted and that's okay, but in that case you just need to move on and say, well, that was one of the choices I made, but rather than even being too disappointed, just let that go and lean towards the admitted decision. And the third one, of course, is the waitlist."}, {"video_title": "Receiving an admissions decision Admit, deny, or waitlist.mp3", "Sentence": "Hooray for you! That's pretty exciting and so you're going to have an option immediately and that's something you should jump up and down about. Two, you aren't admitted and that's okay, but in that case you just need to move on and say, well, that was one of the choices I made, but rather than even being too disappointed, just let that go and lean towards the admitted decision. And the third one, of course, is the waitlist. Some institutions will invite you to be on the waitlist. The waitlist is a way that institutions ensure that they meet their full enrollment target. So in fact, they over admit their class knowing that they're not going to yield the entire class and then they wait for those decisions to come in May 1."}, {"video_title": "Receiving an admissions decision Admit, deny, or waitlist.mp3", "Sentence": "And the third one, of course, is the waitlist. Some institutions will invite you to be on the waitlist. The waitlist is a way that institutions ensure that they meet their full enrollment target. So in fact, they over admit their class knowing that they're not going to yield the entire class and then they wait for those decisions to come in May 1. After May 1, really in the middle of May or so, colleges and universities will determine whether they have the ability to turn back to the waiting list. And then they consider those students they've invited to the waiting list in a secondary review. It is really, really hard to tell what the outcomes will be and actually I think if I were a gambler, I would say that you should look at the waitlist as one that's going to be a long shot in most cases."}, {"video_title": "Receiving an admissions decision Admit, deny, or waitlist.mp3", "Sentence": "So in fact, they over admit their class knowing that they're not going to yield the entire class and then they wait for those decisions to come in May 1. After May 1, really in the middle of May or so, colleges and universities will determine whether they have the ability to turn back to the waiting list. And then they consider those students they've invited to the waiting list in a secondary review. It is really, really hard to tell what the outcomes will be and actually I think if I were a gambler, I would say that you should look at the waitlist as one that's going to be a long shot in most cases. Because there are a lot of students on it, they're not going to take too many students from the waiting list. And if you're fortunate enough to be one that they invite back, that's wonderful. Good news about waitlist is if you even have committed what you probably have to the student, to the institution you were admitted to, that you chose from those that you were admitted to, they will release you from your commitment if you're admitted from a waiting list at another university."}, {"video_title": "Overview Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "First, with your classes and class selection, what we want to see as admission officers is your academic preparation over time. That you have challenged yourself within your academic environment, within your high school environment. And that's going to vary from school to school, but that you've managed to somehow take advantage of the challenging opportunities that exist at your high school in terms of classes. Really within focusing mostly on the academic core. Again, that you're prepared to handle the rigors of college, and that's something that we can see over a period of time, over the years of high school. The other piece that we also are focusing on, not only is how well do you function and perform in a classroom setting, but also what you do outside of the classroom. Your extracurricular involvement is just as important, because for all of these college campuses, we are residential communities."}, {"video_title": "Overview Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "Really within focusing mostly on the academic core. Again, that you're prepared to handle the rigors of college, and that's something that we can see over a period of time, over the years of high school. The other piece that we also are focusing on, not only is how well do you function and perform in a classroom setting, but also what you do outside of the classroom. Your extracurricular involvement is just as important, because for all of these college campuses, we are residential communities. We are active playgrounds for our students to pursue their interests and their passions, whether that be in the arts, or research, or athletics, or student government, or community service. Just an example, although there's a multitude of ways that you can get involved. And so what we want to see is that students not only have the classroom component and the academic preparation, but also have interests and hobbies and passions that are outside of the classroom experience."}, {"video_title": "Overview Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "Your extracurricular involvement is just as important, because for all of these college campuses, we are residential communities. We are active playgrounds for our students to pursue their interests and their passions, whether that be in the arts, or research, or athletics, or student government, or community service. Just an example, although there's a multitude of ways that you can get involved. And so what we want to see is that students not only have the classroom component and the academic preparation, but also have interests and hobbies and passions that are outside of the classroom experience. Again, whatever those things may be. We're looking for commitment there, we're looking for depth in those areas. And then finally, the other piece that I think makes students probably most nervous is this idea of standardized tests."}, {"video_title": "Overview Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "And so what we want to see is that students not only have the classroom component and the academic preparation, but also have interests and hobbies and passions that are outside of the classroom experience. Again, whatever those things may be. We're looking for commitment there, we're looking for depth in those areas. And then finally, the other piece that I think makes students probably most nervous is this idea of standardized tests. And I honestly say that colleges do not use standardized tests in a vacuum, meaning we don't look at standardized tests alone to inform our decisions. They really are used in conjunction with your academic record to corroborate what we're already seeing in your performance over a period of time. It's really the only piece of the application that we use that gives us some sort of national barometer to understand your performance."}, {"video_title": "Overview Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "And then finally, the other piece that I think makes students probably most nervous is this idea of standardized tests. And I honestly say that colleges do not use standardized tests in a vacuum, meaning we don't look at standardized tests alone to inform our decisions. They really are used in conjunction with your academic record to corroborate what we're already seeing in your performance over a period of time. It's really the only piece of the application that we use that gives us some sort of national barometer to understand your performance. But it really is used in conjunction with your academic record and that transcript. So prepare for it. Definitely try and take a couple prep, you know, at-home prep exams, or get those guidebooks that you can see all over bookstores and online."}, {"video_title": "Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy.mp3", "Sentence": "Khan Academy and the College Board have teamed up to create the only SAT practice tool developed with the experts who write the SAT. It's personalized for each student, available anytime, anywhere, and completely free. We'll create personalized practice recommendations for you based on your test results from the PSAT 8-9, PSAT 10, PSAT NMSQT, and SAT. If you haven't already taken a College Board test, you can take our short diagnostic quizzes to get started. Your practice plan will show you where you already excel and where you should focus your practice. We'll also create a practice schedule for you based on your test date. We have tons of interactive practice questions developed with the College Board that give you instant feedback on your answers, as well as hints and videos to help you master your skills."}, {"video_title": "Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy.mp3", "Sentence": "If you haven't already taken a College Board test, you can take our short diagnostic quizzes to get started. Your practice plan will show you where you already excel and where you should focus your practice. We'll also create a practice schedule for you based on your test date. We have tons of interactive practice questions developed with the College Board that give you instant feedback on your answers, as well as hints and videos to help you master your skills. Many sections help you practice under time pressure. We have official practice tests written by the College Board. Taking at least two practice tests will help you build the experience and endurance necessary to do well on test day."}, {"video_title": "Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy.mp3", "Sentence": "We have tons of interactive practice questions developed with the College Board that give you instant feedback on your answers, as well as hints and videos to help you master your skills. Many sections help you practice under time pressure. We have official practice tests written by the College Board. Taking at least two practice tests will help you build the experience and endurance necessary to do well on test day. Join more than 1 million students already using official SAT practice. Khan Academy was probably the best way that I can use to study. My math was below par."}, {"video_title": "Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy.mp3", "Sentence": "Taking at least two practice tests will help you build the experience and endurance necessary to do well on test day. Join more than 1 million students already using official SAT practice. Khan Academy was probably the best way that I can use to study. My math was below par. Using Khan Academy, I built it up. It improved my scores dramatically. I like the leveling up."}, {"video_title": "Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy.mp3", "Sentence": "My math was below par. Using Khan Academy, I built it up. It improved my scores dramatically. I like the leveling up. It kind of makes it a game. I feel excited and prepared because it's something that I've already seen, I've already prepped for it, so when I take it, I'm going to do it right. Sign up and get started today."}, {"video_title": "Student story College increases confidence.mp3", "Sentence": "Because I didn't have the academic language to really write in class or analyze documents because we never had practiced those skills. And so I always felt that I was a student that just wasn't smart enough and that was never good enough for something. And I kind of lost the belief in myself that I would achieve, especially because I had things like my accent or my... I didn't have the knowledge that other people had here, the cultural knowledge, the jokes, the references, this, that. So those were all really hard experiences moving in right in high school. When I went to college and I chose the major of what I really was interested in, which was politics and history and international relations, all of a sudden I thrived in those classes and all my experiences ended up becoming assets. And my language and my cultural difference ended up becoming something that aided me more because I was able to bring other perspectives into the classroom discussions."}, {"video_title": "Making the college transition.mp3", "Sentence": "That's the thing that will then trigger the opportunity for you to register for your orientation so you get a sense of what it's like to attend the college. At that point, you'd be able to register for classes and speak with advisors. You'll also have an opportunity to select your housing. On some campuses, you may actually have some input as to who will be your roommate. But you certainly would be able to take a look at the housing options and to select where you would like to live. You'll also have an opportunity to meet with other students. Many of us have Facebook pages where you have an opportunity to go ahead and chat with students and to become familiar with other students who will also be coming so that you don't come in and meet a bunch of strangers when you get there."}, {"video_title": "Making the college transition.mp3", "Sentence": "On some campuses, you may actually have some input as to who will be your roommate. But you certainly would be able to take a look at the housing options and to select where you would like to live. You'll also have an opportunity to meet with other students. Many of us have Facebook pages where you have an opportunity to go ahead and chat with students and to become familiar with other students who will also be coming so that you don't come in and meet a bunch of strangers when you get there. You want to make sure that you meet all deadlines. There are many deadlines that you'll see for your housing, for registering for classes, for registering for orientation. Deadlines are going to be very important because if you miss deadlines, then that can have an impact on your matriculation on the campus."}, {"video_title": "How formal should the tone of your college essay be.mp3", "Sentence": "We're here with Sarah McGinty, researcher and author of the college application essay. Sarah, what are some of the things I need to be thinking about in terms of style when I'm writing my college application essay? Well, I think the most important thing to think about is pace. So, start fast. The reader is very knowledgeable. They're reading 25 or 30 of these things a day. You can jump right into your story."}, {"video_title": "How formal should the tone of your college essay be.mp3", "Sentence": "So, start fast. The reader is very knowledgeable. They're reading 25 or 30 of these things a day. You can jump right into your story. Maybe that means you eliminate your introduction. Maybe that means you shrink your conclusion. But it's a sandwich."}, {"video_title": "How formal should the tone of your college essay be.mp3", "Sentence": "You can jump right into your story. Maybe that means you eliminate your introduction. Maybe that means you shrink your conclusion. But it's a sandwich. So, the beginning and end is just the bread to hold it together. It's the meat in the middle that matters. Great."}, {"video_title": "How formal should the tone of your college essay be.mp3", "Sentence": "But it's a sandwich. So, the beginning and end is just the bread to hold it together. It's the meat in the middle that matters. Great. So, I start fast. I focus primarily on the story itself, not sort of any fluff in the intro or conclusion. What else should I be thinking about in terms of the style and tone that I'm using?"}, {"video_title": "How formal should the tone of your college essay be.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. So, I start fast. I focus primarily on the story itself, not sort of any fluff in the intro or conclusion. What else should I be thinking about in terms of the style and tone that I'm using? It's a personal essay, not an academic research paper. Try to match your vocabulary to the kind of person you are and to the fact you're a young 17, 18-year-old person. Make sure it sounds like you."}, {"video_title": "How formal should the tone of your college essay be.mp3", "Sentence": "What else should I be thinking about in terms of the style and tone that I'm using? It's a personal essay, not an academic research paper. Try to match your vocabulary to the kind of person you are and to the fact you're a young 17, 18-year-old person. Make sure it sounds like you. And that means not so many $10 words and a lot of just conversational and relaxed language. So, can you give me \u2013 I think I know what you mean, but could you give me some sort of example? Well, I did have a student once who wrote, I encountered this terrestrial sphere on a vernal evening in 1997."}, {"video_title": "How formal should the tone of your college essay be.mp3", "Sentence": "Make sure it sounds like you. And that means not so many $10 words and a lot of just conversational and relaxed language. So, can you give me \u2013 I think I know what you mean, but could you give me some sort of example? Well, I did have a student once who wrote, I encountered this terrestrial sphere on a vernal evening in 1997. And after a little conversation, we decided it would be okay to say I was born in April 1997. Gotcha. So, in other words, keep it simple."}, {"video_title": "How formal should the tone of your college essay be.mp3", "Sentence": "Well, I did have a student once who wrote, I encountered this terrestrial sphere on a vernal evening in 1997. And after a little conversation, we decided it would be okay to say I was born in April 1997. Gotcha. So, in other words, keep it simple. This should sound like when I'm talking to a friend. Exactly. Great."}, {"video_title": "How formal should the tone of your college essay be.mp3", "Sentence": "So, in other words, keep it simple. This should sound like when I'm talking to a friend. Exactly. Great. And anything else that I should be thinking about in terms of style and tone? Well, my last words would ask you to be as specific as possible in the story that you've told and in the writing that you supply so that it is vivid and detailed. Maybe one way to do that is to convey some of your story through dialogue."}, {"video_title": "How formal should the tone of your college essay be.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. And anything else that I should be thinking about in terms of style and tone? Well, my last words would ask you to be as specific as possible in the story that you've told and in the writing that you supply so that it is vivid and detailed. Maybe one way to do that is to convey some of your story through dialogue. What the policeman who pulled you over said and what you said back, that would certainly help us be in the scene, but be as specific as possible. It's very common at the beginning to write sentences like, I had many new and surprising experiences then. And that's a great first thought, but the second thought needs to be, okay, what was new and surprising about them?"}, {"video_title": "How formal should the tone of your college essay be.mp3", "Sentence": "Maybe one way to do that is to convey some of your story through dialogue. What the policeman who pulled you over said and what you said back, that would certainly help us be in the scene, but be as specific as possible. It's very common at the beginning to write sentences like, I had many new and surprising experiences then. And that's a great first thought, but the second thought needs to be, okay, what was new and surprising about them? And maybe that sentence can be made, I slept in a tent, washed my face and hands in a saucepan, and survived on bread and candy bars. Gotcha. So, we're really, really kind of getting into the nitty-gritty details of the story as opposed to kind of surface level, broad brush sentences."}, {"video_title": "How formal should the tone of your college essay be.mp3", "Sentence": "And that's a great first thought, but the second thought needs to be, okay, what was new and surprising about them? And maybe that sentence can be made, I slept in a tent, washed my face and hands in a saucepan, and survived on bread and candy bars. Gotcha. So, we're really, really kind of getting into the nitty-gritty details of the story as opposed to kind of surface level, broad brush sentences. And that's what's going to make it memorable. So, if you're specific, that will lead admissions to say, what about the kid that lived on bread and candy bars? They're not going to say, maybe we'll take that kid that had a surprising experience."}, {"video_title": "How formal should the tone of your college essay be.mp3", "Sentence": "So, we're really, really kind of getting into the nitty-gritty details of the story as opposed to kind of surface level, broad brush sentences. And that's what's going to make it memorable. So, if you're specific, that will lead admissions to say, what about the kid that lived on bread and candy bars? They're not going to say, maybe we'll take that kid that had a surprising experience. Gotcha. So, just to recap, start fast, sound like yourself, and be specific. That's it."}, {"video_title": "Engaging in extracurricular activities.mp3", "Sentence": "So while I was traveling in the fall, I realized that not everyone really understood what they should be talking about when they tell us about what they do after class. And I really, that's what I, that's the phrase I use. What do you do when you go home from school? So for some students that might mean significant family responsibilities. If both of your parents are working and you're picking up your brothers and sisters from school and tutoring them on their homework, please let us know that because we won't expect you to be doing, you know, all of the same things that someone who doesn't have those expectations, you know, placed on them are doing. So I always suggest to students to really give us more when it comes to extracurriculars. Everything outside of the classroom is really what extracurricular means."}, {"video_title": "Engaging in extracurricular activities.mp3", "Sentence": "So for some students that might mean significant family responsibilities. If both of your parents are working and you're picking up your brothers and sisters from school and tutoring them on their homework, please let us know that because we won't expect you to be doing, you know, all of the same things that someone who doesn't have those expectations, you know, placed on them are doing. So I always suggest to students to really give us more when it comes to extracurriculars. Everything outside of the classroom is really what extracurricular means. Leadership positions are great because they show commitment, but we want to make sure that students are doing things that are meaningful to them, that they're spending time doing them, and they're doing them well, whatever it may be. If you're spending your time by, you know, learning how to build Formula One racing cars, because that's what you want to do, and there's no club for that at school, we still need to know that that's what you spend all your time doing, especially if it's something that you're accomplished in. What we also want to understand is how the student has really made an impact in their school community or greater community through the different interests and passions that they have."}, {"video_title": "Engaging in extracurricular activities.mp3", "Sentence": "Everything outside of the classroom is really what extracurricular means. Leadership positions are great because they show commitment, but we want to make sure that students are doing things that are meaningful to them, that they're spending time doing them, and they're doing them well, whatever it may be. If you're spending your time by, you know, learning how to build Formula One racing cars, because that's what you want to do, and there's no club for that at school, we still need to know that that's what you spend all your time doing, especially if it's something that you're accomplished in. What we also want to understand is how the student has really made an impact in their school community or greater community through the different interests and passions that they have. So admission is also going to look at your summers and what, you know, what have you done in your summers. Ninth grade summer, probably not the most important summer they're going to look at, but certainly 10th grade, 11th grade summers, they're going to start to take a look at what are you doing in that time frame. That doesn't mean you have to go and spend a lot of money on a program to look impressive to a college."}, {"video_title": "Engaging in extracurricular activities.mp3", "Sentence": "What we also want to understand is how the student has really made an impact in their school community or greater community through the different interests and passions that they have. So admission is also going to look at your summers and what, you know, what have you done in your summers. Ninth grade summer, probably not the most important summer they're going to look at, but certainly 10th grade, 11th grade summers, they're going to start to take a look at what are you doing in that time frame. That doesn't mean you have to go and spend a lot of money on a program to look impressive to a college. My advice to you would be, you know, think about something that you want to do in the summer that could really be exciting to you. You know, that may be having a summer job, you know, learning how to manage your own money. It may be there's an academic, you know, program that you want to take online or at a local college that could really be exciting."}, {"video_title": "Engaging in extracurricular activities.mp3", "Sentence": "That doesn't mean you have to go and spend a lot of money on a program to look impressive to a college. My advice to you would be, you know, think about something that you want to do in the summer that could really be exciting to you. You know, that may be having a summer job, you know, learning how to manage your own money. It may be there's an academic, you know, program that you want to take online or at a local college that could really be exciting. You've always wanted to try, you know, architecture, and there's an opportunity to try that because there's no chance to do it in high school. It doesn't have to be something fancy. It has to be something that's really exciting to you."}, {"video_title": "Engaging in extracurricular activities.mp3", "Sentence": "It may be there's an academic, you know, program that you want to take online or at a local college that could really be exciting. You've always wanted to try, you know, architecture, and there's an opportunity to try that because there's no chance to do it in high school. It doesn't have to be something fancy. It has to be something that's really exciting to you. Ultimately, what we want to see is depth, what we want to see is commitment, and what we want to see is leadership in some of these different activities. When we're looking at the extracurriculars that you are involved in, it's important that you're giving us accurate descriptions of what they are. So while you may know what it means to be leader of the organization for protecting animals, you know, we would like to know a little bit more about the specifics."}, {"video_title": "Engaging in extracurricular activities.mp3", "Sentence": "It has to be something that's really exciting to you. Ultimately, what we want to see is depth, what we want to see is commitment, and what we want to see is leadership in some of these different activities. When we're looking at the extracurriculars that you are involved in, it's important that you're giving us accurate descriptions of what they are. So while you may know what it means to be leader of the organization for protecting animals, you know, we would like to know a little bit more about the specifics. What does that mean? What have you done? How many hours do you spend on that?"}, {"video_title": "The college experience.mp3", "Sentence": "You're not only choosing your own schedule, but you're choosing what classes you want to take, what classes you don't want to take. Around the time of freshman orientation we were given these booklets with hundreds of courses that you could take from dozens of different departments and programs. And I thought it would be a good idea to just grab a highlighter and go through every single page and mark up every class that sounded remotely interesting. And at the end of this, when I got to the end of the book, I probably had about 60 courses highlighted. Concept of the Cosmos, Sociology of the School, Race in America, U.S. Education. The cool thing about college is that at any given point and any given day, you're going to run into a really amazing person who's going to blow your mind about something that you haven't thought about. The support system is amazing."}, {"video_title": "The college experience.mp3", "Sentence": "And at the end of this, when I got to the end of the book, I probably had about 60 courses highlighted. Concept of the Cosmos, Sociology of the School, Race in America, U.S. Education. The cool thing about college is that at any given point and any given day, you're going to run into a really amazing person who's going to blow your mind about something that you haven't thought about. The support system is amazing. All the kids here are so passionate and they're so into their learning. I think that's what I find different than high school. I'm not the one that's pushing and pushing and everybody else is just satisfied with doing what they need to graduate."}, {"video_title": "The college experience.mp3", "Sentence": "The support system is amazing. All the kids here are so passionate and they're so into their learning. I think that's what I find different than high school. I'm not the one that's pushing and pushing and everybody else is just satisfied with doing what they need to graduate. The students actually want to be there. That's a big difference in the high school to college. Everybody's really friendly."}, {"video_title": "The college experience.mp3", "Sentence": "I'm not the one that's pushing and pushing and everybody else is just satisfied with doing what they need to graduate. The students actually want to be there. That's a big difference in the high school to college. Everybody's really friendly. There's not as much cliques. Everybody's just cool, nice. You can talk to anyone."}, {"video_title": "The college experience.mp3", "Sentence": "Everybody's really friendly. There's not as much cliques. Everybody's just cool, nice. You can talk to anyone. That's the best thing about college. Being exposed to new ideas, new people, new cultures, it's completely mind-changing. I work three jobs."}, {"video_title": "The college experience.mp3", "Sentence": "You can talk to anyone. That's the best thing about college. Being exposed to new ideas, new people, new cultures, it's completely mind-changing. I work three jobs. I work at the admissions office, I work for my cultural center, and I work at my residential college. I studied abroad twice, once in Madrid and once in London. I've had two internships, one in Minneapolis and one in Alaska."}, {"video_title": "The college experience.mp3", "Sentence": "I work three jobs. I work at the admissions office, I work for my cultural center, and I work at my residential college. I studied abroad twice, once in Madrid and once in London. I've had two internships, one in Minneapolis and one in Alaska. Over the course of all these experiences, there have been several instances where I'm just like, I cannot believe how radically different my life is now than it was before. Because it's fun to look at Shakespeare when you're actually in London, or it's fun to be able to dream something and then work for it and then see it happen. I cannot believe every day I'm so surprised by how much I have grown since I was in high school."}, {"video_title": "The college experience.mp3", "Sentence": "I've had two internships, one in Minneapolis and one in Alaska. Over the course of all these experiences, there have been several instances where I'm just like, I cannot believe how radically different my life is now than it was before. Because it's fun to look at Shakespeare when you're actually in London, or it's fun to be able to dream something and then work for it and then see it happen. I cannot believe every day I'm so surprised by how much I have grown since I was in high school. When I was in high school and I was looking at colleges, I had no idea how I was going to fare. I didn't know how I was going to succeed. It seemed like this big thing so far away that everyone else was in on except for me."}, {"video_title": "The college experience.mp3", "Sentence": "I cannot believe every day I'm so surprised by how much I have grown since I was in high school. When I was in high school and I was looking at colleges, I had no idea how I was going to fare. I didn't know how I was going to succeed. It seemed like this big thing so far away that everyone else was in on except for me. I've really found myself, and I know who I am, and I'm just so excited by continuing this intellectual journey. It's just something that's very exciting to me. It basically has allowed me to dream much bigger."}, {"video_title": "Benefits and drawbacks of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "The average for a student going to a public school is about $26,000 of debt. For private schools, it's around $29,000 of debt. Taking out loans to pay for education is a highly, highly personal decision-making process. And it gets complicated because I think families tend to advise students, and sometimes that advice is very helpful, and other times it's kind of antagonistic because it adds another pressure that you have to keep in mind. And sometimes the pressure is to take out loans because no one has money right now. Or in other times, it's we're not taking out any loans because we have no money to pay back, which might mean that if you're not going to take out loans, you need to pay everything right now, which means you might have to work a whole lot more somehow in order to pay for education. And so my biggest advice is to think very practically about can you actually pay back those loans?"}, {"video_title": "Benefits and drawbacks of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "And it gets complicated because I think families tend to advise students, and sometimes that advice is very helpful, and other times it's kind of antagonistic because it adds another pressure that you have to keep in mind. And sometimes the pressure is to take out loans because no one has money right now. Or in other times, it's we're not taking out any loans because we have no money to pay back, which might mean that if you're not going to take out loans, you need to pay everything right now, which means you might have to work a whole lot more somehow in order to pay for education. And so my biggest advice is to think very practically about can you actually pay back those loans? Have an understanding of what is your overall indebtedness. I see students get into trouble because they just keep taking out loans every year, and then it's a big surprise for them at the end of four years how much they owe. So you should know how much you've borrowed."}, {"video_title": "Benefits and drawbacks of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "And so my biggest advice is to think very practically about can you actually pay back those loans? Have an understanding of what is your overall indebtedness. I see students get into trouble because they just keep taking out loans every year, and then it's a big surprise for them at the end of four years how much they owe. So you should know how much you've borrowed. You should know what that means in terms of monthly payments when you graduate. What's the dollar amount that you're going to be responsible for? And have an understanding of sort of basic budgeting."}, {"video_title": "Benefits and drawbacks of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So you should know how much you've borrowed. You should know what that means in terms of monthly payments when you graduate. What's the dollar amount that you're going to be responsible for? And have an understanding of sort of basic budgeting. What does that mean in terms of what will your lifestyle need to be when you graduate? So don't just take out those loans blindly. Know what the monthly payment obligation is going to be, what that means for you once you're out in the world of work."}, {"video_title": "Benefits and drawbacks of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "And have an understanding of sort of basic budgeting. What does that mean in terms of what will your lifestyle need to be when you graduate? So don't just take out those loans blindly. Know what the monthly payment obligation is going to be, what that means for you once you're out in the world of work. Unfortunately we can't avoid those student loans forever. So it means taking out loans for reasons that will keep you in school. Taking out a loan because you want to do a really fun spring break probably isn't a good idea."}, {"video_title": "Benefits and drawbacks of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Know what the monthly payment obligation is going to be, what that means for you once you're out in the world of work. Unfortunately we can't avoid those student loans forever. So it means taking out loans for reasons that will keep you in school. Taking out a loan because you want to do a really fun spring break probably isn't a good idea. So especially the work that I've done, I was a low income student. You have to think of loans in the context of going to college as an investment in yourself. Yes it's debt, but it's also an investment."}, {"video_title": "Benefits and drawbacks of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Taking out a loan because you want to do a really fun spring break probably isn't a good idea. So especially the work that I've done, I was a low income student. You have to think of loans in the context of going to college as an investment in yourself. Yes it's debt, but it's also an investment. And if you realize that a student with a college degree makes a million more dollars over the span of their lifetime than a student with a high school degree, $26,000 of debt for a return of over a million extra dollars is a pretty good investment in yourself. So it takes a bit of a mindset adjustment. It's a scary amount when you're a low income student and think oh my gosh, $20,000 in debt."}, {"video_title": "Benefits and drawbacks of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Yes it's debt, but it's also an investment. And if you realize that a student with a college degree makes a million more dollars over the span of their lifetime than a student with a high school degree, $26,000 of debt for a return of over a million extra dollars is a pretty good investment in yourself. So it takes a bit of a mindset adjustment. It's a scary amount when you're a low income student and think oh my gosh, $20,000 in debt. But that's why it's also really critical for you to pick a school that really is going to help you be successful and graduate. Taking out a loan also helps you start to build up credit, which is a good thing and get a credit score. But in general, again, most students are going to have loan and they need to sort of think about the schools they're going to go to to be able to pay back that loan."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "And I could talk about it now in hindsight, you know, more than 20, I'm getting old, more than 20 years after the fact. But I will say, especially earlier on in high school in ninth and tenth and eleventh grade, I really didn't fully appreciate, I actually didn't know what was good or bad. But now I think I have a better lens on what actually did help. You know, even entering high school, I had a strong interest in math and science. And frankly, I was just curious in general. I just liked learning things. And so I was always eager to take the most challenging courses that my school had to offer."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "You know, even entering high school, I had a strong interest in math and science. And frankly, I was just curious in general. I just liked learning things. And so I was always eager to take the most challenging courses that my school had to offer. So I think that was really important. One, that prepares you for college, but it also shows admissions officers that you're up for stepping out of your comfort zone and stretching yourself. And as I got into my later years in high school, as I kind of maxed out a few of the math classes that my high school offered, I went to the University of New Orleans and I took classes there."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "And so I was always eager to take the most challenging courses that my school had to offer. So I think that was really important. One, that prepares you for college, but it also shows admissions officers that you're up for stepping out of your comfort zone and stretching yourself. And as I got into my later years in high school, as I kind of maxed out a few of the math classes that my high school offered, I went to the University of New Orleans and I took classes there. And I think once again, and I think I actually even met a few folks from my university later that said, no, that really made your application look good, that you continue to challenge yourself. You didn't just say, oh, I did as much as I could do with the resources at hand. You looked for new ways to challenge yourself."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "And as I got into my later years in high school, as I kind of maxed out a few of the math classes that my high school offered, I went to the University of New Orleans and I took classes there. And I think once again, and I think I actually even met a few folks from my university later that said, no, that really made your application look good, that you continue to challenge yourself. You didn't just say, oh, I did as much as I could do with the resources at hand. You looked for new ways to challenge yourself. So I think that's always a good idea. Whatever your circumstances, try to push and figure out and pull resources that allow you to grow. On the extracurricular side, some of you all might have guessed, I was on the math team."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "You looked for new ways to challenge yourself. So I think that's always a good idea. Whatever your circumstances, try to push and figure out and pull resources that allow you to grow. On the extracurricular side, some of you all might have guessed, I was on the math team. I was the captain, which I enjoyed. And, you know, it's about math, but it's also about leadership. It's about motivating other people."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "On the extracurricular side, some of you all might have guessed, I was on the math team. I was the captain, which I enjoyed. And, you know, it's about math, but it's also about leadership. It's about motivating other people. It's about mentoring other people. So I think that reflects well in an application. But it wasn't just about math."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "It's about motivating other people. It's about mentoring other people. So I think that reflects well in an application. But it wasn't just about math. I also was really into art. And so we had a school newspaper, a very good school newspaper, actually. And so I became the art editor of it eventually, the guy who writes the cartoons or draws the cartoons and does a lot of the layout."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "But it wasn't just about math. I also was really into art. And so we had a school newspaper, a very good school newspaper, actually. And so I became the art editor of it eventually, the guy who writes the cartoons or draws the cartoons and does a lot of the layout. And, you know, one, I didn't do that to get into college. I did that because I just really enjoyed it. It was one of the best experiences I had in high school."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "And so I became the art editor of it eventually, the guy who writes the cartoons or draws the cartoons and does a lot of the layout. And, you know, one, I didn't do that to get into college. I did that because I just really enjoyed it. It was one of the best experiences I had in high school. I learned a ton. But I think it did help my application. You know, other things I did extracurricularly, I ran for class president my junior year and lost."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "It was one of the best experiences I had in high school. I learned a ton. But I think it did help my application. You know, other things I did extracurricularly, I ran for class president my junior year and lost. So that was just, I guess, a good experience. I didn't think it was a good experience when I lost. And actually, I don't know if that actually helped my application, because I think I was too embarrassed to write that I lost."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "You know, other things I did extracurricularly, I ran for class president my junior year and lost. So that was just, I guess, a good experience. I didn't think it was a good experience when I lost. And actually, I don't know if that actually helped my application, because I think I was too embarrassed to write that I lost. But in hindsight, I probably should have written, I could have probably written a pretty good essay about just what I learned from that experience. And then the last piece is on the standardized tests, which are clearly an important part of applying to college. I think what really helped me is I didn't wait until the last minute to take the SAT and the ACT."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "And actually, I don't know if that actually helped my application, because I think I was too embarrassed to write that I lost. But in hindsight, I probably should have written, I could have probably written a pretty good essay about just what I learned from that experience. And then the last piece is on the standardized tests, which are clearly an important part of applying to college. I think what really helped me is I didn't wait until the last minute to take the SAT and the ACT. I took them, I left a little bit of room. So I took them once earlier in my, you know, before my senior year. And I got okay scores, but I felt that I could get better scores."}, {"video_title": "Sal Khan's story Making high school count.mp3", "Sentence": "I think what really helped me is I didn't wait until the last minute to take the SAT and the ACT. I took them, I left a little bit of room. So I took them once earlier in my, you know, before my senior year. And I got okay scores, but I felt that I could get better scores. And so I had room so I could take them again before the actual college applications were due. And in both the cases of the SAT and the ACT, I did much better the second time. So I think it was really important that I left that flexibility open."}, {"video_title": "Student story Admissions essay about a formative experience.mp3", "Sentence": "I talked about visiting the landfill there. At that landfill, there were dozens of families scattered all over the landfill, scavenging for pickings and stuff like that. So I talked about that. I talked about how it made me realize my parents sacrificed a lot. It made me realize what it's like in Cambodia and how fortunate I am to be in the position I am where I can go to college. I talked about how they helped me and they inspired me and they gave me all these opportunities. I talked about what I would do with college and how I wanted to make the most of what I was given, because it was a gift for me to be able to grow up in America and go to college."}, {"video_title": "Student story Admissions essay about a formative experience.mp3", "Sentence": "I talked about how it made me realize my parents sacrificed a lot. It made me realize what it's like in Cambodia and how fortunate I am to be in the position I am where I can go to college. I talked about how they helped me and they inspired me and they gave me all these opportunities. I talked about what I would do with college and how I wanted to make the most of what I was given, because it was a gift for me to be able to grow up in America and go to college. So I decided, you know what, I'm going to write about what I feel is true and what I feel the most strongly about. So that was it. I guess the colleges liked me because I got everyone that I had to submit an essay to accepted me for it."}, {"video_title": "Student story Overcoming immigration obstacles to college.mp3", "Sentence": "And that confronted me when I came around to the college process. And when I had to do applications, I had to check boxes that said that I was undocumented. It presented fear within me and also in my family. It came to one point my mom saying, don't go to college because they'll know you're undocumented and they'll take you away from me. And that fear played a big role in me saying no at one point, and then it led to motivation of saying, well no, I'm undocumented but I'm not useless, I could do something. So that made me pursue a college degree and it helped me fill out those college applications with courage. And doing that, I set an example for my younger siblings."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Sean, one of the big decisions that students face is that of student loans when they're going through the college admissions process. Can you kind of explain to me where are the different places I can get loans and then how that impacts what those options are? Sure. So the government is probably the best source of loans right now. And there's also smaller state loan programs that are out there, and that varies by states. So that's sort of the federal government, then there's the state government. There are colleges that will do their own institutional loans, and then there are private institutions that will do loans."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So the government is probably the best source of loans right now. And there's also smaller state loan programs that are out there, and that varies by states. So that's sort of the federal government, then there's the state government. There are colleges that will do their own institutional loans, and then there are private institutions that will do loans. And of all these different options, where should I begin? So with your financial aid package, colleges will help you sort of understand this, but in general, colleges are going to use a lot of federal money at first and try to package you that way. And again, it's generally the best type of loan you can get."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "There are colleges that will do their own institutional loans, and then there are private institutions that will do loans. And of all these different options, where should I begin? So with your financial aid package, colleges will help you sort of understand this, but in general, colleges are going to use a lot of federal money at first and try to package you that way. And again, it's generally the best type of loan you can get. There are need-based loans that are out there, so you have to have certain levels of income to qualify. The first being the federal Perkins loan, generally for more lower income students. That has a lot of really positive perks to it."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "And again, it's generally the best type of loan you can get. There are need-based loans that are out there, so you have to have certain levels of income to qualify. The first being the federal Perkins loan, generally for more lower income students. That has a lot of really positive perks to it. They include things like a fixed rate. It has no origination fee. You have the flexibility with the government's paying all of the interest until six months after you graduate, so that's a great factor for that."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "That has a lot of really positive perks to it. They include things like a fixed rate. It has no origination fee. You have the flexibility with the government's paying all of the interest until six months after you graduate, so that's a great factor for that. Okay, so you're not going to pay any interest while you're in school? While you're in school. Okay."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "You have the flexibility with the government's paying all of the interest until six months after you graduate, so that's a great factor for that. Okay, so you're not going to pay any interest while you're in school? While you're in school. Okay. And you do have, again, some flexible terms with deferring that if you go to graduate school. And again, you can take out in your first year up to $5,500 as an undergraduate for the federal Perkins loans. Okay, and that's up to $5,500."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Okay. And you do have, again, some flexible terms with deferring that if you go to graduate school. And again, you can take out in your first year up to $5,500 as an undergraduate for the federal Perkins loans. Okay, and that's up to $5,500. And is that per year or overall? A year. Okay, got it."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Okay, and that's up to $5,500. And is that per year or overall? A year. Okay, got it. Are there any other kind of need-based loans that are available from the federal government? There are. There are subsidized Stafford loans."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Okay, got it. Are there any other kind of need-based loans that are available from the federal government? There are. There are subsidized Stafford loans. They're not quite as good of terms as the Perkins loans, but again, still very good. Probably the next best loan you will find out there. There is an origination fee to that."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "There are subsidized Stafford loans. They're not quite as good of terms as the Perkins loans, but again, still very good. Probably the next best loan you will find out there. There is an origination fee to that. Right now, the interest rate is actually a little bit lower than the Perkins loan, but that will go up depending on the markets. Again, it has the same maximum of $5,500 for this year, for your first year. And is that $5,500?"}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "There is an origination fee to that. Right now, the interest rate is actually a little bit lower than the Perkins loan, but that will go up depending on the markets. Again, it has the same maximum of $5,500 for this year, for your first year. And is that $5,500? Does it stay $5,500 every year or does that change as you're going? So that can go up as you're a sophomore, junior, senior, that amount can go up. So you have a little bit more flexibility with that."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "And is that $5,500? Does it stay $5,500 every year or does that change as you're going? So that can go up as you're a sophomore, junior, senior, that amount can go up. So you have a little bit more flexibility with that. And the subsidized Stafford, their interest rate is also paid for by the government until six months after you graduate. So that's also no interest paid while in school. Correct."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So you have a little bit more flexibility with that. And the subsidized Stafford, their interest rate is also paid for by the government until six months after you graduate. So that's also no interest paid while in school. Correct. Are there any loans that the federal government offers that aren't need-based? There are. Now, one thing to remember is you need to fill out a FAFSA form to qualify for any federal loans."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Correct. Are there any loans that the federal government offers that aren't need-based? There are. Now, one thing to remember is you need to fill out a FAFSA form to qualify for any federal loans. So even if you... Go ahead. Just so I understand, so that's even if I don't have financial need, my family makes a lot of money, I still fill out the FAFSA just to get access to federal loans? Correct."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Now, one thing to remember is you need to fill out a FAFSA form to qualify for any federal loans. So even if you... Go ahead. Just so I understand, so that's even if I don't have financial need, my family makes a lot of money, I still fill out the FAFSA just to get access to federal loans? Correct. And that's an important fact that people don't realize. So there is an unsubsidized Stafford loan. And again, it's not quite as good of terms as the other two we've talked about, but it's still a very good option for many families."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Correct. And that's an important fact that people don't realize. So there is an unsubsidized Stafford loan. And again, it's not quite as good of terms as the other two we've talked about, but it's still a very good option for many families. So I know that the rates for the Stafford subsidized and unsubsidized are the same. So what are the actual differences between the two loans? So the biggest difference is that the federal government will not pay the interest while you're in school."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "And again, it's not quite as good of terms as the other two we've talked about, but it's still a very good option for many families. So I know that the rates for the Stafford subsidized and unsubsidized are the same. So what are the actual differences between the two loans? So the biggest difference is that the federal government will not pay the interest while you're in school. Okay. So they're not going to cover you. Right."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So the biggest difference is that the federal government will not pay the interest while you're in school. Okay. So they're not going to cover you. Right. Okay. And then are there any other kind... You mentioned there was one other kind of federal loan that's not need-based. There also is something called a direct plus loans, which a parent can take out instead of the student."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Right. Okay. And then are there any other kind... You mentioned there was one other kind of federal loan that's not need-based. There also is something called a direct plus loans, which a parent can take out instead of the student. It's in the federal program, so it still has some of the benefits of that program, but it's a higher rate. But again, it still has a lot of the other benefits of the federal program, and it's backed by the federal government. Great."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "There also is something called a direct plus loans, which a parent can take out instead of the student. It's in the federal program, so it still has some of the benefits of that program, but it's a higher rate. But again, it still has a lot of the other benefits of the federal program, and it's backed by the federal government. Great. Okay. So that makes sense. Those are the federal government loans."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. Okay. So that makes sense. Those are the federal government loans. What about state or college sources? What are those loans all about? So again, that really is going to depend on the state, and it's really going to depend on the college."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Those are the federal government loans. What about state or college sources? What are those loans all about? So again, that really is going to depend on the state, and it's really going to depend on the college. So those could be very good options. Personally, when I was in college, some of my loans were college loans, and those loans actually had no interest rate at all. So I was basically allowed to borrow... Again, in that example we used before, I borrowed $5,000, but there was no interest at all."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So again, that really is going to depend on the state, and it's really going to depend on the college. So those could be very good options. Personally, when I was in college, some of my loans were college loans, and those loans actually had no interest rate at all. So I was basically allowed to borrow... Again, in that example we used before, I borrowed $5,000, but there was no interest at all. All I paid back over the life of the loan was the $5,000. So college loans can be a really good opportunity, but again, not all colleges offer them, and some of them don't have as good a term to say the federal government does. Okay."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So I was basically allowed to borrow... Again, in that example we used before, I borrowed $5,000, but there was no interest at all. All I paid back over the life of the loan was the $5,000. So college loans can be a really good opportunity, but again, not all colleges offer them, and some of them don't have as good a term to say the federal government does. Okay. So that's really sort of state by state, college by college. College. There's not sort of a general rule of thumb."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Okay. So that's really sort of state by state, college by college. College. There's not sort of a general rule of thumb. It's just worth looking into. Right. But it's worth looking into, and the colleges will give you..."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "There's not sort of a general rule of thumb. It's just worth looking into. Right. But it's worth looking into, and the colleges will give you... If you qualify for them, they'll give you those options. At the state level, it's also worth looking into. The colleges will generally be able to sort of let you know if you qualify for these loans, and you can decide how good they are for your family and your situation."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "But it's worth looking into, and the colleges will give you... If you qualify for them, they'll give you those options. At the state level, it's also worth looking into. The colleges will generally be able to sort of let you know if you qualify for these loans, and you can decide how good they are for your family and your situation. Great. And then you mentioned federal, state, college, and you also mentioned private loans. Where do those kind of fall into this equation?"}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "The colleges will generally be able to sort of let you know if you qualify for these loans, and you can decide how good they are for your family and your situation. Great. And then you mentioned federal, state, college, and you also mentioned private loans. Where do those kind of fall into this equation? So I think in terms of the best terms, the most flexibility, they would be my last option. Now they can be very good options for a family that still need money, but I would say if you've exhausted those other options, that's probably the next place to go. They aren't subsidized."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "Where do those kind of fall into this equation? So I think in terms of the best terms, the most flexibility, they would be my last option. Now they can be very good options for a family that still need money, but I would say if you've exhausted those other options, that's probably the next place to go. They aren't subsidized. They are not need-based, and they definitely require... Most of them will require a parent to commit to repay the loan if the student fails to. The interest rates will vary by the different institutions."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "They aren't subsidized. They are not need-based, and they definitely require... Most of them will require a parent to commit to repay the loan if the student fails to. The interest rates will vary by the different institutions. So banks, other financial institutions typically have the highest interest rates and the least flexible payment options. So then why wouldn't, as a student, why wouldn't I just take all Stafford loans? So if Stafford's subsidized, or if I didn't qualify, Stafford unsubsidized."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "The interest rates will vary by the different institutions. So banks, other financial institutions typically have the highest interest rates and the least flexible payment options. So then why wouldn't, as a student, why wouldn't I just take all Stafford loans? So if Stafford's subsidized, or if I didn't qualify, Stafford unsubsidized. Why would I even bother looking at something like a private loan? Well unfortunately, with a Stafford loan right now, in the first year, the most you can take out is $5,500, and you may need a little bit more than that for loans. So you may need to look at other options, and so that's why you would move down."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So if Stafford's subsidized, or if I didn't qualify, Stafford unsubsidized. Why would I even bother looking at something like a private loan? Well unfortunately, with a Stafford loan right now, in the first year, the most you can take out is $5,500, and you may need a little bit more than that for loans. So you may need to look at other options, and so that's why you would move down. With a Perkins loan, you may not qualify because you don't meet the income standards, and for the subsidized Stafford loan, you may not qualify for that. So again, you may... You would definitely qualify for the unsubsidized loan, but then if you need a bit more, you may have to go to these other alternatives. I see."}, {"video_title": "Types of college loans.mp3", "Sentence": "So you may need to look at other options, and so that's why you would move down. With a Perkins loan, you may not qualify because you don't meet the income standards, and for the subsidized Stafford loan, you may not qualify for that. So again, you may... You would definitely qualify for the unsubsidized loan, but then if you need a bit more, you may have to go to these other alternatives. I see. So if you kind of pass that yearly maximum on the Stafford loans, you don't qualify income-wise for Perkins, then it'll be down to either a PLUS loan, which has a fairly high interest rate, state or college loan, which kind of varies, or the private loans, and those can have variable interest rates and maybe not as good repayment terms. But it sounds like, first and foremost, if you can get access to Stafford or Perkins, that's the place to start? Yes, absolutely."}, {"video_title": "Student story College brings new friends, learning, and freedom.mp3", "Sentence": "So I've just met so many people from around the world, even around the country. I never would have made friends in Chicago or Switzerland. It's just fantastic to understand different world cultures. I've learned a lot about myself. I love learning. I had no idea how much I loved to learn. I just thought school was school, but in college I'm there for myself, not because I have to be there."}, {"video_title": "Student story College brings new friends, learning, and freedom.mp3", "Sentence": "I've learned a lot about myself. I love learning. I had no idea how much I loved to learn. I just thought school was school, but in college I'm there for myself, not because I have to be there. Everything is on you. You're doing it because you want to. You're going to class because you want to, not because you have to."}, {"video_title": "Student story College brings new friends, learning, and freedom.mp3", "Sentence": "I just thought school was school, but in college I'm there for myself, not because I have to be there. Everything is on you. You're doing it because you want to. You're going to class because you want to, not because you have to. You're doing your homework because you want to, not because you have to. You're simply taking notes because you want to. College is just so much... there's so much more freedom, and because of that you can do so many more things."}, {"video_title": "Cost of in-state vs  out-of-state tuition.mp3", "Sentence": "And in addition, there are a number of consortiums of public universities within various regions in the United States. So, there's, for instance, the Western Undergraduate Exchange, which is a consortium of public schools in the West that give students in that entire region good price discounts. However, one thing you have to be really careful about is that if you are looking at public universities or colleges outside of your state, you will not get these price discounts for in-state tuition. Therefore, public schools out of state can actually be the most expensive schools for students because, number one, you're paying out-of-state prices. Number two, public schools are the schools often that are going to meet a lesser percentage of your demonstrated financial need. And number three, often public schools are the schools that are going to give more of their money away in the form of loans that you have to pay back in interest instead of money in the form of grants and scholarships, which you don't have to pay back. So what's interesting is that sometimes private colleges and universities can be a cheaper alternative for students than public out-of-state schools."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "Hey guys, we're here with Mara Allen, author of Right Now, Essential Tips for Standout College Essays, and she's going to talk to us all about how to take our essays to the next level and make sure that we're providing enough depth and substance to our essays. So the admissions officer needs to see or read something in you that's changed, some insight that you've had based on a circumstance or a meeting with an individual. Sure, so you're not just reporting a memorable experience, you have to talk about how that's shaped the person that you are today, how it's changed you, how you think differently now. So do you have any examples of maybe how a student started out and how maybe it was more surface level and how she took things or he took things to the next level? Sure, so one student I worked with in the Bay Area, she's a violin player. Every morning she'd wake up at 5.30 in the morning, she'd take a run, three to five miles as a way to wake up, get energized, and then she'd practice violin and go to school. Well so, I mean for me, I guess that, I would think that that shows dedication and the fact that you're really prioritizing this."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "So do you have any examples of maybe how a student started out and how maybe it was more surface level and how she took things or he took things to the next level? Sure, so one student I worked with in the Bay Area, she's a violin player. Every morning she'd wake up at 5.30 in the morning, she'd take a run, three to five miles as a way to wake up, get energized, and then she'd practice violin and go to school. Well so, I mean for me, I guess that, I would think that that shows dedication and the fact that you're really prioritizing this. So I mean that's impressive. And I think a lot of students would write about maybe a sport or a passion, but I mean that doesn't really seem like enough to me. Is that enough?"}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "Well so, I mean for me, I guess that, I would think that that shows dedication and the fact that you're really prioritizing this. So I mean that's impressive. And I think a lot of students would write about maybe a sport or a passion, but I mean that doesn't really seem like enough to me. Is that enough? How did this student take things to the next level there? Right, so initially she thought just the violin playing and the run showed, like you said, commitment and determination. But that isn't enough."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "Is that enough? How did this student take things to the next level there? Right, so initially she thought just the violin playing and the run showed, like you said, commitment and determination. But that isn't enough. There needs to be more of a story. Those are just facts. So I encouraged her to dig deeper."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "But that isn't enough. There needs to be more of a story. Those are just facts. So I encouraged her to dig deeper. So on her run, she would see a pattern and different people, of course, have different patterns. Some people would get up in the morning and walk their dog and she would run by this one house and she would hear opera music very early in the morning, 6 a.m. And then she thought to herself, again now moving to level two, not just the facts, but she thought those are two worlds, my world and this person's world that are similar because we both love music, but they never intersect. They never collide."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "So I encouraged her to dig deeper. So on her run, she would see a pattern and different people, of course, have different patterns. Some people would get up in the morning and walk their dog and she would run by this one house and she would hear opera music very early in the morning, 6 a.m. And then she thought to herself, again now moving to level two, not just the facts, but she thought those are two worlds, my world and this person's world that are similar because we both love music, but they never intersect. They never collide. So one day she went to the neighbor's door with her violin and said, I hear you play music every day. I know you love music. Would you like me to practice for you?"}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "They never collide. So one day she went to the neighbor's door with her violin and said, I hear you play music every day. I know you love music. Would you like me to practice for you? And this is where it started to unfold. The older gentleman said, I love music. I used to play the violin."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "Would you like me to practice for you? And this is where it started to unfold. The older gentleman said, I love music. I used to play the violin. I had to sell my violin to move to the United States to support my family. I'm not able to play anymore. She began practicing and they created a connection or a bond."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "I used to play the violin. I had to sell my violin to move to the United States to support my family. I'm not able to play anymore. She began practicing and they created a connection or a bond. Huh, well so now it sounds like she's moving past just a gift that she has, a skill that she's acquired. Now it feels kind of more like a story. Like I can visualize her early in the morning running down the street, seeing different lights of houses on and people all sort of doing their routine in a very charming story of how she came over and met this man."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "She began practicing and they created a connection or a bond. Huh, well so now it sounds like she's moving past just a gift that she has, a skill that she's acquired. Now it feels kind of more like a story. Like I can visualize her early in the morning running down the street, seeing different lights of houses on and people all sort of doing their routine in a very charming story of how she came over and met this man. Now how did she then relate this back to who she is now and make it useful for her college essay purpose? Right, so she went from the facts to a great story, but the story's not as great as it could be because there's no reveal in it. There's no aha moment of her changing her thinking."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "Like I can visualize her early in the morning running down the street, seeing different lights of houses on and people all sort of doing their routine in a very charming story of how she came over and met this man. Now how did she then relate this back to who she is now and make it useful for her college essay purpose? Right, so she went from the facts to a great story, but the story's not as great as it could be because there's no reveal in it. There's no aha moment of her changing her thinking. But gradually as she continued to play music in front of this gentleman, she realized that music is really a passion of hers. Before she thought of playing music as an obligation. She would go to competitions, she would win competitions, she would practice reluctantly and she was very good, but it just never was really in her heart."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "There's no aha moment of her changing her thinking. But gradually as she continued to play music in front of this gentleman, she realized that music is really a passion of hers. Before she thought of playing music as an obligation. She would go to competitions, she would win competitions, she would practice reluctantly and she was very good, but it just never was really in her heart. By playing to this audience of one, she began to realize that music is a connector. It bonds, can create bonds between young and old, between different cultures, between literally neighbors. So that idea that music took on a different context in her mind is the change."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "She would go to competitions, she would win competitions, she would practice reluctantly and she was very good, but it just never was really in her heart. By playing to this audience of one, she began to realize that music is a connector. It bonds, can create bonds between young and old, between different cultures, between literally neighbors. So that idea that music took on a different context in her mind is the change. That's the moment where she realized that music has a deeper meaning in her own life. Yeah, even that when she was going on these runs, she saw little snippets of lives that were all occurring simultaneously but never really intersected. And music, she realized to her, could be that intersection where some man she probably would have never talked to, she could finally talk to and make a connection with through the virtue of playing music."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "So that idea that music took on a different context in her mind is the change. That's the moment where she realized that music has a deeper meaning in her own life. Yeah, even that when she was going on these runs, she saw little snippets of lives that were all occurring simultaneously but never really intersected. And music, she realized to her, could be that intersection where some man she probably would have never talked to, she could finally talk to and make a connection with through the virtue of playing music. And to add another layer to the story, music was of interest to her long term in school and potentially as a career, but really this moment where her mind shifted and she had a self discovery changed her view and she became more passionate about pursuing that long term and she was able to communicate that in her essay as well. I see, so then she's also tying in potentially what she, the kind of student she might look like on a college campus, how she might be involved in music. And so an admissions officer could see this girl's clearly talented, she's dedicated, but she's also insightful."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "And music, she realized to her, could be that intersection where some man she probably would have never talked to, she could finally talk to and make a connection with through the virtue of playing music. And to add another layer to the story, music was of interest to her long term in school and potentially as a career, but really this moment where her mind shifted and she had a self discovery changed her view and she became more passionate about pursuing that long term and she was able to communicate that in her essay as well. I see, so then she's also tying in potentially what she, the kind of student she might look like on a college campus, how she might be involved in music. And so an admissions officer could see this girl's clearly talented, she's dedicated, but she's also insightful. She knows why she wants to do what she does and she could potentially be involved in this way at her school. So I think that that, I would imagine, is probably important for admissions officers to be able to see and think about as well. Right."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "And so an admissions officer could see this girl's clearly talented, she's dedicated, but she's also insightful. She knows why she wants to do what she does and she could potentially be involved in this way at her school. So I think that that, I would imagine, is probably important for admissions officers to be able to see and think about as well. Right. And I think that's another benefit she discovered in these months of playing that music is really that important to her and she would like to continue to study music and then potentially make it part of her career. So one of the important things to remember is she didn't explicitly say, my view of music changed. She used the story to reveal that part of herself."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "Right. And I think that's another benefit she discovered in these months of playing that music is really that important to her and she would like to continue to study music and then potentially make it part of her career. So one of the important things to remember is she didn't explicitly say, my view of music changed. She used the story to reveal that part of herself. If you have to explicitly say it, you're creating a distance between you and your reader. Sure. I would imagine they wouldn't want to read, you know, this changed me in this way, that way."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "She used the story to reveal that part of herself. If you have to explicitly say it, you're creating a distance between you and your reader. Sure. I would imagine they wouldn't want to read, you know, this changed me in this way, that way. I mean, that's fairly obvious. Yeah. Right."}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "I would imagine they wouldn't want to read, you know, this changed me in this way, that way. I mean, that's fairly obvious. Yeah. Right. Right. So using, using, start with the facts, go to level two and see where the story might take you, but then go to level three and ask yourself questions. What does this mean to me?"}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "Right. Right. So using, using, start with the facts, go to level two and see where the story might take you, but then go to level three and ask yourself questions. What does this mean to me? How is this different? How did this experience change me or didn't change me? How do I think, act, or feel differently because of it?"}, {"video_title": "Taking your college essay to the next level.mp3", "Sentence": "What does this mean to me? How is this different? How did this experience change me or didn't change me? How do I think, act, or feel differently because of it? And by asking yourself those questions, you'll get an essay that goes deeper and reveals more about you. And that's exactly what the admissions team wants. Wonderful."}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "Sean, one big question that students often have is how selectivity should weigh on the college search process. Can you talk through how selectivity matters? Sure. So, colleges tend to fall in three different categories. Non-selective schools, and with a non-selective school that generally means that if students meet a minimum GPA and have a, typically a, you know, a set of courses that that school is looking for and an SAT score that they're going to be admitted. So, if they meet the minimum, they're admitted. And that's the great majority of schools that are out there."}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So, colleges tend to fall in three different categories. Non-selective schools, and with a non-selective school that generally means that if students meet a minimum GPA and have a, typically a, you know, a set of courses that that school is looking for and an SAT score that they're going to be admitted. So, if they meet the minimum, they're admitted. And that's the great majority of schools that are out there. There are selective schools, and selective by definition means they have more applications than spots at their school, so they have to make some decisions. Selective is generally categorized as say admitting between 40% and 80% of their applicants. And then finally, the last category is highly selective."}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "And that's the great majority of schools that are out there. There are selective schools, and selective by definition means they have more applications than spots at their school, so they have to make some decisions. Selective is generally categorized as say admitting between 40% and 80% of their applicants. And then finally, the last category is highly selective. These schools tend to have many more applicants than they have spaces, so they have to make very difficult choices. And they're typically admitting less than 40% of their applicants, all the way down to the most selective school in the country last year admitted 5% of its applicants. So, those are the three different categories that are out there."}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "And then finally, the last category is highly selective. These schools tend to have many more applicants than they have spaces, so they have to make very difficult choices. And they're typically admitting less than 40% of their applicants, all the way down to the most selective school in the country last year admitted 5% of its applicants. So, those are the three different categories that are out there. Great. And can you talk us through, in each of these categories, maybe in a little bit more detail, who is it that makes it into a highly selective school versus a selective versus a non-selective? Sure."}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So, those are the three different categories that are out there. Great. And can you talk us through, in each of these categories, maybe in a little bit more detail, who is it that makes it into a highly selective school versus a selective versus a non-selective? Sure. So, I think in terms of a non-selective school, it is, if you meet the minimum criteria they put forward, and again, it's probably going to be a certain number of classes in history and math and science and languages and so forth, you're going to be admitted. So again, that's the great majority of schools that are out there. When you get into the selective and highly selective institutions, I think both of those are going to start with your academics."}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "Sure. So, I think in terms of a non-selective school, it is, if you meet the minimum criteria they put forward, and again, it's probably going to be a certain number of classes in history and math and science and languages and so forth, you're going to be admitted. So again, that's the great majority of schools that are out there. When you get into the selective and highly selective institutions, I think both of those are going to start with your academics. And what I mean by that is, have you challenged yourself in your current high school? So have you taken a very strong academic program and gone above the minimum? So again, if it only requires two years of science, have you taken four?"}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "When you get into the selective and highly selective institutions, I think both of those are going to start with your academics. And what I mean by that is, have you challenged yourself in your current high school? So have you taken a very strong academic program and gone above the minimum? So again, if it only requires two years of science, have you taken four? If you haven't, what have you taken in place of that? Are they good, strong academic classes and so forth? So both selective and highly selective schools are going to look at the strength of your academics, the better student you are."}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So again, if it only requires two years of science, have you taken four? If you haven't, what have you taken in place of that? Are they good, strong academic classes and so forth? So both selective and highly selective schools are going to look at the strength of your academics, the better student you are. So if you're sort of an A, A- student in a very good program in your high school, you're probably going to be a pretty good applicant for a highly selective school. If you're a B, B-plus student, or a solid B student in your high school in a good program, you're probably going to be competitive for a selective school. Now that's a very broad generalization, but just to give you some context, that's certainly part of it."}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So both selective and highly selective schools are going to look at the strength of your academics, the better student you are. So if you're sort of an A, A- student in a very good program in your high school, you're probably going to be a pretty good applicant for a highly selective school. If you're a B, B-plus student, or a solid B student in your high school in a good program, you're probably going to be competitive for a selective school. Now that's a very broad generalization, but just to give you some context, that's certainly part of it. And then from there, these schools are also going to look at a number of other things that may include things like your teacher recommendations, your extracurricular activities. They may also look at your essays if they require them. All of these things will go into their decision-making process."}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "Now that's a very broad generalization, but just to give you some context, that's certainly part of it. And then from there, these schools are also going to look at a number of other things that may include things like your teacher recommendations, your extracurricular activities. They may also look at your essays if they require them. All of these things will go into their decision-making process. But in general, if you're sitting out there trying to decide, what kinds of schools should I be looking at, it certainly will be academically driven. Test scores, again, especially if you're a low-income student, tend to be looked at within the context, just like everything else will be. So if you're a student from a low-income family, the school is going to look at you in context of the resources you have and really evaluate your testing based off of that."}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "All of these things will go into their decision-making process. But in general, if you're sitting out there trying to decide, what kinds of schools should I be looking at, it certainly will be academically driven. Test scores, again, especially if you're a low-income student, tend to be looked at within the context, just like everything else will be. So if you're a student from a low-income family, the school is going to look at you in context of the resources you have and really evaluate your testing based off of that. If you're from a high-income family that's highly educated, you're going to be evaluated based on that type of thing. So testing is something for any student they should study, they should work at to try to get the best scores they can, but they will be looked at in context. Great."}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So if you're a student from a low-income family, the school is going to look at you in context of the resources you have and really evaluate your testing based off of that. If you're from a high-income family that's highly educated, you're going to be evaluated based on that type of thing. So testing is something for any student they should study, they should work at to try to get the best scores they can, but they will be looked at in context. Great. And Sean, sort of implicit in this conversation is the idea that it's beneficial to go to more versus less selective schools. Can you talk us through what some of the benefits are of, if you are academically ready, going to a more selective school? What I would say to you is there are a lot of benefits to sort of pushing yourself."}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. And Sean, sort of implicit in this conversation is the idea that it's beneficial to go to more versus less selective schools. Can you talk us through what some of the benefits are of, if you are academically ready, going to a more selective school? What I would say to you is there are a lot of benefits to sort of pushing yourself. You already have done that in your high school context. If you are going to be competitive for a selective or highly selective school, you've already taken good courses, you've pushed yourself, you've done those things to put yourself in a position to apply to these kinds of schools. And these schools have benefits that may really benefit you in what you want your college experience."}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "What I would say to you is there are a lot of benefits to sort of pushing yourself. You already have done that in your high school context. If you are going to be competitive for a selective or highly selective school, you've already taken good courses, you've pushed yourself, you've done those things to put yourself in a position to apply to these kinds of schools. And these schools have benefits that may really benefit you in what you want your college experience. And those tend to be things like really good financial aid packages. I've had many students who have actually gone to very expensive schools and paid much less than they would have at their local public school. The opportunities there in terms of if a school has a $2 billion endowment versus a $100 million endowment, the resources are very, very different in what you can expect at that school in terms of laboratory spaces, in terms of dormitories, in terms of the student body that's there."}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "And these schools have benefits that may really benefit you in what you want your college experience. And those tend to be things like really good financial aid packages. I've had many students who have actually gone to very expensive schools and paid much less than they would have at their local public school. The opportunities there in terms of if a school has a $2 billion endowment versus a $100 million endowment, the resources are very, very different in what you can expect at that school in terms of laboratory spaces, in terms of dormitories, in terms of the student body that's there. The population of who you will be going to school with at these schools tends to be much more diverse on a lot of levels, socioeconomically, racially, geographically, and a lot of different ways that will benefit you in your educational process. So again, thinking about pushing yourself and applying to these selective and highly selective schools can really open doors for you that you may not know exist right now. They tend to have opportunities in terms of their career resources, so career services I mean."}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "The opportunities there in terms of if a school has a $2 billion endowment versus a $100 million endowment, the resources are very, very different in what you can expect at that school in terms of laboratory spaces, in terms of dormitories, in terms of the student body that's there. The population of who you will be going to school with at these schools tends to be much more diverse on a lot of levels, socioeconomically, racially, geographically, and a lot of different ways that will benefit you in your educational process. So again, thinking about pushing yourself and applying to these selective and highly selective schools can really open doors for you that you may not know exist right now. They tend to have opportunities in terms of their career resources, so career services I mean. So as you're leaving school, in fact a lot of these schools now are starting in freshman year with you and sort of getting prepared, helping you prepare your resume, getting you to do interviews, and really thinking about as you go through your four years also thinking about your career after that. And again, they have the resources to do that. The University of Chicago has upwards of 40 people in their career resource center to help students with their career after."}, {"video_title": "Comparing highly selective vs. selective vs. nonselective colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "They tend to have opportunities in terms of their career resources, so career services I mean. So as you're leaving school, in fact a lot of these schools now are starting in freshman year with you and sort of getting prepared, helping you prepare your resume, getting you to do interviews, and really thinking about as you go through your four years also thinking about your career after that. And again, they have the resources to do that. The University of Chicago has upwards of 40 people in their career resource center to help students with their career after. And that's just an astonishing number. Great. Well, John, thank you so much."}, {"video_title": "What to do when parents are divorced, and in situations with step-parents, foster care, etc..mp3", "Sentence": "This can lead to some inequities, unfortunately, particularly in cases where one parent earns a lot more money than another parent. Some families want the parent who makes the least amount of money to file the financial aid forms because they know that that means they'll get the most financial aid from the colleges and universities. However, the rule is that if your parents have joint custody of you, the parent who has provided the majority of your financial support over the last 12 months should be the one who files the financial aid forms, whether or not they make more or less money than the other parent. Some schools that use or require the CSS profile will require both parents to fill out the financial aid forms, whether or not they are divorced or separated. They use something in addition to the profile itself called the non-custodial profile, which basically just means that they're requiring the information from the other parent as well. So let's say your parents are divorced or separated and you live the majority of the time with your mother, and she makes about $60,000 a year in adjusted gross income, and your father makes half a million dollars in adjusted gross income. At a FAFSA-only school, they will only see your mother's income and asset information."}, {"video_title": "What to do when parents are divorced, and in situations with step-parents, foster care, etc..mp3", "Sentence": "Some schools that use or require the CSS profile will require both parents to fill out the financial aid forms, whether or not they are divorced or separated. They use something in addition to the profile itself called the non-custodial profile, which basically just means that they're requiring the information from the other parent as well. So let's say your parents are divorced or separated and you live the majority of the time with your mother, and she makes about $60,000 a year in adjusted gross income, and your father makes half a million dollars in adjusted gross income. At a FAFSA-only school, they will only see your mother's income and asset information. But at a school like Duke University or Carleton College, which requires the CSS profile and the non-custodial profile, they will require that both your mother and father report their income and asset information. So this means at that CSS profile school that uses the non-custodial profile, your college costs are going to be a lot higher than at the FAFSA-only schools because they're looking at both parents' information, including the parent who is a lot wealthier. If you are living the majority of time or receiving the majority of your financial support from a parent who has remarried, your step-parents' information must also be included on the financial aid forms."}, {"video_title": "What to do when parents are divorced, and in situations with step-parents, foster care, etc..mp3", "Sentence": "At a FAFSA-only school, they will only see your mother's income and asset information. But at a school like Duke University or Carleton College, which requires the CSS profile and the non-custodial profile, they will require that both your mother and father report their income and asset information. So this means at that CSS profile school that uses the non-custodial profile, your college costs are going to be a lot higher than at the FAFSA-only schools because they're looking at both parents' information, including the parent who is a lot wealthier. If you are living the majority of time or receiving the majority of your financial support from a parent who has remarried, your step-parents' information must also be included on the financial aid forms. And any prenup arrangement that your parent and step-parent have does not affect this rule. So let's say your dad married a wealthy heiress, and before they got married, she had your dad fill out a prenup arrangement that said she didn't have to pay for your college education. Nonetheless, regardless of that prenup, the financial aid rules say that her income and assets, as well as your father's income and assets, must be reported on the financial aid forms."}, {"video_title": "What to do when parents are divorced, and in situations with step-parents, foster care, etc..mp3", "Sentence": "If you are living the majority of time or receiving the majority of your financial support from a parent who has remarried, your step-parents' information must also be included on the financial aid forms. And any prenup arrangement that your parent and step-parent have does not affect this rule. So let's say your dad married a wealthy heiress, and before they got married, she had your dad fill out a prenup arrangement that said she didn't have to pay for your college education. Nonetheless, regardless of that prenup, the financial aid rules say that her income and assets, as well as your father's income and assets, must be reported on the financial aid forms. Even if your dad didn't make much money, they're going to look at the millions and millions of dollars that your wealthy heiress step-mom has, and they're not going to give you any financial aid, even though your dad is paying for all of your college expenses. If you are adopted, your adoptive parents are considered the same thing as your biological parents for purposes of financial aid. So they must fill out the FAFSA and CSS profile and report their income and assets."}, {"video_title": "What to do when parents are divorced, and in situations with step-parents, foster care, etc..mp3", "Sentence": "Nonetheless, regardless of that prenup, the financial aid rules say that her income and assets, as well as your father's income and assets, must be reported on the financial aid forms. Even if your dad didn't make much money, they're going to look at the millions and millions of dollars that your wealthy heiress step-mom has, and they're not going to give you any financial aid, even though your dad is paying for all of your college expenses. If you are adopted, your adoptive parents are considered the same thing as your biological parents for purposes of financial aid. So they must fill out the FAFSA and CSS profile and report their income and assets. However, foster parents are not considered parents for purposes of financial aid, so they do not have to report their income and asset information at all and do not have to fill out the FAFSA and CSS profile. If you're living with a legal guardian, your legal guardian does not have to fill out the financial aid forms. Also, if you're living with a grandparent, they also do not have to fill out the financial aid forms unless they have legally adopted you or a court of law requires them to support you financially."}, {"video_title": "What to do when parents are divorced, and in situations with step-parents, foster care, etc..mp3", "Sentence": "So they must fill out the FAFSA and CSS profile and report their income and assets. However, foster parents are not considered parents for purposes of financial aid, so they do not have to report their income and asset information at all and do not have to fill out the FAFSA and CSS profile. If you're living with a legal guardian, your legal guardian does not have to fill out the financial aid forms. Also, if you're living with a grandparent, they also do not have to fill out the financial aid forms unless they have legally adopted you or a court of law requires them to support you financially. So basically, if you live with foster parents, legal guardians, or grandparents, you are considered independent, and that means no parents have to fill out the financial aid forms. You are the only one who will fill that FAFSA or CSS profile out. So you only need to report your own income and assets on these financial aid forms."}, {"video_title": "What to do when parents are divorced, and in situations with step-parents, foster care, etc..mp3", "Sentence": "Also, if you're living with a grandparent, they also do not have to fill out the financial aid forms unless they have legally adopted you or a court of law requires them to support you financially. So basically, if you live with foster parents, legal guardians, or grandparents, you are considered independent, and that means no parents have to fill out the financial aid forms. You are the only one who will fill that FAFSA or CSS profile out. So you only need to report your own income and assets on these financial aid forms. So a lot of times I get asked whether a student can be considered independent so that colleges and universities are not looking at parent income and asset information in making their decisions about financial aid. There are actually very specific criteria for when you can be considered an independent student. First of all, if you are at least 24 years of age, you can be considered independent."}, {"video_title": "What to do when parents are divorced, and in situations with step-parents, foster care, etc..mp3", "Sentence": "So you only need to report your own income and assets on these financial aid forms. So a lot of times I get asked whether a student can be considered independent so that colleges and universities are not looking at parent income and asset information in making their decisions about financial aid. There are actually very specific criteria for when you can be considered an independent student. First of all, if you are at least 24 years of age, you can be considered independent. Also, if you are a graduate or professional student who is pursuing a course of study beyond a bachelor's degree, you are independent. Also, if you are married, you are independent, or if you have a child or legal dependent of your own. Likewise, you might be a veteran of the Armed Forces or one of the service academies as long as you were honorably discharged and were on active duty."}, {"video_title": "What to do when parents are divorced, and in situations with step-parents, foster care, etc..mp3", "Sentence": "First of all, if you are at least 24 years of age, you can be considered independent. Also, if you are a graduate or professional student who is pursuing a course of study beyond a bachelor's degree, you are independent. Also, if you are married, you are independent, or if you have a child or legal dependent of your own. Likewise, you might be a veteran of the Armed Forces or one of the service academies as long as you were honorably discharged and were on active duty. Another reason you might be independent is if you are a ward of the court or if you are an orphan. That is, both of your biological parents are deceased. And last but not least, for various reasons, you might be considered an emancipated minor by the state in which you live."}, {"video_title": "Searching for scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "So obviously this is a great thing. And students can start looking for scholarships throughout their high school career. Most scholarships are available for students when they become seniors in high school, and then scholarships are available to students when they're in college as well. So scholarships are something that you should constantly be on the lookout for, and something that you will need to apply to. It might include filling out forms, it might mean writing essays, it might mean getting recommendation letters or submitting transcripts. Some of them are online, some of them are paper applications. Your school might actually announce different scholarships through their newsletter or on their website."}, {"video_title": "Searching for scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "So scholarships are something that you should constantly be on the lookout for, and something that you will need to apply to. It might include filling out forms, it might mean writing essays, it might mean getting recommendation letters or submitting transcripts. Some of them are online, some of them are paper applications. Your school might actually announce different scholarships through their newsletter or on their website. And so it's something that you might need to be on the lookout for, you might be able to, you might have to pursue on your own. I literally applied to every single scholarship I could ever think of. I googled every Armenian scholarship because I'm an Armenian descent, but I'm also from Lebanon, so I googled Lebanese scholarships."}, {"video_title": "Searching for scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "Your school might actually announce different scholarships through their newsletter or on their website. And so it's something that you might need to be on the lookout for, you might be able to, you might have to pursue on your own. I literally applied to every single scholarship I could ever think of. I googled every Armenian scholarship because I'm an Armenian descent, but I'm also from Lebanon, so I googled Lebanese scholarships. And I realized that the more specific you get on the scholarships end, the more likely you are to get it because not everyone applies to those scholarships. And I was really fortunate enough that I almost received every single scholarship I applied to because they were so specific to who I was, where I was from, and what I was going to be pursuing. And that saved me."}, {"video_title": "Searching for scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "I googled every Armenian scholarship because I'm an Armenian descent, but I'm also from Lebanon, so I googled Lebanese scholarships. And I realized that the more specific you get on the scholarships end, the more likely you are to get it because not everyone applies to those scholarships. And I was really fortunate enough that I almost received every single scholarship I applied to because they were so specific to who I was, where I was from, and what I was going to be pursuing. And that saved me. There's a number of scholarships out there, and sometimes it can be hard to figure out which ones you should apply to. I always encourage my students to apply to the local scholarships. So you should apply to the local scholarships."}, {"video_title": "Searching for scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "And that saved me. There's a number of scholarships out there, and sometimes it can be hard to figure out which ones you should apply to. I always encourage my students to apply to the local scholarships. So you should apply to the local scholarships. Those are the ones that might be limited to students in your school district or to a certain number of high schools or a certain region. And so you will have fewer students competing for those scholarships. So you might have a better shot of getting some of those scholarships."}, {"video_title": "Searching for scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "So you should apply to the local scholarships. Those are the ones that might be limited to students in your school district or to a certain number of high schools or a certain region. And so you will have fewer students competing for those scholarships. So you might have a better shot of getting some of those scholarships. Another great opportunity might be essay contests for scholarship dollars. They typically, again, require you to write some form of an essay, maybe anywhere from a page to five pages. Maybe also submit teacher recommendations, your SAT scores, even your transcript."}, {"video_title": "Searching for scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "So you might have a better shot of getting some of those scholarships. Another great opportunity might be essay contests for scholarship dollars. They typically, again, require you to write some form of an essay, maybe anywhere from a page to five pages. Maybe also submit teacher recommendations, your SAT scores, even your transcript. So that extra amount of work sometimes deters students from doing that. So if you're willing to put in that extra work, you'd be surprised to see how many extra scholarship dollars you may be able to get. Some students go into the scholarship process thinking that scholarships are only for the students with the highest GPA or the highest test scores."}, {"video_title": "Searching for scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "Maybe also submit teacher recommendations, your SAT scores, even your transcript. So that extra amount of work sometimes deters students from doing that. So if you're willing to put in that extra work, you'd be surprised to see how many extra scholarship dollars you may be able to get. Some students go into the scholarship process thinking that scholarships are only for the students with the highest GPA or the highest test scores. And that's absolutely not true. Scholarships are for everyone, everyone who's willing to put in the work in order to apply for those scholarships. While the Steve Jobs chapter won an Elliott study award it is often spurred more than it not on the students."}, {"video_title": "Be wary of athletic scholarships.mp3", "Sentence": "So I see a whole lot of families who are hoping to pay for college with an athletic scholarship. Being recruited to play college athletics is actually a whole process that often starts as early as the ninth or tenth grade and requires many steps and a lot of research. And one thing to know that I think a lot of families miss is that only NCAA Division I and II schools give any athletic scholarships at all. Division III schools are actually prohibited from giving out any athletic scholarships. So it really depends on whether you as a student or your parents feel that you are able to play at the very highest elite levels of college sports that are represented by Division I and Division II schools. The other thing to know is that every year there are about 7.7 million athletes across the country who are competing for only 138,000 athletic scholarships. So very, very few students actually ever receive an athletic scholarship at all, regardless of how good an athlete they are in their sport."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "So Carrie, college costs are obviously really high these days. What's the best way to fund a college education? Yeah, it's really, really tough for all but the wealthiest families in America to pay for four years of college these days. Here in California, for instance, the full cost of attendance for even in-state public four-year universities is really never lower than about $25,000 a year. In-state costs can be much lower in other states, but costs for out-of-state colleges and universities can easily run you over $40,000 per year. And elite private colleges and universities these days often cost between $50,000 and $70,000 per year. So the first thing I'll say is that you really should know a school's full sticker price before you decide to accept an offer of admission, which would include not only tuition but other expenses like room and board, student fees, books, and travel."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "Here in California, for instance, the full cost of attendance for even in-state public four-year universities is really never lower than about $25,000 a year. In-state costs can be much lower in other states, but costs for out-of-state colleges and universities can easily run you over $40,000 per year. And elite private colleges and universities these days often cost between $50,000 and $70,000 per year. So the first thing I'll say is that you really should know a school's full sticker price before you decide to accept an offer of admission, which would include not only tuition but other expenses like room and board, student fees, books, and travel. And where should I get this money from? Well, obviously you don't want to go into debt unless you really have to. So you and your family should estimate how much money they can set aside each month out of their paychecks, first of all, to pay for college."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "So the first thing I'll say is that you really should know a school's full sticker price before you decide to accept an offer of admission, which would include not only tuition but other expenses like room and board, student fees, books, and travel. And where should I get this money from? Well, obviously you don't want to go into debt unless you really have to. So you and your family should estimate how much money they can set aside each month out of their paychecks, first of all, to pay for college. And then multiply this number by the 48 months that you'll be in college, and that will give you an idea of what you can actually afford out of your family income. Then you should look at any savings or investments you can safely use to pay for college. I say safely because any wise financial planner will tell you that you should have the equivalent of at least six months of income set away safely in an emergency fund to help you or your family through a rainy day if, for instance, you or your parents lose your job or you have an unusual expense such as high medical bills or car repairs."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "So you and your family should estimate how much money they can set aside each month out of their paychecks, first of all, to pay for college. And then multiply this number by the 48 months that you'll be in college, and that will give you an idea of what you can actually afford out of your family income. Then you should look at any savings or investments you can safely use to pay for college. I say safely because any wise financial planner will tell you that you should have the equivalent of at least six months of income set away safely in an emergency fund to help you or your family through a rainy day if, for instance, you or your parents lose your job or you have an unusual expense such as high medical bills or car repairs. So this emergency money is money you should not touch for college no matter what. Okay, so first, parents should estimate how much money they can set aside, multiply that by 48 months. They can also look at their savings or investments they could use to pay for college."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "I say safely because any wise financial planner will tell you that you should have the equivalent of at least six months of income set away safely in an emergency fund to help you or your family through a rainy day if, for instance, you or your parents lose your job or you have an unusual expense such as high medical bills or car repairs. So this emergency money is money you should not touch for college no matter what. Okay, so first, parents should estimate how much money they can set aside, multiply that by 48 months. They can also look at their savings or investments they could use to pay for college. Now what about retirement money? Should parents use that to pay for college? Yeah, that's a real big issue."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "They can also look at their savings or investments they could use to pay for college. Now what about retirement money? Should parents use that to pay for college? Yeah, that's a real big issue. Your parents should really consider how much they will need to fund many years of retirement when they will not be working but still obviously need to pay their bills. In my practice, I really see far too many families these days who are trying initially to liquidate what little retirement money they have to pay for their students' education. And I really have to advise them against doing that."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "Yeah, that's a real big issue. Your parents should really consider how much they will need to fund many years of retirement when they will not be working but still obviously need to pay their bills. In my practice, I really see far too many families these days who are trying initially to liquidate what little retirement money they have to pay for their students' education. And I really have to advise them against doing that. You have to remember the old adage that you can get loans for education but you can't get them for retirement. So in my practice, I really advise parents against using any retirement savings to pay for college. Got it."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "And I really have to advise them against doing that. You have to remember the old adage that you can get loans for education but you can't get them for retirement. So in my practice, I really advise parents against using any retirement savings to pay for college. Got it. And what if I don't have any savings set aside or any ability to fund my education through my or my parents' current income? Right, and that happens a lot because college costs are so high. So first of all, you need to make sure that you explore all avenues for need-based grants and scholarships, merit-aid scholarships, private scholarships, because sometimes you'll be able to get enough assistance that the amount you actually have to pay or borrow is pretty low for any one institution."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "Got it. And what if I don't have any savings set aside or any ability to fund my education through my or my parents' current income? Right, and that happens a lot because college costs are so high. So first of all, you need to make sure that you explore all avenues for need-based grants and scholarships, merit-aid scholarships, private scholarships, because sometimes you'll be able to get enough assistance that the amount you actually have to pay or borrow is pretty low for any one institution. Next, obviously, you want to look at the Federal Student Loan Program and potentially your parents may need to look at the Federal Parent Loan Program, which is called the Parent PLUS Loan Program. Basically, undergraduate students can get between $27,000 and $31,000 in total loans over a four-year period under the Federal Student Loan Program. And they can get these loans at an interest rate that's pretty reasonable."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "So first of all, you need to make sure that you explore all avenues for need-based grants and scholarships, merit-aid scholarships, private scholarships, because sometimes you'll be able to get enough assistance that the amount you actually have to pay or borrow is pretty low for any one institution. Next, obviously, you want to look at the Federal Student Loan Program and potentially your parents may need to look at the Federal Parent Loan Program, which is called the Parent PLUS Loan Program. Basically, undergraduate students can get between $27,000 and $31,000 in total loans over a four-year period under the Federal Student Loan Program. And they can get these loans at an interest rate that's pretty reasonable. So usually the rate on the student loans is going to be pretty much your cheapest form of borrowing. That's definitely not true for the Parent PLUS Loan Program. Those interest rates are pretty high."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "And they can get these loans at an interest rate that's pretty reasonable. So usually the rate on the student loans is going to be pretty much your cheapest form of borrowing. That's definitely not true for the Parent PLUS Loan Program. Those interest rates are pretty high. So you have to be really careful in terms of how much debt your parents commit themselves to. But with the student loans, $27,000 is really not enough to fund four years of education at most American colleges and universities. Today, unfortunately, that amount of loan money is merely a drop in the bucket for a lot of schools."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "Those interest rates are pretty high. So you have to be really careful in terms of how much debt your parents commit themselves to. But with the student loans, $27,000 is really not enough to fund four years of education at most American colleges and universities. Today, unfortunately, that amount of loan money is merely a drop in the bucket for a lot of schools. And that's why parents end up taking out a lot of loans as well. And can parents borrow the same amount as students can? No, actually, parents can borrow a lot more money than students can."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "Today, unfortunately, that amount of loan money is merely a drop in the bucket for a lot of schools. And that's why parents end up taking out a lot of loans as well. And can parents borrow the same amount as students can? No, actually, parents can borrow a lot more money than students can. They can borrow up to a school's full cost of attendance minus any aid package their student is receiving from that school. But again, the interest rate's a lot higher for the parent loans. So I'm sure you've all heard or read about how many parents get themselves in trouble by borrowing more than they can possibly afford to pay back."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "No, actually, parents can borrow a lot more money than students can. They can borrow up to a school's full cost of attendance minus any aid package their student is receiving from that school. But again, the interest rate's a lot higher for the parent loans. So I'm sure you've all heard or read about how many parents get themselves in trouble by borrowing more than they can possibly afford to pay back. Remember that both student and parent loan debts cannot be discharged in a bankruptcy court. So that loan debt will really follow parents and students to their graves if they're not able to pay it back. And interestingly enough, the federal government doesn't really assess your ability to pay loans back when they disperse these loans to students and parents."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "So I'm sure you've all heard or read about how many parents get themselves in trouble by borrowing more than they can possibly afford to pay back. Remember that both student and parent loan debts cannot be discharged in a bankruptcy court. So that loan debt will really follow parents and students to their graves if they're not able to pay it back. And interestingly enough, the federal government doesn't really assess your ability to pay loans back when they disperse these loans to students and parents. They will run a credit check, but that credit check doesn't really tell them anything about you or your parents' future ability to repay the loan. Got it. No, that makes sense."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "And interestingly enough, the federal government doesn't really assess your ability to pay loans back when they disperse these loans to students and parents. They will run a credit check, but that credit check doesn't really tell them anything about you or your parents' future ability to repay the loan. Got it. No, that makes sense. So what factors should students consider in thinking about how much debt is too much? Yeah, so you just have to be really careful about determining what you can actually afford over the long run. As a student, one thing you've really got to think about is what your salary might look like in the 10 years after you graduate from college, because that's the period during which you're going to be repaying your loans back, unless you renegotiate the terms with the federal government to come up with what's called an income-based repayment schedule."}, {"video_title": "Best strategies for funding college.mp3", "Sentence": "No, that makes sense. So what factors should students consider in thinking about how much debt is too much? Yeah, so you just have to be really careful about determining what you can actually afford over the long run. As a student, one thing you've really got to think about is what your salary might look like in the 10 years after you graduate from college, because that's the period during which you're going to be repaying your loans back, unless you renegotiate the terms with the federal government to come up with what's called an income-based repayment schedule. So sometimes you can extend the repayment period from 10 years to a much longer time period. So these days, given that college costs so much and is such a huge investment, you really have to look at what field or profession you're going to be involved in and ask yourself whether the investment you're making in your education will pay off over the long term in terms of your income. And remember that some professions command a lot higher salaries than others."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "And I'll start off with some averages. So at the time of making this video, the average, the average debt, the average balance that an American student graduates with is $27,000. Now this isn't necessarily the entire cost of their education. They might have gotten help from other folks. They might have had a work study. Maybe their parents helped out. Maybe they got a scholarship from someone."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "They might have gotten help from other folks. They might have had a work study. Maybe their parents helped out. Maybe they got a scholarship from someone. But this is the average student loan balance. And once again, just an average. Some people might have a lot more than this."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "Maybe they got a scholarship from someone. But this is the average student loan balance. And once again, just an average. Some people might have a lot more than this. Some people might not have any student loan balance. And the other averages is that the average term, the average term for a student loan, so this is the time period over which you are expected to pay it off, is 10 years. And once again, these might change over time, but I'll use this as a reasonably good example to frame our discussion."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "Some people might have a lot more than this. Some people might not have any student loan balance. And the other averages is that the average term, the average term for a student loan, so this is the time period over which you are expected to pay it off, is 10 years. And once again, these might change over time, but I'll use this as a reasonably good example to frame our discussion. And at the time of making this video, and this is likely to change over time, but the average interest rate, interest rate is 6.8% at the time of making this video. And if you take these inputs, and there are student loan calculators, payment calculators on the internet. In fact, you could even use mortgage calculators if you say it's a 10-year term, you're borrowing $27,000 and it's a 6.8% interest rate, and you zero out all of the other assumptions, then the payment that you would have, this obviously isn't a mortgage, but it's the same idea, you're borrowing some amount of money, you have an interest rate, and you wanna pay the whole thing off out over some type of a term."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "And once again, these might change over time, but I'll use this as a reasonably good example to frame our discussion. And at the time of making this video, and this is likely to change over time, but the average interest rate, interest rate is 6.8% at the time of making this video. And if you take these inputs, and there are student loan calculators, payment calculators on the internet. In fact, you could even use mortgage calculators if you say it's a 10-year term, you're borrowing $27,000 and it's a 6.8% interest rate, and you zero out all of the other assumptions, then the payment that you would have, this obviously isn't a mortgage, but it's the same idea, you're borrowing some amount of money, you have an interest rate, and you wanna pay the whole thing off out over some type of a term. So if you were to input all of that into a kind of a loan payment calculator, you would get that the average monthly payment given these assumptions are going to be a little over $310 per month. And so let's just think a little bit about if we make these assumptions, how easy or hard this might be to pay off. And then we can start to stretch these assumptions a little bit."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "In fact, you could even use mortgage calculators if you say it's a 10-year term, you're borrowing $27,000 and it's a 6.8% interest rate, and you zero out all of the other assumptions, then the payment that you would have, this obviously isn't a mortgage, but it's the same idea, you're borrowing some amount of money, you have an interest rate, and you wanna pay the whole thing off out over some type of a term. So if you were to input all of that into a kind of a loan payment calculator, you would get that the average monthly payment given these assumptions are going to be a little over $310 per month. And so let's just think a little bit about if we make these assumptions, how easy or hard this might be to pay off. And then we can start to stretch these assumptions a little bit. What if your balance is four times this? So I looked up some more averages. So this is kind of what you have to pay."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "And then we can start to stretch these assumptions a little bit. What if your balance is four times this? So I looked up some more averages. So this is kind of what you have to pay. This is the debt. So let's think about income and expenses. Income and expenses."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "So this is kind of what you have to pay. This is the debt. So let's think about income and expenses. Income and expenses. So the average, once again, this is at the time of making this video. I encourage you to look it up just to verify what the averages might be whenever you happen to watch this. But the average income for a college grad at the time of making this, at the time, maybe I should write average salary."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "Income and expenses. So the average, once again, this is at the time of making this video. I encourage you to look it up just to verify what the averages might be whenever you happen to watch this. But the average income for a college grad at the time of making this, at the time, maybe I should write average salary. Average salary is $45,000. $45,000. And then I looked up the average paycheck."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "But the average income for a college grad at the time of making this, at the time, maybe I should write average salary. Average salary is $45,000. $45,000. And then I looked up the average paycheck. Average paycheck, which they have as $1,299. $1,299. And actually, let's see if that actually makes sense."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "And then I looked up the average paycheck. Average paycheck, which they have as $1,299. $1,299. And actually, let's see if that actually makes sense. So if I'm making $45,000, and if I assume I have biweekly paychecks, so I'm gonna have 26, there's 52 weeks in a year, so I'm gonna have a paycheck on half of them. So I'm gonna have 26 paychecks in a year. That means that I'm gonna, my salary before paying taxes and other things is going to be $1,730."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "And actually, let's see if that actually makes sense. So if I'm making $45,000, and if I assume I have biweekly paychecks, so I'm gonna have 26, there's 52 weeks in a year, so I'm gonna have a paycheck on half of them. So I'm gonna have 26 paychecks in a year. That means that I'm gonna, my salary before paying taxes and other things is going to be $1,730. And so this actually makes sense because if you were to take, let's see, this looks like it's about, let's see, if we say 1,200, whoops, 1,299 divided by 1,730, it's about 75%. So this is assuming that you're paying about 25% of your effective tax rate is about 25%, and that includes your state, and your federal income tax, and your social security benefits, and all of that. And so this seems actually like the numbers right over here make sense."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "That means that I'm gonna, my salary before paying taxes and other things is going to be $1,730. And so this actually makes sense because if you were to take, let's see, this looks like it's about, let's see, if we say 1,200, whoops, 1,299 divided by 1,730, it's about 75%. So this is assuming that you're paying about 25% of your effective tax rate is about 25%, and that includes your state, and your federal income tax, and your social security benefits, and all of that. And so this seems actually like the numbers right over here make sense. But we have a few more averages. So let's see, this average paycheck, and let's just translate everything to a monthly basis. So this is going to be approximately, this is going to be approximately $2,600 a month."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "And so this seems actually like the numbers right over here make sense. But we have a few more averages. So let's see, this average paycheck, and let's just translate everything to a monthly basis. So this is going to be approximately, this is going to be approximately $2,600 a month. This is your average take home, take home pay. So you're gonna have 26, if you're making $45,000 and you have all these other assumptions, that means that the average college grad has $2,600 a month to pay all of their expenses, and hopefully also have some savings. So now let's think about the expense side of things."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "So this is going to be approximately, this is going to be approximately $2,600 a month. This is your average take home, take home pay. So you're gonna have 26, if you're making $45,000 and you have all these other assumptions, that means that the average college grad has $2,600 a month to pay all of their expenses, and hopefully also have some savings. So now let's think about the expense side of things. So most people's largest expense is housing, and the average rent at the time of making this video is $821. Now this is the average across the United States. You could imagine if you're in a high rent place like New York or San Francisco, and you're not living with three people in the same room, you're gonna have to pay a lot more than this."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "So now let's think about the expense side of things. So most people's largest expense is housing, and the average rent at the time of making this video is $821. Now this is the average across the United States. You could imagine if you're in a high rent place like New York or San Francisco, and you're not living with three people in the same room, you're gonna have to pay a lot more than this. But let's just go with the averages. So you have that rent right over there. And now let's just make some other assumptions."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "You could imagine if you're in a high rent place like New York or San Francisco, and you're not living with three people in the same room, you're gonna have to pay a lot more than this. But let's just go with the averages. So you have that rent right over there. And now let's just make some other assumptions. Let's say transportation also tends to be a pretty significant expense. Let's say between your car and gas and maintenance, you have to spend $300 a month in transportation. Obviously you can tweak these assumptions if you think they're too high or too low, or if you wanna drive a fancy car, or maybe you can use public transportation, this would be lower."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "And now let's just make some other assumptions. Let's say transportation also tends to be a pretty significant expense. Let's say between your car and gas and maintenance, you have to spend $300 a month in transportation. Obviously you can tweak these assumptions if you think they're too high or too low, or if you wanna drive a fancy car, or maybe you can use public transportation, this would be lower. And then of course you have to feed yourself. And so let's see, let's say you spend $100 a week, which isn't an exorbitant amount to spend on food. So you could probably spend less if you cooked a lot."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "Obviously you can tweak these assumptions if you think they're too high or too low, or if you wanna drive a fancy car, or maybe you can use public transportation, this would be lower. And then of course you have to feed yourself. And so let's see, let's say you spend $100 a week, which isn't an exorbitant amount to spend on food. So you could probably spend less if you cooked a lot. But let's see, $400 would be per month, four weeks in a year, so about four weeks in a month. So you're gonna spend $400 a month on food. And then let's see, what does that leave you with?"}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "So you could probably spend less if you cooked a lot. But let's see, $400 would be per month, four weeks in a year, so about four weeks in a month. So you're gonna spend $400 a month on food. And then let's see, what does that leave you with? So that leaves you with, so $2,600 minus 821 minus $300 minus $400, that leaves you with, let's see, that leaves you with $1,079. That leaves you with $1,079. Now you might say, hey, this is pretty good, I have $1,079, but we have a couple of expenses that we haven't paid for yet."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "And then let's see, what does that leave you with? So that leaves you with, so $2,600 minus 821 minus $300 minus $400, that leaves you with, let's see, that leaves you with $1,079. That leaves you with $1,079. Now you might say, hey, this is pretty good, I have $1,079, but we have a couple of expenses that we haven't paid for yet. We haven't paid our average student loan balance. So let's subtract that out. So my previous answer, minus 310, 72, gets us $768."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "Now you might say, hey, this is pretty good, I have $1,079, but we have a couple of expenses that we haven't paid for yet. We haven't paid our average student loan balance. So let's subtract that out. So my previous answer, minus 310, 72, gets us $768. And you might say, okay, well that's pretty good, I'm saving $768 per month. But of course, we haven't put any fun in here. You haven't gone to the movies yet, you're going to a show or hanging out with friends or whatever it might be."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "So my previous answer, minus 310, 72, gets us $768. And you might say, okay, well that's pretty good, I'm saving $768 per month. But of course, we haven't put any fun in here. You haven't gone to the movies yet, you're going to a show or hanging out with friends or whatever it might be. And so if you put an entertainment budget in there, and it depends on, I guess, how much you like to party, but let's say that that's just $200 a month, $50 a week, which sounds actually pretty economical. So that gets you to $568. So you still have some savings, that's not bad."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "You haven't gone to the movies yet, you're going to a show or hanging out with friends or whatever it might be. And so if you put an entertainment budget in there, and it depends on, I guess, how much you like to party, but let's say that that's just $200 a month, $50 a week, which sounds actually pretty economical. So that gets you to $568. So you still have some savings, that's not bad. Especially early in your career, if you're able to put some money aside, this is pretty good. Now, what I want to keep in mind is this is given these assumptions. So now let's stretch these assumptions a little bit."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "So you still have some savings, that's not bad. Especially early in your career, if you're able to put some money aside, this is pretty good. Now, what I want to keep in mind is this is given these assumptions. So now let's stretch these assumptions a little bit. For example, if instead of your student loan balance being 27,000, if your student loan balance is, say, four times that, and it was $108,000, now all of a sudden, this $310 is going to be four times as high as well. So that's going to be approximately $1,240. And so if this was your student loan balance, now all of a sudden, this world looks a lot worse."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "So now let's stretch these assumptions a little bit. For example, if instead of your student loan balance being 27,000, if your student loan balance is, say, four times that, and it was $108,000, now all of a sudden, this $310 is going to be four times as high as well. So that's going to be approximately $1,240. And so if this was your student loan balance, now all of a sudden, this world looks a lot worse. Before having fun and before paying off your loans, you only have $1,079, which is less than what you have to pay for your loans. And now you might say, oh, maybe I make more money than that and that's definitely possible, especially as you get more and more experience and get more and more skills in the work force, your income could go more. But you just have to keep in mind, that you're going to have to, there's an expectation that you pay this, if your balance is $108,000, from the get-go, from the get-go, so it's not even where you're gonna get to, it's where you are going to start, you're gonna have to find a reasonable way to pay this amount."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "And so if this was your student loan balance, now all of a sudden, this world looks a lot worse. Before having fun and before paying off your loans, you only have $1,079, which is less than what you have to pay for your loans. And now you might say, oh, maybe I make more money than that and that's definitely possible, especially as you get more and more experience and get more and more skills in the work force, your income could go more. But you just have to keep in mind, that you're going to have to, there's an expectation that you pay this, if your balance is $108,000, from the get-go, from the get-go, so it's not even where you're gonna get to, it's where you are going to start, you're gonna have to find a reasonable way to pay this amount. The other things that you're going to have to really, really think about are these assumptions right over here. The average salary, you might have a point in time where you're between jobs, where you wanna explore something, so that's a very important thing to take into consideration. And of course, what we already mentioned, this rent number is an average for the nation."}, {"video_title": "Managing your debt level.mp3", "Sentence": "But you just have to keep in mind, that you're going to have to, there's an expectation that you pay this, if your balance is $108,000, from the get-go, from the get-go, so it's not even where you're gonna get to, it's where you are going to start, you're gonna have to find a reasonable way to pay this amount. The other things that you're going to have to really, really think about are these assumptions right over here. The average salary, you might have a point in time where you're between jobs, where you wanna explore something, so that's a very important thing to take into consideration. And of course, what we already mentioned, this rent number is an average for the nation. But if you live in an urban area, especially an expensive urban area, your rent could be substantially, substantially more than this, and frankly, all of your other expenses are probably going to be more than this. And so you can see, when your student loan, when your debt becomes more, and this is a debt number, that there are definitely a lot of folks with debt numbers like this, you have to feel comfortable that you're going to be in a situation, upon graduation, where you can make, when you can make this type of payment after your, really your necessities, after food and living and transportation. So, not saying student debt is good or bad, I tend to think that an education is a very, very good thing, it's a very good investment, it's one of the best assets that you can have, but any asset, you should always be thoughtful about how much you're going to pay for it, and what type of a return you can get, and whether you can pay for it."}, {"video_title": "Who can succeed in college.mp3", "Sentence": "You dream really big. It is the one thing that cannot be taken away from you and that's your education. It's a very real phenomenon that students can make such a difference in their immediate world by going to college. And our aim is to make college affordable for you, to make that an option for anybody. We need people from all walks of life enrolled in college. So that's our job in the Financial Aid Office to make those resources available to make it possible for you. First-generation college students I think in many cases are unsure whether or not they can compete and they can be successful in college but I'm here to say that every student can because we have the support services to make sure that you will."}, {"video_title": "Who can succeed in college.mp3", "Sentence": "And our aim is to make college affordable for you, to make that an option for anybody. We need people from all walks of life enrolled in college. So that's our job in the Financial Aid Office to make those resources available to make it possible for you. First-generation college students I think in many cases are unsure whether or not they can compete and they can be successful in college but I'm here to say that every student can because we have the support services to make sure that you will. So you should aim for the stars. You should go for those amazing schools that you've heard of but maybe know nothing about. You should maybe look at those schools that you've never heard of and need to do a little bit more research."}, {"video_title": "Student story Prioritizing financial aid in the college search.mp3", "Sentence": "It was just, there are tons of different financial aid. Each college does it differently. And so sometimes you might have to learn about how one school does it and how another's. There's a lot of similarities a lot of times. So they can transfer, but you always have to be specific with any college that you look into. So what I learned is that some colleges give you 100% of financial aid of tuition and board and that sort of thing. So when I learned that, and I learned that you have to, your parents can't make above a certain threshold for you to qualify for this sort of financial aid, I looked into what the thresholds were for some of the schools I was interested in and figured out which one offered that sort of package and I definitely keyed in on those and sort of emphasized those in my application process, worked harder on those a little bit."}, {"video_title": "Student story Prioritizing financial aid in the college search.mp3", "Sentence": "There's a lot of similarities a lot of times. So they can transfer, but you always have to be specific with any college that you look into. So what I learned is that some colleges give you 100% of financial aid of tuition and board and that sort of thing. So when I learned that, and I learned that you have to, your parents can't make above a certain threshold for you to qualify for this sort of financial aid, I looked into what the thresholds were for some of the schools I was interested in and figured out which one offered that sort of package and I definitely keyed in on those and sort of emphasized those in my application process, worked harder on those a little bit. It's a learning process. Each college is different in some ways. So I would just, one of the things I did is I contacted a financial aid officer at the school to learn a little bit more about the process."}, {"video_title": "Student story   Admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "I love being interviewed. I'm a people person and I love letting people know about myself. So when I was presented with college interviews, I was really excited. And the biggest factor for me for preparing for those interviews was definitely getting to know my college. I didn't want to go in there not knowing what it was about and being presented with a question that was really embarrassing and me not answering. So I definitely researched, looked into things that maybe the interviewer wouldn't think that I would know. Some of those tic-tac-y things that would surprise them and definitely make an impact."}, {"video_title": "Student story   Admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "And the biggest factor for me for preparing for those interviews was definitely getting to know my college. I didn't want to go in there not knowing what it was about and being presented with a question that was really embarrassing and me not answering. So I definitely researched, looked into things that maybe the interviewer wouldn't think that I would know. Some of those tic-tac-y things that would surprise them and definitely make an impact. And going off on the impact, it's really important to make a connection with your interviewer. Definitely when you make a connection with someone, they remember it more and it definitely makes the report that they're going to write about you really easy. For instance, for me, when I was being interviewed by One College, I had a two-hour conversation with a guy."}, {"video_title": "Student story   Admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "Some of those tic-tac-y things that would surprise them and definitely make an impact. And going off on the impact, it's really important to make a connection with your interviewer. Definitely when you make a connection with someone, they remember it more and it definitely makes the report that they're going to write about you really easy. For instance, for me, when I was being interviewed by One College, I had a two-hour conversation with a guy. At one point, we became friends simply because I made a connection with him. He started talking to me about his family. I started talking to him in Arabic."}, {"video_title": "Student story   Admissions interview.mp3", "Sentence": "For instance, for me, when I was being interviewed by One College, I had a two-hour conversation with a guy. At one point, we became friends simply because I made a connection with him. He started talking to me about his family. I started talking to him in Arabic. It was awesome and that's something that really connected with him and connected with me. So I know for a fact that he definitely wrote a good report because by the end of it, it was great. So it's definitely important just to make a connection."}, {"video_title": "Student story Overcoming time management obstacles to college.mp3", "Sentence": "You know, with school, it's very hard to manage it with sports, but add college applications to that pile, and it's going to be very difficult. So for me, what I focused on was taking at least 30 minutes out of my day to focus on my college applications. For instance, I had a big application due in October, and it was a big time for me for school and sports. You know, it was playoffs for football, and it was midterms for school. So I had to focus at least 30 minutes on my college applications, and now I began to nibble away at finishing them. And two days before it, I was done. And I know for me, I was really distracted every single night with my iPad and my phone and stuff like that, because, you know, a Twitter update comes up or something about my team, the Lakers, comes up, and I've got to go look at that."}, {"video_title": "Student story Overcoming the financial aid process as an obstacle to college.mp3", "Sentence": "It was very difficult to explain to your parents, who have very little familiarity with keeping financial records, that all of a sudden you need all these documents because you need to give them all this information so they can give you a financial aid package. They knew I needed financial aid, but they didn't know what the steps were to get there. My parents are very interesting. They're very hands-off parents. I will never say that they weren't supportive, but they were completely mystified by the entire process because, like I said, both of them \u2013 my dad works at a factory making sofas and my mom works at a high school cafeteria, completely not familiar whatsoever with the college admissions process or anything like that. On the one hand, they were very supportive, but on the other hand, when I would ask them questions about the financial aid stuff, they were just like, I don't know. I'm not quite sure what that is."}, {"video_title": "Student story Overcoming the financial aid process as an obstacle to college.mp3", "Sentence": "They're very hands-off parents. I will never say that they weren't supportive, but they were completely mystified by the entire process because, like I said, both of them \u2013 my dad works at a factory making sofas and my mom works at a high school cafeteria, completely not familiar whatsoever with the college admissions process or anything like that. On the one hand, they were very supportive, but on the other hand, when I would ask them questions about the financial aid stuff, they were just like, I don't know. I'm not quite sure what that is. My sister had to deal with the same frustration when she was applying two years earlier. The only person I really had to go on was my sister's experience, but at the same time, old habits are hard to break, so my parents still didn't have detailed financial records. One of the interesting things that does happen when you're in my particular situation is when you fill out things like the CSS profile, a lot of it's just zeros."}, {"video_title": "Student story Overcoming the financial aid process as an obstacle to college.mp3", "Sentence": "I'm not quite sure what that is. My sister had to deal with the same frustration when she was applying two years earlier. The only person I really had to go on was my sister's experience, but at the same time, old habits are hard to break, so my parents still didn't have detailed financial records. One of the interesting things that does happen when you're in my particular situation is when you fill out things like the CSS profile, a lot of it's just zeros. They'll be like, what's your value of property here? I was like, I don't have property. We don't have that."}, {"video_title": "Student story Overcoming the financial aid process as an obstacle to college.mp3", "Sentence": "One of the interesting things that does happen when you're in my particular situation is when you fill out things like the CSS profile, a lot of it's just zeros. They'll be like, what's your value of property here? I was like, I don't have property. We don't have that. We don't have that. But when it came to things like what is the value of your car, what is the value of your mortgage, I had to go back to ask my parents, and often they didn't really know what I was talking about. A lot of times, I just kind of had to bypass them and sort of look it up online and try to figure out and figure out through other people what that number might have been, figure out through my sister."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "If you've been watching a lot of these Khan videos for students, well, this is one for your parents. So grab your adult and bring them into the room to listen. Okay, parents, listen up. If you're like a lot of other parents, one of your big worries is paying for your kid's college. And believe me, every parent feels this way, whether they've been to college themselves or your kid is the first in the family to go to school. I know this. I write about personal finance and money a lot."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "If you're like a lot of other parents, one of your big worries is paying for your kid's college. And believe me, every parent feels this way, whether they've been to college themselves or your kid is the first in the family to go to school. I know this. I write about personal finance and money a lot. Here's six questions along with answers that may help. First, is college really worth it? The answer is yes, absolutely."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "I write about personal finance and money a lot. Here's six questions along with answers that may help. First, is college really worth it? The answer is yes, absolutely. Despite what you hear, not going to college is not a good decision for most students. Sure, there are other paths, but the facts speak for themselves. College grads earn a million dollars more over their lifetimes on average than kids who only graduate from high school."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "The answer is yes, absolutely. Despite what you hear, not going to college is not a good decision for most students. Sure, there are other paths, but the facts speak for themselves. College grads earn a million dollars more over their lifetimes on average than kids who only graduate from high school. College is a good investment for most students. Two, can my family afford college? The answer is also yes."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "College grads earn a million dollars more over their lifetimes on average than kids who only graduate from high school. College is a good investment for most students. Two, can my family afford college? The answer is also yes. No matter how much money you make, you can afford college. But here's the problem. Every year, millions of financial aid dollars go untapped, just left on the table because people don't apply for it."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "The answer is also yes. No matter how much money you make, you can afford college. But here's the problem. Every year, millions of financial aid dollars go untapped, just left on the table because people don't apply for it. Sometimes it's because families just think it's too expensive and they assume that college is out of their reach. But here's the thing. There is a lot of financial aid out there."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "Every year, millions of financial aid dollars go untapped, just left on the table because people don't apply for it. Sometimes it's because families just think it's too expensive and they assume that college is out of their reach. But here's the thing. There is a lot of financial aid out there. This isn't just a myth, and it comes in the form of grants and scholarships, which is money you don't have to pay back, and also work-study, which is working during school, and then loans, which is money your child does have to pay back. But the most important thing for you as a parent to know is that you need to fill out the financial aid forms. Particularly if your income is low, much of the cost, if not all of it, will be covered by financial aid."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "There is a lot of financial aid out there. This isn't just a myth, and it comes in the form of grants and scholarships, which is money you don't have to pay back, and also work-study, which is working during school, and then loans, which is money your child does have to pay back. But the most important thing for you as a parent to know is that you need to fill out the financial aid forms. Particularly if your income is low, much of the cost, if not all of it, will be covered by financial aid. The big kahuna of all the forms is called the FAFSA. Remember that name because that's the most important form you need to know about. It's the Free Application for Federal Student Aid."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "Particularly if your income is low, much of the cost, if not all of it, will be covered by financial aid. The big kahuna of all the forms is called the FAFSA. Remember that name because that's the most important form you need to know about. It's the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. And the FAFSA is just the key to the money. By filling it out, you're opening the door to all these grants and loans and jobs. And it's money from the federal government, the school, your state, and private scholarships."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "It's the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. And the FAFSA is just the key to the money. By filling it out, you're opening the door to all these grants and loans and jobs. And it's money from the federal government, the school, your state, and private scholarships. And even families who have a higher income, they shouldn't not apply because they think they won't qualify. Filling out the FAFSA is important for you too because you may be eligible for lower-cost loans. I have to be honest here."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "And it's money from the federal government, the school, your state, and private scholarships. And even families who have a higher income, they shouldn't not apply because they think they won't qualify. Filling out the FAFSA is important for you too because you may be eligible for lower-cost loans. I have to be honest here. Filling out the FAFSA is not fun. It is a bit of a pain, but you have to do it. And you have to fill it out every year."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "I have to be honest here. Filling out the FAFSA is not fun. It is a bit of a pain, but you have to do it. And you have to fill it out every year. Beginning in January 1st, the forms become available. And also, the thing about the forms is that aid is often handed out on a first-come, first-served basis. So you want to fill it out as soon after January 1st as possible."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "And you have to fill it out every year. Beginning in January 1st, the forms become available. And also, the thing about the forms is that aid is often handed out on a first-come, first-served basis. So you want to fill it out as soon after January 1st as possible. Another form you may need is called the CSS. A lot of private schools and some public require this form as well. Basically, check out the Khan videos about all of these forms to get a sense of exactly what you need to do."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "So you want to fill it out as soon after January 1st as possible. Another form you may need is called the CSS. A lot of private schools and some public require this form as well. Basically, check out the Khan videos about all of these forms to get a sense of exactly what you need to do. Another question I'm asked a lot is, how do I find the best school at the lowest cost? And this is a bit of a trick question because a more expensive college may actually have more financial aid to dole out. So in the end, it could cost you about the same as the one with the lower sticker price."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "Basically, check out the Khan videos about all of these forms to get a sense of exactly what you need to do. Another question I'm asked a lot is, how do I find the best school at the lowest cost? And this is a bit of a trick question because a more expensive college may actually have more financial aid to dole out. So in the end, it could cost you about the same as the one with the lower sticker price. And this is so important for you to know because, again, the key to getting that money is filling out the FAFSA. That way you'll know what each school will actually cost you. Parents want to know, is it really wise to have my kid go into debt for college?"}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "So in the end, it could cost you about the same as the one with the lower sticker price. And this is so important for you to know because, again, the key to getting that money is filling out the FAFSA. That way you'll know what each school will actually cost you. Parents want to know, is it really wise to have my kid go into debt for college? It seems like a huge endeavor. And going into lots of debt seems like a scary idea. But the truth is, realistically, your child will probably have to take out some loans."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "Parents want to know, is it really wise to have my kid go into debt for college? It seems like a huge endeavor. And going into lots of debt seems like a scary idea. But the truth is, realistically, your child will probably have to take out some loans. Most students do. Seventy percent of students do. And your job as a parent is to make sure the amount of loans they take out is reasonable and do it in a really smart way."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "But the truth is, realistically, your child will probably have to take out some loans. Most students do. Seventy percent of students do. And your job as a parent is to make sure the amount of loans they take out is reasonable and do it in a really smart way. The best loans you want to look to are federal student loans. It's best, if possible, to stick with these federal loans. They're called federal direct loans."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "And your job as a parent is to make sure the amount of loans they take out is reasonable and do it in a really smart way. The best loans you want to look to are federal student loans. It's best, if possible, to stick with these federal loans. They're called federal direct loans. They used to be called Stafford loans. And they tend to have very low interest rates. Recently it was 4.7 percent."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "They're called federal direct loans. They used to be called Stafford loans. And they tend to have very low interest rates. Recently it was 4.7 percent. Federal loans are better deals than private loans, which charge much higher rates of 18 percent or more. The other big benefit of federal loans is that they offer a variety of repayment plans that will make it easier to pay back after graduation. Now as a parent, you might wonder, should you take out loans to send your kid to college?"}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "Recently it was 4.7 percent. Federal loans are better deals than private loans, which charge much higher rates of 18 percent or more. The other big benefit of federal loans is that they offer a variety of repayment plans that will make it easier to pay back after graduation. Now as a parent, you might wonder, should you take out loans to send your kid to college? You might feel guilty. But the truth is, unless you're in really great shape yourself financially, it's not a good idea to go into deep debt to pay for your kid's college. The point to keep in mind is, remember, your child can borrow for college, but you can't borrow for your own retirement or financial security."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "Now as a parent, you might wonder, should you take out loans to send your kid to college? You might feel guilty. But the truth is, unless you're in really great shape yourself financially, it's not a good idea to go into deep debt to pay for your kid's college. The point to keep in mind is, remember, your child can borrow for college, but you can't borrow for your own retirement or financial security. If you do think borrowing makes sense, federal PLUS loans for parents are definitely worth looking into. The interest rates tend to be lower than the rates on private loans. There's a good website, studentaid.gov slash PLUS, which can give you some information."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "The point to keep in mind is, remember, your child can borrow for college, but you can't borrow for your own retirement or financial security. If you do think borrowing makes sense, federal PLUS loans for parents are definitely worth looking into. The interest rates tend to be lower than the rates on private loans. There's a good website, studentaid.gov slash PLUS, which can give you some information. And finally, when do I start talking to my kid about paying for college? The answer is as soon as possible. If you can, starting at the beginning of high school is great."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "There's a good website, studentaid.gov slash PLUS, which can give you some information. And finally, when do I start talking to my kid about paying for college? The answer is as soon as possible. If you can, starting at the beginning of high school is great. But honestly, now that you're watching this video, it's the time to start. You want to get your kid in the right mindset. You want to make sure he realizes grades are really counting now toward college."}, {"video_title": "A message to parents on paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "If you can, starting at the beginning of high school is great. But honestly, now that you're watching this video, it's the time to start. You want to get your kid in the right mindset. You want to make sure he realizes grades are really counting now toward college. And mostly you want him to know that there are a lot of choices out there. There's some really good tools in the Department of Education to figure out what you'll be expected to pay and what's the right school for your kid. But most of all, being positive and stressing that you're in this together really goes a long way."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So the first form that is going to be very important that qualifies you for any kind of federal funds is a form called the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, the FAFSA. You said that's the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. For Federal Student Aid. And I take it by the name that this is a form that you don't have to pay anything for. Right. And again, you want to be careful about that. There are several sites that will happily charge you money to fill it out for you."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "And I take it by the name that this is a form that you don't have to pay anything for. Right. And again, you want to be careful about that. There are several sites that will happily charge you money to fill it out for you. But it's really something that you can do and it's for free and it's found at fafsa.ed.gov. Great. And what am I going to find on this form?"}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "There are several sites that will happily charge you money to fill it out for you. But it's really something that you can do and it's for free and it's found at fafsa.ed.gov. Great. And what am I going to find on this form? What exactly am I going to be putting on when I fill it out? So what colleges are looking for is trying to get a sense of the families' resources and how much they can pay towards college. The general rubric with financial aid is what can the family afford first and then after that what federal funds might be available, what school funds might be available."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "And what am I going to find on this form? What exactly am I going to be putting on when I fill it out? So what colleges are looking for is trying to get a sense of the families' resources and how much they can pay towards college. The general rubric with financial aid is what can the family afford first and then after that what federal funds might be available, what school funds might be available. So they're going to look at income, and this is very much an income-driven form, and they're going to look at where the student lives, who lives in that house, and what are the resources of that house. And when you say the resources of the house, what exactly do you mean by that? So the income, assets that the house has, and so forth."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "The general rubric with financial aid is what can the family afford first and then after that what federal funds might be available, what school funds might be available. So they're going to look at income, and this is very much an income-driven form, and they're going to look at where the student lives, who lives in that house, and what are the resources of that house. And when you say the resources of the house, what exactly do you mean by that? So the income, assets that the house has, and so forth. Right. So as a student, this might not be something that I know or have access to. So what do I need to do in order to be able to actually get this information?"}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So the income, assets that the house has, and so forth. Right. So as a student, this might not be something that I know or have access to. So what do I need to do in order to be able to actually get this information? So this form is really going to be a combination of the student working with their parent. And there's a part on this form that is for the student, and the student will fill that out in terms of any money they've made, savings they have, and so forth. And then there's another part of the form that is for the person who is living in that house."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So what do I need to do in order to be able to actually get this information? So this form is really going to be a combination of the student working with their parent. And there's a part on this form that is for the student, and the student will fill that out in terms of any money they've made, savings they have, and so forth. And then there's another part of the form that is for the person who is living in that house. So if that's a husband and a wife, great. If it's just one parent, whoever has the income in that house, they're going to look at that information as well. Great."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "And then there's another part of the form that is for the person who is living in that house. So if that's a husband and a wife, great. If it's just one parent, whoever has the income in that house, they're going to look at that information as well. Great. And it sounds like given the level of detail that this information requires, the parents may need some forms or things on them while they're filling it out. What exactly do they need to have as they're filling out this form? Right."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. And it sounds like given the level of detail that this information requires, the parents may need some forms or things on them while they're filling it out. What exactly do they need to have as they're filling out this form? Right. So basically, the sooner that the parent fills out their taxes for the year, they have their W-2s, they have their taxes, that's going to make it much easier for them to fill out this form. So it's a lot of the same questions. When do students and parents need to be filling out this form?"}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "Right. So basically, the sooner that the parent fills out their taxes for the year, they have their W-2s, they have their taxes, that's going to make it much easier for them to fill out this form. So it's a lot of the same questions. When do students and parents need to be filling out this form? So this form isn't available until after January 1st, but there's a pretty short turnaround time. Most colleges want this filled out and turned into them probably somewhere between February 1st and the middle of March. So this is a year where if you know you're going to be going to college, talk with your parents and let them know the sooner they can get on top of their taxes, get those done, the easier these forms will be to fill out."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "When do students and parents need to be filling out this form? So this form isn't available until after January 1st, but there's a pretty short turnaround time. Most colleges want this filled out and turned into them probably somewhere between February 1st and the middle of March. So this is a year where if you know you're going to be going to college, talk with your parents and let them know the sooner they can get on top of their taxes, get those done, the easier these forms will be to fill out. If they know they're not going to be able to fill out their taxes immediately, you can always use estimated numbers or you can use last year's numbers, especially if things haven't changed dramatically in your family's financial situation. And why exactly do I need to get it in so quickly? So again, these are the deadlines that colleges are going to have, and it's very important to meet these deadlines."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So this is a year where if you know you're going to be going to college, talk with your parents and let them know the sooner they can get on top of their taxes, get those done, the easier these forms will be to fill out. If they know they're not going to be able to fill out their taxes immediately, you can always use estimated numbers or you can use last year's numbers, especially if things haven't changed dramatically in your family's financial situation. And why exactly do I need to get it in so quickly? So again, these are the deadlines that colleges are going to have, and it's very important to meet these deadlines. It's probably even more important than meeting the admission deadline is the financial aid deadlines because most schools have a limited amount of money, and they're going to use that money based on the students they admit and the forms they have in. So if you wait until after you're admitted and find that out and then send in your forms, they may already be out of money. So it's really important to make the deadlines for these."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So again, these are the deadlines that colleges are going to have, and it's very important to meet these deadlines. It's probably even more important than meeting the admission deadline is the financial aid deadlines because most schools have a limited amount of money, and they're going to use that money based on the students they admit and the forms they have in. So if you wait until after you're admitted and find that out and then send in your forms, they may already be out of money. So it's really important to make the deadlines for these. Okay. So once I do have the form filled out and I submit it, what happens then? So all that the FAFSA does is use a formula that sort of crunches your family's resources and comes up with something called an EFC, an estimated family contribution."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So it's really important to make the deadlines for these. Okay. So once I do have the form filled out and I submit it, what happens then? So all that the FAFSA does is use a formula that sort of crunches your family's resources and comes up with something called an EFC, an estimated family contribution. And that is a number that colleges will use to help them put together a financial aid package. So all that number says is this is how much, based on the formulas that the government uses, how much they think the family can contribute to their son or daughter's education. So say you crunch those numbers, you turn them in, and it comes back and says your estimated family contribution is $10,000."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So all that the FAFSA does is use a formula that sort of crunches your family's resources and comes up with something called an EFC, an estimated family contribution. And that is a number that colleges will use to help them put together a financial aid package. So all that number says is this is how much, based on the formulas that the government uses, how much they think the family can contribute to their son or daughter's education. So say you crunch those numbers, you turn them in, and it comes back and says your estimated family contribution is $10,000. And a financial aid office then will say, well, if we're a school that costs $50,000, the family can pay $10,000. We're going to have to put together a financial aid package for $40,000 for that student to make it possible for them to come. Okay."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So say you crunch those numbers, you turn them in, and it comes back and says your estimated family contribution is $10,000. And a financial aid office then will say, well, if we're a school that costs $50,000, the family can pay $10,000. We're going to have to put together a financial aid package for $40,000 for that student to make it possible for them to come. Okay. And does the information from the FAFSA go directly to the schools or does it go to the students? How does that actual transfer process occur? So you will get back something called a SAR, a student aid report."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "Okay. And does the information from the FAFSA go directly to the schools or does it go to the students? How does that actual transfer process occur? So you will get back something called a SAR, a student aid report. And that will, again, sort of give back to you, here's all the information you put in, and will also give you what your estimated family contribution is. That is also sent to all of the schools that you put on the form when you send it in. The one thing to remember is you can only put 10 schools on that list."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So you will get back something called a SAR, a student aid report. And that will, again, sort of give back to you, here's all the information you put in, and will also give you what your estimated family contribution is. That is also sent to all of the schools that you put on the form when you send it in. The one thing to remember is you can only put 10 schools on that list. So if you're going to apply to more than 10 schools, once those are submitted, you go back in sometime after that, you can take some of those schools off and put the other schools on there to make sure that everybody has the information they need. Okay. So I fill out the FAFSA."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "The one thing to remember is you can only put 10 schools on that list. So if you're going to apply to more than 10 schools, once those are submitted, you go back in sometime after that, you can take some of those schools off and put the other schools on there to make sure that everybody has the information they need. Okay. So I fill out the FAFSA. Everybody spits out an EFC, which is sort of their estimation of what my family can contribute. And that is part of the student aid report. And that information gets sent to up to 10 schools, and I can go and add more later."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So I fill out the FAFSA. Everybody spits out an EFC, which is sort of their estimation of what my family can contribute. And that is part of the student aid report. And that information gets sent to up to 10 schools, and I can go and add more later. And they get that information, and then they're going to put together some kind of financial aid package for me. Correct. And it's going to, you know, my family will contribute some amount, and then the remainder is made up through what exactly other things could come from the school."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "And that information gets sent to up to 10 schools, and I can go and add more later. And they get that information, and then they're going to put together some kind of financial aid package for me. Correct. And it's going to, you know, my family will contribute some amount, and then the remainder is made up through what exactly other things could come from the school. So a typical package that a school put together is going to have probably three pieces to it. There's going to be scholarships and grant money, which is good. That's money you don't have to pay back."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "And it's going to, you know, my family will contribute some amount, and then the remainder is made up through what exactly other things could come from the school. So a typical package that a school put together is going to have probably three pieces to it. There's going to be scholarships and grant money, which is good. That's money you don't have to pay back. There's going to be loans, and loans are things that you will pay back over a period of time. And there will probably be a work-study job, and that's a job that you will have during the school year, probably somewhere between, you know, 8 to 10 hours, maybe upwards of 20 hours, depending on the school, that money you will make during the school year. Okay."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "That's money you don't have to pay back. There's going to be loans, and loans are things that you will pay back over a period of time. And there will probably be a work-study job, and that's a job that you will have during the school year, probably somewhere between, you know, 8 to 10 hours, maybe upwards of 20 hours, depending on the school, that money you will make during the school year. Okay. And so I won't get that financial aid. I can't even qualify for that if I don't fill out the FAFSA? Correct."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "Okay. And so I won't get that financial aid. I can't even qualify for that if I don't fill out the FAFSA? Correct. So aside from the FAFSA, Sean, are there any other forms that students typically need to fill out to get financial aid, need-based financial aid, specifically? So most public schools only require the FAFSA form. Other schools, a lot of private schools, may have their own internal form."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "Correct. So aside from the FAFSA, Sean, are there any other forms that students typically need to fill out to get financial aid, need-based financial aid, specifically? So most public schools only require the FAFSA form. Other schools, a lot of private schools, may have their own internal form. And that's in addition to the FAFSA? In addition. And there's another form out there that's used by a lot of schools called the CSS profile."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "Other schools, a lot of private schools, may have their own internal form. And that's in addition to the FAFSA? In addition. And there's another form out there that's used by a lot of schools called the CSS profile. And that can be found on the College Board website. And the CSS profile, you said that's, I'm going to fill out the FAFSA, I'm also going to fill out the CSS profile, and that's going specifically to private schools. Or it's more often used."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "And there's another form out there that's used by a lot of schools called the CSS profile. And that can be found on the College Board website. And the CSS profile, you said that's, I'm going to fill out the FAFSA, I'm also going to fill out the CSS profile, and that's going specifically to private schools. Or it's more often used. More often, correct. Great. So what are sort of the differences between the profile and the FAFSA?"}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "Or it's more often used. More often, correct. Great. So what are sort of the differences between the profile and the FAFSA? What additional information am I going to be providing? So first of all, the CSS profile does cost money. There's a fee to sort of fill out the form, and then there's also a fee to send it to different schools."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So what are sort of the differences between the profile and the FAFSA? What additional information am I going to be providing? So first of all, the CSS profile does cost money. There's a fee to sort of fill out the form, and then there's also a fee to send it to different schools. There also are fee waivers that are available for this. So you are able to, again, do this without cost to your family. And the nice thing is, as you fill out the form, it will determine if you qualify for a fee waiver or not."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "There's a fee to sort of fill out the form, and then there's also a fee to send it to different schools. There also are fee waivers that are available for this. So you are able to, again, do this without cost to your family. And the nice thing is, as you fill out the form, it will determine if you qualify for a fee waiver or not. Based on my family's income, that sort of thing. If it's below a certain level, I'll be able to fill out the form for free. So that tells me how much it costs."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "And the nice thing is, as you fill out the form, it will determine if you qualify for a fee waiver or not. Based on my family's income, that sort of thing. If it's below a certain level, I'll be able to fill out the form for free. So that tells me how much it costs. What actually am I going, what sort of specific, if you know some specific differences that are going to be on here. Sure. So on the FAFSA form, that really is only talking about the family that the student lives with."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So that tells me how much it costs. What actually am I going, what sort of specific, if you know some specific differences that are going to be on here. Sure. So on the FAFSA form, that really is only talking about the family that the student lives with. So in that sort of home. On the profile, they look at the resources of both biological parents. So even if there's a divorce separated situation, they're going to inquire about both families and both parents and their ability to pay."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So on the FAFSA form, that really is only talking about the family that the student lives with. So in that sort of home. On the profile, they look at the resources of both biological parents. So even if there's a divorce separated situation, they're going to inquire about both families and both parents and their ability to pay. So that's a very big difference. Another difference with the CSS profile is, again, it's used a lot by private schools and for their institutional money they have. So they want a broader picture of what's going on in the household."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So even if there's a divorce separated situation, they're going to inquire about both families and both parents and their ability to pay. So that's a very big difference. Another difference with the CSS profile is, again, it's used a lot by private schools and for their institutional money they have. So they want a broader picture of what's going on in the household. So this takes into account things like, one of the big things it takes into account is home equity and how much money you may have in home equity. And that means if I put money on a house or own a house, that gets counted in the profile, but that's not being counted in the FAFSA. Yeah, correct."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So they want a broader picture of what's going on in the household. So this takes into account things like, one of the big things it takes into account is home equity and how much money you may have in home equity. And that means if I put money on a house or own a house, that gets counted in the profile, but that's not being counted in the FAFSA. Yeah, correct. So again, getting a broader picture of your assets, a broader picture of what you're able to contribute. And are the deadlines for the profile similar to FAFSA? So they're a little bit different."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "Yeah, correct. So again, getting a broader picture of your assets, a broader picture of what you're able to contribute. And are the deadlines for the profile similar to FAFSA? So they're a little bit different. So the college deadlines are very similar. So again, probably between February 1st and sometime in the middle of March. So those are pretty standard."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So they're a little bit different. So the college deadlines are very similar. So again, probably between February 1st and sometime in the middle of March. So those are pretty standard. But the CSS profile is available in the fall of your senior year. And one of the ways that these private schools use the CSS profile, a lot of these institutions have early action, early decision programs for admission. So they use the profile as a way to give students a preliminary financial aid package."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So those are pretty standard. But the CSS profile is available in the fall of your senior year. And one of the ways that these private schools use the CSS profile, a lot of these institutions have early action, early decision programs for admission. So they use the profile as a way to give students a preliminary financial aid package. So if they are, again, remember in a early program, the deadlines are usually November 1. Usually you find out around sometime in the middle of December. And once you get the decision in December, they also would like to give you a preliminary package so you can determine like, oh, not only am I admitted to the school, but I have a package that will work for my family and myself."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "So they use the profile as a way to give students a preliminary financial aid package. So if they are, again, remember in a early program, the deadlines are usually November 1. Usually you find out around sometime in the middle of December. And once you get the decision in December, they also would like to give you a preliminary package so you can determine like, oh, not only am I admitted to the school, but I have a package that will work for my family and myself. So you can use the CSS profile in the fall. That will obviously be on last year's tax information, because obviously this year's information isn't finished by the fall. But for both the FAFSA and the profile, you will eventually submit your current year tax documents and W-2 so they can verify everything that's on there."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "And once you get the decision in December, they also would like to give you a preliminary package so you can determine like, oh, not only am I admitted to the school, but I have a package that will work for my family and myself. So you can use the CSS profile in the fall. That will obviously be on last year's tax information, because obviously this year's information isn't finished by the fall. But for both the FAFSA and the profile, you will eventually submit your current year tax documents and W-2 so they can verify everything that's on there. Great. We've got the FAFSA, which kind of gets me access to federal financial aid. And that's pretty much for all schools."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "But for both the FAFSA and the profile, you will eventually submit your current year tax documents and W-2 so they can verify everything that's on there. Great. We've got the FAFSA, which kind of gets me access to federal financial aid. And that's pretty much for all schools. When I fill that out, it'll be after January 1. I'll get an EFC back and that'll go on to the schools that I am applying to, as long as I specify them in the FAFSA. The profile isn't required by all schools."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "And that's pretty much for all schools. When I fill that out, it'll be after January 1. I'll get an EFC back and that'll go on to the schools that I am applying to, as long as I specify them in the FAFSA. The profile isn't required by all schools. Tends to be used more for private schools. They'll still require the FAFSA, but they'll also require the profile. And in that case, it may ask some sort of additional questions to find out about my home, if I have additional assets, like how much value is in my home."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "The profile isn't required by all schools. Tends to be used more for private schools. They'll still require the FAFSA, but they'll also require the profile. And in that case, it may ask some sort of additional questions to find out about my home, if I have additional assets, like how much value is in my home. It might also ask about if my parents are divorced, what the parent that doesn't live with us is making. And these are both to give private schools more information, but also for early action, early decision to kind of let me access that financial aid. Great."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "And in that case, it may ask some sort of additional questions to find out about my home, if I have additional assets, like how much value is in my home. It might also ask about if my parents are divorced, what the parent that doesn't live with us is making. And these are both to give private schools more information, but also for early action, early decision to kind of let me access that financial aid. Great. Is there anything else that I need to know about the FAFSA or profile before I get started on these forms? That'll get you started. But again, the more organized you are with your tax information going into that year, the easier these forms are going to be."}, {"video_title": "Overview of FAFSA and CSS PROFILE.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. Is there anything else that I need to know about the FAFSA or profile before I get started on these forms? That'll get you started. But again, the more organized you are with your tax information going into that year, the easier these forms are going to be. The other thing I would say is financial aid officers are always happy to help you with these forms. Use them as a resource. And we'd be even more than happy to give you a federal rating on any just-setting favor"}, {"video_title": "Student story College expands opportunities.mp3", "Sentence": "I've had so many great opportunities. Going abroad twice, South America and Europe, I never imagined I could have done that. And after college, I've done those things. Working at tech companies, those were far away from my mind. I never thought I'd work at a tech company. I never thought it was for me. And then here I am, fielding offers from tech companies right now at the end of it."}, {"video_title": "Student story College expands opportunities.mp3", "Sentence": "Working at tech companies, those were far away from my mind. I never thought I'd work at a tech company. I never thought it was for me. And then here I am, fielding offers from tech companies right now at the end of it. The friends I've met, they're off doing start-ups right now or being the next doctors or next political leaders. And college really introduced all of that to me and gave me that. And of course I worked hard for it."}, {"video_title": "Student story College expands opportunities.mp3", "Sentence": "And then here I am, fielding offers from tech companies right now at the end of it. The friends I've met, they're off doing start-ups right now or being the next doctors or next political leaders. And college really introduced all of that to me and gave me that. And of course I worked hard for it. Who doesn't? Once you make it to college, it's a testament that you worked hard and here you are getting something from it. And I stand by that."}, {"video_title": "Student story College expands opportunities.mp3", "Sentence": "And of course I worked hard for it. Who doesn't? Once you make it to college, it's a testament that you worked hard and here you are getting something from it. And I stand by that. You get out of it what you put in. And if you never try, then you'll never know what college is. College is unique and it'll be different for everyone."}, {"video_title": "Comparing nonprofit vs  for profit colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So in your research process, you may also come across terms that are not-for-profit schools and for-profit schools. So they're very different types of institutions. So you want to be careful to make sure you really do good research. Not-for-profit schools are the ones you probably readily recognize. Most of the national universities are all non-profit schools. For-profit schools have really sort of shown up in the last 10 to 15 years and have become a bigger player in this market. But they have a very different business model."}, {"video_title": "Comparing nonprofit vs  for profit colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "Not-for-profit schools are the ones you probably readily recognize. Most of the national universities are all non-profit schools. For-profit schools have really sort of shown up in the last 10 to 15 years and have become a bigger player in this market. But they have a very different business model. And their job is to make money. So they're making different decisions. It's not to say that you can't get a good education from them."}, {"video_title": "Comparing nonprofit vs  for profit colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "But they have a very different business model. And their job is to make money. So they're making different decisions. It's not to say that you can't get a good education from them. And again, they may be teaching things like jobs for an x-ray technician or crime scene investigator or maybe cosmetology, those sorts of things. But you want to be careful and do your homework. You want to make sure that you go and see, are students graduating in four years?"}, {"video_title": "Comparing nonprofit vs  for profit colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "It's not to say that you can't get a good education from them. And again, they may be teaching things like jobs for an x-ray technician or crime scene investigator or maybe cosmetology, those sorts of things. But you want to be careful and do your homework. You want to make sure that you go and see, are students graduating in four years? What's the average loan debt they have to take out at that school? Upon graduation, are they getting jobs in the field they've studied in? And maybe what's the average salary for those starting students coming right out of school?"}, {"video_title": "Student story Extracurriculars that are a passion.mp3", "Sentence": "I always looked at it as like, what did I like to do? What do I love to do? And I'm going to do it to the best. And that's how I always looked at extracurriculars. So I got involved in so many things because of that, not to get into college. I was in journalism. I loved it."}, {"video_title": "Student story Extracurriculars that are a passion.mp3", "Sentence": "And that's how I always looked at extracurriculars. So I got involved in so many things because of that, not to get into college. I was in journalism. I loved it. We would have production days till like late at night, write articles. I was in theater and that was just so much fun. I also did a lot of community service with my church and my friends."}, {"video_title": "Student story Extracurriculars that are a passion.mp3", "Sentence": "I loved it. We would have production days till like late at night, write articles. I was in theater and that was just so much fun. I also did a lot of community service with my church and my friends. And that was a really, really great opportunity to be out there doing public service. And all of those really transferred over to what I did later on. Community service ended up running my entire career, both in college and beyond."}, {"video_title": "Student story Extracurriculars that are a passion.mp3", "Sentence": "I also did a lot of community service with my church and my friends. And that was a really, really great opportunity to be out there doing public service. And all of those really transferred over to what I did later on. Community service ended up running my entire career, both in college and beyond. Drama served me both in college as I did drama and also in extracurricular summer camps when I did during the school year. And then the last one, journalism, ended up becoming part of my major. So all of that transferred over to what I did."}, {"video_title": "4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs.mp3", "Sentence": "Once you know the school's full cost of attendance at each institution to which you're applying, that might include tuition, room and board, student fees, transportation, books, how then do you compare costs of each institution side by side? You would think that you would just look at the sticker price and that would make it easy to compare, but unfortunately it's not as easy as that. One of the things that you really need to look at first is how long does it take to graduate from each institution on your list. Unfortunately as college costs have risen precipitously over the last two or three decades, schools have done an increasingly poor job at getting students out of school within that four year traditional time period that it would take to graduate. In fact nationally the statistic is that in public universities and colleges 68% of students fail to graduate within four years and 44% of students fail to graduate within six years. So looking at that you have to say to yourself is there an additional cost associated with not finishing college within four years. And of course that cost can be very large."}, {"video_title": "4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs.mp3", "Sentence": "Unfortunately as college costs have risen precipitously over the last two or three decades, schools have done an increasingly poor job at getting students out of school within that four year traditional time period that it would take to graduate. In fact nationally the statistic is that in public universities and colleges 68% of students fail to graduate within four years and 44% of students fail to graduate within six years. So looking at that you have to say to yourself is there an additional cost associated with not finishing college within four years. And of course that cost can be very large. There's two components to that cost. Cost number one is you or your parents are going to have to pay an extra year cost of attendance, so extra tuition, room and board, etc. But there's an additional cost and this is the cost that students and families don't think about when they're deciding about which school they're going to attend."}, {"video_title": "4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs.mp3", "Sentence": "And of course that cost can be very large. There's two components to that cost. Cost number one is you or your parents are going to have to pay an extra year cost of attendance, so extra tuition, room and board, etc. But there's an additional cost and this is the cost that students and families don't think about when they're deciding about which school they're going to attend. And that cost is the opportunity cost of not being in the workforce while you're in school an additional year. So if we assume that an average starting salary for a college graduate these days is about $50,000, not only are you losing potentially $25,000 up to $65,000 of additional associated tuition, room and board and fees, but you are also losing a year in the workforce where you could be earning about $50,000. So altogether the cost of an additional year in school can be up to $100,000 or more."}, {"video_title": "4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs.mp3", "Sentence": "But there's an additional cost and this is the cost that students and families don't think about when they're deciding about which school they're going to attend. And that cost is the opportunity cost of not being in the workforce while you're in school an additional year. So if we assume that an average starting salary for a college graduate these days is about $50,000, not only are you losing potentially $25,000 up to $65,000 of additional associated tuition, room and board and fees, but you are also losing a year in the workforce where you could be earning about $50,000. So altogether the cost of an additional year in school can be up to $100,000 or more. So the next thing you need to really look at when analyzing college costs is what is the average percentage of demonstrated financial need that each school on your list meets. So you would think that schools would meet any costs above your expected family contribution. And unfortunately that's not the case."}, {"video_title": "4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs.mp3", "Sentence": "So altogether the cost of an additional year in school can be up to $100,000 or more. So the next thing you need to really look at when analyzing college costs is what is the average percentage of demonstrated financial need that each school on your list meets. So you would think that schools would meet any costs above your expected family contribution. And unfortunately that's not the case. In fact there are only about 60 to 65 schools in the country that meet your entire demonstrated financial need. So that means that at most schools you will end up paying not only your expected family contribution, but you will end up paying your unmet need as well. So how do you find the average percentage of need met statistic for each school?"}, {"video_title": "4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs.mp3", "Sentence": "And unfortunately that's not the case. In fact there are only about 60 to 65 schools in the country that meet your entire demonstrated financial need. So that means that at most schools you will end up paying not only your expected family contribution, but you will end up paying your unmet need as well. So how do you find the average percentage of need met statistic for each school? Fortunately there's a wonderful little website called collegedata.com. It's a free website. And on that website you can search for each school on your list and then go to the money matters tab for each school and you will find there the average percentage of need met for each institution."}, {"video_title": "4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs.mp3", "Sentence": "So how do you find the average percentage of need met statistic for each school? Fortunately there's a wonderful little website called collegedata.com. It's a free website. And on that website you can search for each school on your list and then go to the money matters tab for each school and you will find there the average percentage of need met for each institution. Okay so the next thing you need to look at, which can also be found on collegedata.com, is the form this need based assistance is going to come in for each school on your list. So is it going to come in the form of grants and scholarships, which is essentially free money that you don't have to pay back, or is it going to come in the form of what we call self help aid, which is loans. It could be student loans, it could be parent loans that you have to pay back at interest."}, {"video_title": "4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs.mp3", "Sentence": "And on that website you can search for each school on your list and then go to the money matters tab for each school and you will find there the average percentage of need met for each institution. Okay so the next thing you need to look at, which can also be found on collegedata.com, is the form this need based assistance is going to come in for each school on your list. So is it going to come in the form of grants and scholarships, which is essentially free money that you don't have to pay back, or is it going to come in the form of what we call self help aid, which is loans. It could be student loans, it could be parent loans that you have to pay back at interest. So let's look at University of Colorado at Boulder, which is a large public institution. And as I scroll down here I want to look at the profile of 2014-15 financial aid. And you'll see down under freshman you'll see the average percentage of need met there, which was the first question we asked, is about 81%."}, {"video_title": "4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs.mp3", "Sentence": "It could be student loans, it could be parent loans that you have to pay back at interest. So let's look at University of Colorado at Boulder, which is a large public institution. And as I scroll down here I want to look at the profile of 2014-15 financial aid. And you'll see down under freshman you'll see the average percentage of need met there, which was the first question we asked, is about 81%. And then beneath that we have the average award, and the average award at Boulder is almost $16,000 per year. And then under that we can look at what form that award money comes in. And you can see the first category is the need based gift, that is grants and scholarships, free money."}, {"video_title": "4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs.mp3", "Sentence": "And you'll see down under freshman you'll see the average percentage of need met there, which was the first question we asked, is about 81%. And then beneath that we have the average award, and the average award at Boulder is almost $16,000 per year. And then under that we can look at what form that award money comes in. And you can see the first category is the need based gift, that is grants and scholarships, free money. And you can see that about 77.8% of Boulder freshmen received a need based gift in the average amount of about $11,000. Then you can also look at what the average need based self help amount is for entering freshmen at Boulder. That self help aid was received by 88.5% of aid recipients for an average amount of about $5,813."}, {"video_title": "4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs.mp3", "Sentence": "And you can see the first category is the need based gift, that is grants and scholarships, free money. And you can see that about 77.8% of Boulder freshmen received a need based gift in the average amount of about $11,000. Then you can also look at what the average need based self help amount is for entering freshmen at Boulder. That self help aid was received by 88.5% of aid recipients for an average amount of about $5,813. Beneath that you can see what merit based aid is given to the average freshman. And only about 4.2% of the entering freshmen at Boulder are receiving any kind of merit based gift. And the average amount there listed is $9,676."}, {"video_title": "4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs.mp3", "Sentence": "That self help aid was received by 88.5% of aid recipients for an average amount of about $5,813. Beneath that you can see what merit based aid is given to the average freshman. And only about 4.2% of the entering freshmen at Boulder are receiving any kind of merit based gift. And the average amount there listed is $9,676. So one of the things you really want to do when you look at this college data website is to compare the data for freshmen with the data for all undergraduates. Because what you'll find occasionally is a school that I call a bait and switch school, where they're going to give more money away to freshmen than they do to the rest of their undergraduates in order to attract the freshmen to the school. And then once you're there they give you less aid."}, {"video_title": "4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs.mp3", "Sentence": "And the average amount there listed is $9,676. So one of the things you really want to do when you look at this college data website is to compare the data for freshmen with the data for all undergraduates. Because what you'll find occasionally is a school that I call a bait and switch school, where they're going to give more money away to freshmen than they do to the rest of their undergraduates in order to attract the freshmen to the school. And then once you're there they give you less aid. So what you really want to use college data for is to figure out the percentage of aid that's coming in the form of free money versus the percentage that is going to come in the form of mostly loans from each of the schools on your list. In addition to need based gifts or need based self help amounts, you may be eligible for what is called merit aid, or on college data it's called non-need based aid. And this is money, usually in the form of grants or scholarships, that is given away to students that a specific college or university wants to attract based on their academic or extracurricular merit."}, {"video_title": "4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs.mp3", "Sentence": "And then once you're there they give you less aid. So what you really want to use college data for is to figure out the percentage of aid that's coming in the form of free money versus the percentage that is going to come in the form of mostly loans from each of the schools on your list. In addition to need based gifts or need based self help amounts, you may be eligible for what is called merit aid, or on college data it's called non-need based aid. And this is money, usually in the form of grants or scholarships, that is given away to students that a specific college or university wants to attract based on their academic or extracurricular merit. If you are ineligible for need based aid, merit aid or non-need based aid is the only form of assistance you may receive. If you're eligible for need based aid, you could receive a combination of need based aid and non-need based aid. Now most schools will give some merit money away to students that they want to attract."}, {"video_title": "4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs.mp3", "Sentence": "And this is money, usually in the form of grants or scholarships, that is given away to students that a specific college or university wants to attract based on their academic or extracurricular merit. If you are ineligible for need based aid, merit aid or non-need based aid is the only form of assistance you may receive. If you're eligible for need based aid, you could receive a combination of need based aid and non-need based aid. Now most schools will give some merit money away to students that they want to attract. However, there are about 25 schools in the country, including all the Ivy Leagues, Stanford, Swarthmore, Williams, Amherst, etc., who don't give any merit aid away at all to any of their freshman students. So in these cases, if you do not qualify for need based aid, you will be paying the full price tag at those schools, whereas at other schools you might be receiving some merit based assistance to get you to come there, which you can kind of think of as a tuition discount. Okay, to sum up, there are four things you need to look at when comparing the costs of college education institution by institution."}, {"video_title": "4 Most Important Considerations in Analyzing College Costs.mp3", "Sentence": "Now most schools will give some merit money away to students that they want to attract. However, there are about 25 schools in the country, including all the Ivy Leagues, Stanford, Swarthmore, Williams, Amherst, etc., who don't give any merit aid away at all to any of their freshman students. So in these cases, if you do not qualify for need based aid, you will be paying the full price tag at those schools, whereas at other schools you might be receiving some merit based assistance to get you to come there, which you can kind of think of as a tuition discount. Okay, to sum up, there are four things you need to look at when comparing the costs of college education institution by institution. Firstly, what is the average time that it takes to graduate from each school on your list? Secondly, what is the average percentage of need that each school on your list meets? Thirdly, what is the form that that assistance is going to come in?"}, {"video_title": "Writing a strong college admissions essay.mp3", "Sentence": "First and foremost when looking at essay are going to be looking at things like their ability to write well and their preparation for college but we're also using that information to kind of see things like their resilience and their love of learning and their intellectual curiosity. I always tell a student, you know, if you had the chance to come meet with the admissions committee and present yourself in person would you want to do it? And without fail students say yeah I'd love to have that opportunity and when I ask why they say because if they were able to get to know the admissions committee the admissions committee would want to admit them because they would know them and they would get to know what they're about and what makes them unique and special. The essay is really neat in that it's one of the only places in the application where they have complete control where they can write about the things that they've been involved in, the things that they've done. One piece of advice I would give to every student is to ask someone who knows them a little bit to read their essay and to tell them what impressions they have of you after reading the essay. I think the essays that work best are actually quite simple. I think students get really caught up in thinking that this this essay has to encompass your entire life and it has to be groundbreaking and you know publishable quality and that's a lot to ask of a high school student."}, {"video_title": "Writing a strong college admissions essay.mp3", "Sentence": "The essay is really neat in that it's one of the only places in the application where they have complete control where they can write about the things that they've been involved in, the things that they've done. One piece of advice I would give to every student is to ask someone who knows them a little bit to read their essay and to tell them what impressions they have of you after reading the essay. I think the essays that work best are actually quite simple. I think students get really caught up in thinking that this this essay has to encompass your entire life and it has to be groundbreaking and you know publishable quality and that's a lot to ask of a high school student. So I always advise students to stick to the simple things that you know and the essays that stand out the most in my mind are about simple simple things, very everyday topics. I have seen some amazing essays about things like students walking their dog or or even their bus ride to school. I think our hope is that if a student were to drop the essay on the floor of their high school and someone were to pick it up, it didn't have your name on it, that they'd say for sure oh I know that this is so-and-so's essay because it speaks so much about your voice and your experiences and your perspective."}, {"video_title": "Writing a strong college admissions essay.mp3", "Sentence": "I think students get really caught up in thinking that this this essay has to encompass your entire life and it has to be groundbreaking and you know publishable quality and that's a lot to ask of a high school student. So I always advise students to stick to the simple things that you know and the essays that stand out the most in my mind are about simple simple things, very everyday topics. I have seen some amazing essays about things like students walking their dog or or even their bus ride to school. I think our hope is that if a student were to drop the essay on the floor of their high school and someone were to pick it up, it didn't have your name on it, that they'd say for sure oh I know that this is so-and-so's essay because it speaks so much about your voice and your experiences and your perspective. I think my favorite essay that I've ever read came from a student in the Midwest and he wrote about working at a fast-food restaurant and he wrote about how people were treating him as they went through the drive-thru and how he was treating them back. He called himself an undercover anthropologist which admittedly was a little nerdy in a brown sort of way, but I liked his essay because I was able to see what he was seeing and feel what he was feeling. So for the purposes of the application where we as admission officers are trying to get to know the applicant, that's a great essay."}, {"video_title": "Student story Overcoming lack of high school support as an obstacle to college.mp3", "Sentence": "My school didn't have a college advisor, we had counselors. And the idea was that everybody would go to the local community college or the state school. It's not talked about how you go about sending your application to ten different schools. It's just not a thing. When I asked for fee waivers, they were like, what are you doing? And I'm like, well, I'm going to apply to all these schools. And they're like, but why?"}, {"video_title": "Student story Overcoming lack of high school support as an obstacle to college.mp3", "Sentence": "It's just not a thing. When I asked for fee waivers, they were like, what are you doing? And I'm like, well, I'm going to apply to all these schools. And they're like, but why? So it was also that, like, I never \u2013 you weren't looked down upon for wanting to leave, but it was definitely no, like, administrative support to wanting to leave. At times I didn't even worry so much about getting in, but, like, whether or not I would even have the opportunity to show these schools that I do deserve to be there. So sometimes I felt even more defeated because it's like, wow, I have potential, but it's not going to be able to \u2013 like, I can't show it because I don't know how to."}, {"video_title": "Student story Overcoming lack of high school support as an obstacle to college.mp3", "Sentence": "And they're like, but why? So it was also that, like, I never \u2013 you weren't looked down upon for wanting to leave, but it was definitely no, like, administrative support to wanting to leave. At times I didn't even worry so much about getting in, but, like, whether or not I would even have the opportunity to show these schools that I do deserve to be there. So sometimes I felt even more defeated because it's like, wow, I have potential, but it's not going to be able to \u2013 like, I can't show it because I don't know how to. And that was even more of a deterrent to me to know that there was no institutional support in place to say, yes, you can. Whereas at other schools, like at a local \u2013 I guess, like, in the suburb school, they had that. They had, like, three college advisors right away at their disposal, and we didn't."}, {"video_title": "Student story College offers exposure to diversity.mp3", "Sentence": "So from my personal perspective, I go to a historically black college. And so being from Palo Alto, California, a predominantly white area, I thought that being black meant one thing, you know, that stereotypical idea. And so when I went to college and I'm surrounded by all these black people, I'm realizing that, you know, everybody's different. So there's Haitians, there's African-American people, there's people that are from the diaspora. And I like that it challenged my ignorance and it made me be open to other people and not stereotyping people or not thinking that all people are one thing. So college really opened my eyes to different types of people. And now even when I go, when I come back home, start a new job, I'm trying to be open to people just because I learned that in college, that's really what gets you by."}, {"video_title": "Overview Paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "Things like the Rotary Club scholarships, the PTA scholarships, the National Merit scholarships, all those make a big difference for a lot of students, but they're usually small amounts. And where the real sources of funding come from are through filing the FAFSA and at many schools the profile, which makes you eligible for federal and state grants and scholarships, as well as institutional scholarships and grants. So the rule of thumb is the more expensive a school is, the more financial aid that school needs to make available to their students. So many students find that their major source of funding is the institution that they're going to. By filling out the FAFSA and profile, then we provide that information to students in an award letter. So a few of the things that you might see in a financial aid letter are, first of all, the award. You know, what is the financial aid that you will be receiving?"}, {"video_title": "Overview Paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "So many students find that their major source of funding is the institution that they're going to. By filling out the FAFSA and profile, then we provide that information to students in an award letter. So a few of the things that you might see in a financial aid letter are, first of all, the award. You know, what is the financial aid that you will be receiving? How much money is the school going to give you to attend? This can come in a few different forms. So one of the ways that a student may receive aid is through a scholarship."}, {"video_title": "Overview Paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "You know, what is the financial aid that you will be receiving? How much money is the school going to give you to attend? This can come in a few different forms. So one of the ways that a student may receive aid is through a scholarship. Obviously, a scholarship may be merit-based or need-based. If it's merit-based, there may be a GPA requirement or a certain class load that you need to maintain. If it's need-based, it may fluctuate if your family's financial situation changes."}, {"video_title": "Overview Paying for college.mp3", "Sentence": "So one of the ways that a student may receive aid is through a scholarship. Obviously, a scholarship may be merit-based or need-based. If it's merit-based, there may be a GPA requirement or a certain class load that you need to maintain. If it's need-based, it may fluctuate if your family's financial situation changes. Another part of a typical financial aid package are loans. And it's important for you to be able to identify on your award letter exactly what money is in terms of loans as opposed to scholarships and grants. Loans are money that you get the use of that money while you're in school, but after you graduate, you're going to have to pay that back."}, {"video_title": "Student story Extracurriculars that are leadership opportunities.mp3", "Sentence": "One of the biggest extracurriculars for me was football. Football definitely challenged me in different ways, but it definitely helped me make a lot of relationships that I'll cherish for the rest of my life. Football challenged me in a couple ways simply because I was a backup quarterback for three years and for a lot of people it's daunting to not be on the playing field and seeing your teammates out there fighting for you and you're just being there on the sidelines. So what I learned from that was when there's a door that's closed, you just got to open another one. And through that, I learned that leadership doesn't have to be a name. You don't have to be Mr. This This."}, {"video_title": "Student story Extracurriculars that are leadership opportunities.mp3", "Sentence": "So what I learned from that was when there's a door that's closed, you just got to open another one. And through that, I learned that leadership doesn't have to be a name. You don't have to be Mr. This This. It comes from within. Leadership comes from passion. And through that, I was able to lead my teammates on the sideline, I was a leader in practice on the scout team, and by the end of my senior year, I won a Journeyman of the Year award, which is given to the player on the team who best illuminated the leadership qualities of a leader, regardless of playing time."}, {"video_title": "Student story Extracurriculars that are leadership opportunities.mp3", "Sentence": "This This. It comes from within. Leadership comes from passion. And through that, I was able to lead my teammates on the sideline, I was a leader in practice on the scout team, and by the end of my senior year, I won a Journeyman of the Year award, which is given to the player on the team who best illuminated the leadership qualities of a leader, regardless of playing time. And through that, I was able to write another college essay in mind that definitely helped me get into a couple colleges because it really showed a different aspect of leadership that not a lot of people thought about. And through that, I got a college essay and it was a good life lesson. It's good to know that you don't have to be the boss."}, {"video_title": "Overview of the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "The ACT is a standardized test that many schools will require as part of the admissions process. Based on my work as a college admission officer, the schools really have no preference for the tests you take. So let's spend a little time talking about the ACT. The purpose of taking a standardized test is really to allow colleges to use a benchmark for students against other students from across the U.S. and internationally. An A in an English class in one school can mean something totally different than an A in an English class in another school. So it is one way that schools can look at a national exam. Currently for the ACT, there are four sections to it."}, {"video_title": "Overview of the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "The purpose of taking a standardized test is really to allow colleges to use a benchmark for students against other students from across the U.S. and internationally. An A in an English class in one school can mean something totally different than an A in an English class in another school. So it is one way that schools can look at a national exam. Currently for the ACT, there are four sections to it. There's an English section, there's a reading section, there's a math section, and there's a science section. And there is one optional essay section that students can choose to do. The format for the test really includes multiple choice questions."}, {"video_title": "Overview of the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "Currently for the ACT, there are four sections to it. There's an English section, there's a reading section, there's a math section, and there's a science section. And there is one optional essay section that students can choose to do. The format for the test really includes multiple choice questions. In the English section, you've got 75 questions in about a 45 minute time period. In the reading section, you've got another 40 questions and that's in a 35 minute time period. In the math section, you've got 60 questions in 60 minutes."}, {"video_title": "Overview of the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "The format for the test really includes multiple choice questions. In the English section, you've got 75 questions in about a 45 minute time period. In the reading section, you've got another 40 questions and that's in a 35 minute time period. In the math section, you've got 60 questions in 60 minutes. And in the science section, you've got 40 questions and that's in about 35 minutes. The cost of the test is about $52.50. The cost of the test should never be a barrier."}, {"video_title": "Overview of the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "In the math section, you've got 60 questions in 60 minutes. And in the science section, you've got 40 questions and that's in about 35 minutes. The cost of the test is about $52.50. The cost of the test should never be a barrier. If you feel like you need help paying for the cost of the test, please see your college counselor, your guidance counselor. There are fee waivers available, which means you can take this test for free. And your college or hopefully your college or guidance counselor can help you get the appropriate fee waivers to do that."}, {"video_title": "Overview of the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "The cost of the test should never be a barrier. If you feel like you need help paying for the cost of the test, please see your college counselor, your guidance counselor. There are fee waivers available, which means you can take this test for free. And your college or hopefully your college or guidance counselor can help you get the appropriate fee waivers to do that. Timing for taking the ACT. Most students should be planning out when to take their testing. I would recommend thinking about taking the ACT probably in the winter or spring of your junior year."}, {"video_title": "Overview of the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "And your college or hopefully your college or guidance counselor can help you get the appropriate fee waivers to do that. Timing for taking the ACT. Most students should be planning out when to take their testing. I would recommend thinking about taking the ACT probably in the winter or spring of your junior year. And then probably taking it twice. Most students do better when they take it a second time. So either taking it late in the spring of your junior year for a second time or using the fall of your senior year."}, {"video_title": "Overview of the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "I would recommend thinking about taking the ACT probably in the winter or spring of your junior year. And then probably taking it twice. Most students do better when they take it a second time. So either taking it late in the spring of your junior year for a second time or using the fall of your senior year. So the scoring. Each of the four sections has a score ranging between a one and 36. These scores are averaged together to get your composite score, which is also between a one and a 36."}, {"video_title": "Overview of the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "So either taking it late in the spring of your junior year for a second time or using the fall of your senior year. So the scoring. Each of the four sections has a score ranging between a one and 36. These scores are averaged together to get your composite score, which is also between a one and a 36. So let's take a look at this score report. For each of the sections, they can see how they did at a high level. So the overall section scores are out of 36."}, {"video_title": "Overview of the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "These scores are averaged together to get your composite score, which is also between a one and a 36. So let's take a look at this score report. For each of the sections, they can see how they did at a high level. So the overall section scores are out of 36. There's a perfect score on reading of 36. And the lowest of the four sections is in science, which is a 28. Other sections have sub scores which let you see if there was one area that was stronger than another."}, {"video_title": "Overview of the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "So the overall section scores are out of 36. There's a perfect score on reading of 36. And the lowest of the four sections is in science, which is a 28. Other sections have sub scores which let you see if there was one area that was stronger than another. In the English area, for instance, the student did slightly better on the usage and mechanics questions than compared to the rhetorical skills questions. This information allows the student to target and study what they need to do better on and what they need to retake. So the composite score is an average of the English, the math, the reading, and the science scores."}, {"video_title": "Overview of the ACT.mp3", "Sentence": "Other sections have sub scores which let you see if there was one area that was stronger than another. In the English area, for instance, the student did slightly better on the usage and mechanics questions than compared to the rhetorical skills questions. This information allows the student to target and study what they need to do better on and what they need to retake. So the composite score is an average of the English, the math, the reading, and the science scores. So if you use this example, and let's do the math, you take a 32, a 35, a 36, and a 28, and you add that up, you get 131. You divide it by four, and this person scores a 32.75, which rounds up to a 33. So their composite is a 33."}, {"video_title": "Comparing universities vs. liberal arts colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "We're here today with Sean Logan, Director of College Counseling at Phillips Academy. And Sean, can you tell students a little bit more about the difference between a university versus a liberal arts college? Sure. I get this question a lot from my students. I think the quick answer to this and the simple answer is that a university, while it also has a four-year undergraduate program and a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science program, it also has graduate schools attached to it. So things like business and law, medical schools, and so forth. So schools like Ohio State or University of Michigan, Stanford University, and so forth are universities that have both the undergraduate and all the graduate programs."}, {"video_title": "Comparing universities vs. liberal arts colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "I get this question a lot from my students. I think the quick answer to this and the simple answer is that a university, while it also has a four-year undergraduate program and a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science program, it also has graduate schools attached to it. So things like business and law, medical schools, and so forth. So schools like Ohio State or University of Michigan, Stanford University, and so forth are universities that have both the undergraduate and all the graduate programs. Liberal arts colleges, on the other hand, tend to be smaller schools and only focusing on undergraduate degrees. So that four-year undergraduate degree. So I used to work at Occidental College in Los Angeles and Williams College in Massachusetts."}, {"video_title": "Comparing universities vs. liberal arts colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So schools like Ohio State or University of Michigan, Stanford University, and so forth are universities that have both the undergraduate and all the graduate programs. Liberal arts colleges, on the other hand, tend to be smaller schools and only focusing on undergraduate degrees. So that four-year undergraduate degree. So I used to work at Occidental College in Los Angeles and Williams College in Massachusetts. Both of those schools were undergraduate schools with about 2,000 students and all of their focus being on the students who were there. And again, the degree you get is a four-year degree, but they didn't have any graduate programs. So that's the simple answer, but there are more differences between them and that doesn't actually hold true for every school, but in general that works."}, {"video_title": "Comparing universities vs. liberal arts colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So I used to work at Occidental College in Los Angeles and Williams College in Massachusetts. Both of those schools were undergraduate schools with about 2,000 students and all of their focus being on the students who were there. And again, the degree you get is a four-year degree, but they didn't have any graduate programs. So that's the simple answer, but there are more differences between them and that doesn't actually hold true for every school, but in general that works. At a university, for instance, they tend to have very broad curriculum. So for instance, within, say, a biology department, there may be four or five different biology majors within that biology department, whereas at a liberal arts institution, it typically might be biology and biochem and that's it. So the curriculum is more specialized, a little bit more focused, say, in a liberal arts school, not quite as many options."}, {"video_title": "Comparing universities vs. liberal arts colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So that's the simple answer, but there are more differences between them and that doesn't actually hold true for every school, but in general that works. At a university, for instance, they tend to have very broad curriculum. So for instance, within, say, a biology department, there may be four or five different biology majors within that biology department, whereas at a liberal arts institution, it typically might be biology and biochem and that's it. So the curriculum is more specialized, a little bit more focused, say, in a liberal arts school, not quite as many options. You know, in a university, you can also get pre-professional degrees. So things like architecture, engineering, and so forth are opportunities that universities give you, whereas liberal arts schools, again, focus in the liberal arts. And they will say that their strengths are that they teach critical thinking and critical writing skills, basically lifetime learning skills."}, {"video_title": "Comparing universities vs. liberal arts colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So the curriculum is more specialized, a little bit more focused, say, in a liberal arts school, not quite as many options. You know, in a university, you can also get pre-professional degrees. So things like architecture, engineering, and so forth are opportunities that universities give you, whereas liberal arts schools, again, focus in the liberal arts. And they will say that their strengths are that they teach critical thinking and critical writing skills, basically lifetime learning skills. And coming at it from a liberal arts degree, again, those schools typically feel like they prepare you for about anything in the world as it is now constituted. Other sorts of things, universities, they're tend to going to have a lot of research money coming into them. Students could get undergraduate research opportunities there in the sciences, the humanities, the social sciences."}, {"video_title": "Comparing universities vs. liberal arts colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "And they will say that their strengths are that they teach critical thinking and critical writing skills, basically lifetime learning skills. And coming at it from a liberal arts degree, again, those schools typically feel like they prepare you for about anything in the world as it is now constituted. Other sorts of things, universities, they're tend to going to have a lot of research money coming into them. Students could get undergraduate research opportunities there in the sciences, the humanities, the social sciences. Liberal arts schools certainly have that opportunity as well, but probably not quite to the same extent, but not always. There are some liberal arts schools that have phenomenal research opportunities, so you need to look closely. Universities also tend to have, again, within their curriculum, their style of teaching, especially in the first two years, tends to be larger class sizes, maybe 200 to 400 students in a lecture hall in a discussion kind of section with teaching assistants doing sort of the smaller discussions."}, {"video_title": "Comparing universities vs. liberal arts colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "Students could get undergraduate research opportunities there in the sciences, the humanities, the social sciences. Liberal arts schools certainly have that opportunity as well, but probably not quite to the same extent, but not always. There are some liberal arts schools that have phenomenal research opportunities, so you need to look closely. Universities also tend to have, again, within their curriculum, their style of teaching, especially in the first two years, tends to be larger class sizes, maybe 200 to 400 students in a lecture hall in a discussion kind of section with teaching assistants doing sort of the smaller discussions. Whereas again, liberal arts colleges tend to be, again, maybe 18 to 20 students in a class. They're going to have very discussion-based courses and styles of learning. So again, it's a bit to what the student feels like is their best learning opportunity."}, {"video_title": "Comparing universities vs. liberal arts colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "Universities also tend to have, again, within their curriculum, their style of teaching, especially in the first two years, tends to be larger class sizes, maybe 200 to 400 students in a lecture hall in a discussion kind of section with teaching assistants doing sort of the smaller discussions. Whereas again, liberal arts colleges tend to be, again, maybe 18 to 20 students in a class. They're going to have very discussion-based courses and styles of learning. So again, it's a bit to what the student feels like is their best learning opportunity. And again, liberal arts schools and universities are both going to have a pretty wide array of opportunities, both extracurricularly in terms of theater, music, arts, athletics, those sorts of things. But universities tend to have Division I sports, and small liberal arts schools tend to be sort of a Division III type program. So there's a lot of differences there."}, {"video_title": "Comparing universities vs. liberal arts colleges.mp3", "Sentence": "So again, it's a bit to what the student feels like is their best learning opportunity. And again, liberal arts schools and universities are both going to have a pretty wide array of opportunities, both extracurricularly in terms of theater, music, arts, athletics, those sorts of things. But universities tend to have Division I sports, and small liberal arts schools tend to be sort of a Division III type program. So there's a lot of differences there. Both are really well-respected degrees. One is not considered stronger than another. Great."}, {"video_title": "Student Story Applying as a homeschooler.mp3", "Sentence": "I took classes at a local college. This was mainly in the high school years. Before high school, I was mostly taught almost everything by my parents, but in high school, you know, there are some classes that my parents aren't expert at, as great as they are at many things. So I took, for instance, like there was a local high school that had a great Latin teacher, and I had been taught Latin by my mom, but she's not a Latin expert. So I had a great time. I started loving Latin when I took Latin at this local high school and local college, local university. I did some other online courses, some of them sort of aimed at homeschoolers."}, {"video_title": "Student Story Applying as a homeschooler.mp3", "Sentence": "So I took, for instance, like there was a local high school that had a great Latin teacher, and I had been taught Latin by my mom, but she's not a Latin expert. So I had a great time. I started loving Latin when I took Latin at this local high school and local college, local university. I did some other online courses, some of them sort of aimed at homeschoolers. And one summer, I went to UCLA because I was really into filmmaking, and I took a filmmaking course there. And one of the added benefits that, in retrospect, I think was really important is that I got to know a UCLA professor, and he ended up actually writing one of my recommendation letters for college. And the other recommendation letter was from my English teacher, and I think she was my senior, no, it must have been junior, junior year English teacher at the local high school, who I loved, and she liked me a lot."}, {"video_title": "Student Story Applying as a homeschooler.mp3", "Sentence": "I did some other online courses, some of them sort of aimed at homeschoolers. And one summer, I went to UCLA because I was really into filmmaking, and I took a filmmaking course there. And one of the added benefits that, in retrospect, I think was really important is that I got to know a UCLA professor, and he ended up actually writing one of my recommendation letters for college. And the other recommendation letter was from my English teacher, and I think she was my senior, no, it must have been junior, junior year English teacher at the local high school, who I loved, and she liked me a lot. So that was a great choice, because it's always best to have someone maybe less biased than your parents who are writing your recommendation letters. I think probably the biggest piece of advice I'd give to a homeschooler working on their college application is that you need to think about, in your application, what things can you demonstrate that you've learned? So, for instance, for me, I took a bunch of classes at a college or a high school, and so I had a transcript, and I had grades, sort of to prove that I had learned those things."}, {"video_title": "Student Story Applying as a homeschooler.mp3", "Sentence": "And the other recommendation letter was from my English teacher, and I think she was my senior, no, it must have been junior, junior year English teacher at the local high school, who I loved, and she liked me a lot. So that was a great choice, because it's always best to have someone maybe less biased than your parents who are writing your recommendation letters. I think probably the biggest piece of advice I'd give to a homeschooler working on their college application is that you need to think about, in your application, what things can you demonstrate that you've learned? So, for instance, for me, I took a bunch of classes at a college or a high school, and so I had a transcript, and I had grades, sort of to prove that I had learned those things. But there are a lot of things that my parents really taught me on their own, and I sort of figured out on their own, and so they didn't really give me a test, and I couldn't really verify in some way that really makes sense to a college admissions person. So, for those things, for those areas, I was thinking about how can I demonstrate? So, one way was that I had built this cool science project, so I took photos of it, and I made sort of a report about that, and I actually included that in my college application, and that was a way to show that I had learned some science, not just that my parents said I had learned some science."}, {"video_title": "Student Story Applying as a homeschooler.mp3", "Sentence": "So, for instance, for me, I took a bunch of classes at a college or a high school, and so I had a transcript, and I had grades, sort of to prove that I had learned those things. But there are a lot of things that my parents really taught me on their own, and I sort of figured out on their own, and so they didn't really give me a test, and I couldn't really verify in some way that really makes sense to a college admissions person. So, for those things, for those areas, I was thinking about how can I demonstrate? So, one way was that I had built this cool science project, so I took photos of it, and I made sort of a report about that, and I actually included that in my college application, and that was a way to show that I had learned some science, not just that my parents said I had learned some science. And the other way was with my essays. So, one of the things that I had learned a lot from my parents, particularly in my homeschool life curriculum, was that I learned a lot about history and literature, and I had read a lot of books, and I loved reading. And I listed all the books that I had read, but I also wanted to demonstrate that I had a breadth of knowledge about the literature of the world and historical works, and so my essay incorporated a lot of them, and I talked about how much I loved reading these books, and that was a way, hopefully, to show to an admissions person that I had learned something."}, {"video_title": "Student Story Applying as a homeschooler.mp3", "Sentence": "So, one way was that I had built this cool science project, so I took photos of it, and I made sort of a report about that, and I actually included that in my college application, and that was a way to show that I had learned some science, not just that my parents said I had learned some science. And the other way was with my essays. So, one of the things that I had learned a lot from my parents, particularly in my homeschool life curriculum, was that I learned a lot about history and literature, and I had read a lot of books, and I loved reading. And I listed all the books that I had read, but I also wanted to demonstrate that I had a breadth of knowledge about the literature of the world and historical works, and so my essay incorporated a lot of them, and I talked about how much I loved reading these books, and that was a way, hopefully, to show to an admissions person that I had learned something. Because I didn't really have any other concrete way to demonstrate that. So, as a homeschool student, I wasn't really involved in a lot of the traditional extracurricular activities that will often be arranged as part of a high school. I did go part-time to a high school, so I had some opportunities to get involved with those things, but some of them were only for full-time high school students."}, {"video_title": "Student Story Applying as a homeschooler.mp3", "Sentence": "And I listed all the books that I had read, but I also wanted to demonstrate that I had a breadth of knowledge about the literature of the world and historical works, and so my essay incorporated a lot of them, and I talked about how much I loved reading these books, and that was a way, hopefully, to show to an admissions person that I had learned something. Because I didn't really have any other concrete way to demonstrate that. So, as a homeschool student, I wasn't really involved in a lot of the traditional extracurricular activities that will often be arranged as part of a high school. I did go part-time to a high school, so I had some opportunities to get involved with those things, but some of them were only for full-time high school students. So, you do have to seek them out sometimes, and sometimes there are homeschool groups, it really depends on the area. Sometimes there are even homeschool sports teams. In my case, there wasn't a homeschool sports team, but one of the things that I did is just, I was really into making movies."}, {"video_title": "Student Story Applying as a homeschooler.mp3", "Sentence": "I did go part-time to a high school, so I had some opportunities to get involved with those things, but some of them were only for full-time high school students. So, you do have to seek them out sometimes, and sometimes there are homeschool groups, it really depends on the area. Sometimes there are even homeschool sports teams. In my case, there wasn't a homeschool sports team, but one of the things that I did is just, I was really into making movies. I loved filmmaking, and I liked video stuff, and I just, so with my friends, I would get together and I'd make movies, and they would be really silly and cheesy and fun, but that was a thing where I was bringing a lot of people together, so I was sort of building community, I was working with people and having a lot of fun, but also making something that was cool and I could sort of demonstrate. I actually, on some of my applications, I believe not all of them accepted that, but I submitted a DVD of movies that I had made for some applications, some sort of secondary things allowed to submit in like an artistic supplement. So, I showed those movies, but I also talked about them and talked about working with a team and being the director and sometimes letting someone else be a director and working with them and that whole process, and I think that was an important piece in my application because there weren't, as a homeschooler, there weren't as many of the sort of group activity extracurriculars as maybe your average high school student would have."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "Oh, you're very welcome. Karen, one of the big things that students often struggle with in the financial aid process is they receive offer letters from several different schools, and they come in several different formats. They all look different. So as a student, what should I be doing to make sense of this information, organize it for myself so I can actually compare them across each other? That's a really good question. So I think the important thing to do is pull out the information that you're going to compare from each one. And you might have to search around for it."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "So as a student, what should I be doing to make sense of this information, organize it for myself so I can actually compare them across each other? That's a really good question. So I think the important thing to do is pull out the information that you're going to compare from each one. And you might have to search around for it. But what I would start with is the estimated cost of attendance. So almost every school is going to have a full estimated cost of attendance right there on their award letter for you. And that includes these components like tuition, room and board, the things that we are billing students for, as well as allowances for books, personal expenses, transportation."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "And you might have to search around for it. But what I would start with is the estimated cost of attendance. So almost every school is going to have a full estimated cost of attendance right there on their award letter for you. And that includes these components like tuition, room and board, the things that we are billing students for, as well as allowances for books, personal expenses, transportation. So I want you to think about each one of those items and think about whether that's a realistic estimate of the costs at that institution for you. Great. So when I receive a financial aid award letter, they may give me the estimated cost of attendance."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "And that includes these components like tuition, room and board, the things that we are billing students for, as well as allowances for books, personal expenses, transportation. So I want you to think about each one of those items and think about whether that's a realistic estimate of the costs at that institution for you. Great. So when I receive a financial aid award letter, they may give me the estimated cost of attendance. Will they always include all of these items in their estimated cost? They may not break down all of the details for you. And some schools might include just the direct costs, the tuition and housing expenses that they're billing you for."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "So when I receive a financial aid award letter, they may give me the estimated cost of attendance. Will they always include all of these items in their estimated cost? They may not break down all of the details for you. And some schools might include just the direct costs, the tuition and housing expenses that they're billing you for. So you might have to go look for what's a good book allowance at that institution. But if it's not directly there on their award letter, it should be on the school's website somewhere. OK."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "And some schools might include just the direct costs, the tuition and housing expenses that they're billing you for. So you might have to go look for what's a good book allowance at that institution. But if it's not directly there on their award letter, it should be on the school's website somewhere. OK. So the first thing I do is I really figure out what is the full cost to attend this university, tuition, room, board, books, transportation, other costs, add that all together, I've got my estimated cost. That's right. Where do I go from there?"}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "OK. So the first thing I do is I really figure out what is the full cost to attend this university, tuition, room, board, books, transportation, other costs, add that all together, I've got my estimated cost. That's right. Where do I go from there? Well, I think the next thing to look at is the free money. Where's the good money that they're giving you, that they've offered to you? So you're going to want to look for any grants and scholarships."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "Where do I go from there? Well, I think the next thing to look at is the free money. Where's the good money that they're giving you, that they've offered to you? So you're going to want to look for any grants and scholarships. And usually those are very clearly identified on an award letter. So the total amount of scholarships from the school, if there are any federal grants being offered or state grants or any outside sources of scholarship funds. Great."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "So you're going to want to look for any grants and scholarships. And usually those are very clearly identified on an award letter. So the total amount of scholarships from the school, if there are any federal grants being offered or state grants or any outside sources of scholarship funds. Great. And so once I have my estimated cost of attendance and I have my grants and scholarships, what do I do next? So the difference between those two figures I think is a really important thing to look at as you're comparing from school to school. Because whatever that cost of attendance is, less all of the scholarships and grants you've been offered, that is the amount that's going to come out of your pocket one way or another."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. And so once I have my estimated cost of attendance and I have my grants and scholarships, what do I do next? So the difference between those two figures I think is a really important thing to look at as you're comparing from school to school. Because whatever that cost of attendance is, less all of the scholarships and grants you've been offered, that is the amount that's going to come out of your pocket one way or another. Net cost is another thing that that's often labeled. Now it may come, you may be offered loans or work study to help meet those net costs, but anything else that's not covered by grants and scholarships, you're going to be responsible for in one way or another. Okay."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "Because whatever that cost of attendance is, less all of the scholarships and grants you've been offered, that is the amount that's going to come out of your pocket one way or another. Net cost is another thing that that's often labeled. Now it may come, you may be offered loans or work study to help meet those net costs, but anything else that's not covered by grants and scholarships, you're going to be responsible for in one way or another. Okay. So after we get that net cost number, before we talk about my family contributing, which is probably the toughest thing to do, what are some of the different options that the school will give me? So I think the next thing to think about is have you been offered work study eligibility and opportunity to work during the year on campus that allows you as the student perhaps to cover some of those personal expenses that are listed in the cost of attendance? And I'm still, during work study, I'm still a full-time student."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "Okay. So after we get that net cost number, before we talk about my family contributing, which is probably the toughest thing to do, what are some of the different options that the school will give me? So I think the next thing to think about is have you been offered work study eligibility and opportunity to work during the year on campus that allows you as the student perhaps to cover some of those personal expenses that are listed in the cost of attendance? And I'm still, during work study, I'm still a full-time student. That's right. So typically work study jobs, students are working seven to 10 hours a week. So a reasonable amount of work that allows you to stay engaged with your studies."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "And I'm still, during work study, I'm still a full-time student. That's right. So typically work study jobs, students are working seven to 10 hours a week. So a reasonable amount of work that allows you to stay engaged with your studies. So in addition to work study, I know that oftentimes on financial aid packages, there's a Stafford loan or a Perkins loan listed. What exactly are those loans? So those are loans that the school is suggesting that you will need to help cover that net cost."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "So a reasonable amount of work that allows you to stay engaged with your studies. So in addition to work study, I know that oftentimes on financial aid packages, there's a Stafford loan or a Perkins loan listed. What exactly are those loans? So those are loans that the school is suggesting that you will need to help cover that net cost. And they've determined that amount based on the information that you've provided on your financial aid applications. So it's the amount that they're suggesting. It doesn't necessarily mean that that's all that's available."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "So those are loans that the school is suggesting that you will need to help cover that net cost. And they've determined that amount based on the information that you've provided on your financial aid applications. So it's the amount that they're suggesting. It doesn't necessarily mean that that's all that's available. So you might, if you are thinking about maybe borrowing more or working less, those kinds of options that you have available to you, you can talk to the financial aid office about that. Great. So now that we understand work study and sort of the Stafford and Perkins loans that might be out there, how do we actually get from net costs to what my family is actually going to have to pay on a yearly basis?"}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "It doesn't necessarily mean that that's all that's available. So you might, if you are thinking about maybe borrowing more or working less, those kinds of options that you have available to you, you can talk to the financial aid office about that. Great. So now that we understand work study and sort of the Stafford and Perkins loans that might be out there, how do we actually get from net costs to what my family is actually going to have to pay on a yearly basis? Right. So, you know, your net cost is just the overall picture of what you and your family are going to be responsible for. But you, the student, may be able to pick up some of that net cost with the work study and loans."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package components Part 1.mp3", "Sentence": "So now that we understand work study and sort of the Stafford and Perkins loans that might be out there, how do we actually get from net costs to what my family is actually going to have to pay on a yearly basis? Right. So, you know, your net cost is just the overall picture of what you and your family are going to be responsible for. But you, the student, may be able to pick up some of that net cost with the work study and loans. So you'll want to subtract those amounts from the net cost. And that remaining amount is what you need to sit down with your parents and have a conversation about how are we as a family going to cover these costs. Generally, the school is expecting that that remaining amount would be picked up by your parents."}, {"video_title": "Making the most of high school classes.mp3", "Sentence": "And that's not true at all. But knowing that we're an academic institution, knowing that your preparation for that academic space is key to you being able to graduate, we do pay a lot of attention to the courses that you take and the grades that you received in those courses. We will ask the guidance counselor, what's the highest GPA in this graduating class? And when they give us that highest GPA in that particular graduating class, that helps us to set the bar in terms of how we evaluate your grades. So your high school may have minimum requirements. You have to take four years of English, two years of history, maybe two years of a lab science and so forth. That's great."}, {"video_title": "Making the most of high school classes.mp3", "Sentence": "And when they give us that highest GPA in that particular graduating class, that helps us to set the bar in terms of how we evaluate your grades. So your high school may have minimum requirements. You have to take four years of English, two years of history, maybe two years of a lab science and so forth. That's great. But the more selective college you want to look at, the more they want you to push beyond the minimum and really push yourself and take challenging courses. So taking four years of English, great. Probably everybody has to do that, but maybe four years of a language, four years of science, four years of history and so forth."}, {"video_title": "Making the most of high school classes.mp3", "Sentence": "That's great. But the more selective college you want to look at, the more they want you to push beyond the minimum and really push yourself and take challenging courses. So taking four years of English, great. Probably everybody has to do that, but maybe four years of a language, four years of science, four years of history and so forth. So, you know, going beyond the minimum for those more selective schools, that's what's really going to show them you're preparing yourself. And it's going to help you be really prepared to handle the work at a competitive college. So, for example, at Virginia, students would need to take four years of English, four years of math, three years of science, two years of foreign language and on and on."}, {"video_title": "Making the most of high school classes.mp3", "Sentence": "Probably everybody has to do that, but maybe four years of a language, four years of science, four years of history and so forth. So, you know, going beyond the minimum for those more selective schools, that's what's really going to show them you're preparing yourself. And it's going to help you be really prepared to handle the work at a competitive college. So, for example, at Virginia, students would need to take four years of English, four years of math, three years of science, two years of foreign language and on and on. Yet when we review applications, often they have three, if not four, of everything. Now, I will say that it's not necessarily an individual discipline or course that we're fixated on. If a student's going into engineering, then yes, we're looking closely at physics."}, {"video_title": "Making the most of high school classes.mp3", "Sentence": "So, for example, at Virginia, students would need to take four years of English, four years of math, three years of science, two years of foreign language and on and on. Yet when we review applications, often they have three, if not four, of everything. Now, I will say that it's not necessarily an individual discipline or course that we're fixated on. If a student's going into engineering, then yes, we're looking closely at physics. We're looking closely at calculus, these sorts of things. But if a student is a linguist, I'm not necessarily as concerned that he or she did not have calculus. Likewise, if a student is a hardcore engineer, the fact that he or she has two years of Latin, that's it for foreign language, isn't as concerning to us."}, {"video_title": "Making the most of high school classes.mp3", "Sentence": "If a student's going into engineering, then yes, we're looking closely at physics. We're looking closely at calculus, these sorts of things. But if a student is a linguist, I'm not necessarily as concerned that he or she did not have calculus. Likewise, if a student is a hardcore engineer, the fact that he or she has two years of Latin, that's it for foreign language, isn't as concerning to us. So it's all relative and dependent upon the school or program that they're entering at the university. And I really want to reassure students that if your high school doesn't offer a certain set of courses, we would never expect that you have taken them. So if your high school doesn't offer AP calculus, obviously you're not going to be disadvantaged if we don't see that on your transcript."}, {"video_title": "Making the most of high school classes.mp3", "Sentence": "Likewise, if a student is a hardcore engineer, the fact that he or she has two years of Latin, that's it for foreign language, isn't as concerning to us. So it's all relative and dependent upon the school or program that they're entering at the university. And I really want to reassure students that if your high school doesn't offer a certain set of courses, we would never expect that you have taken them. So if your high school doesn't offer AP calculus, obviously you're not going to be disadvantaged if we don't see that on your transcript. The question we're asking ourselves is, have you taken advantage of the best that your high school can offer? And if you have done that, then you're competitive in the process. Now, we're not saying take every advanced course available at your high school."}, {"video_title": "Making the most of high school classes.mp3", "Sentence": "So if your high school doesn't offer AP calculus, obviously you're not going to be disadvantaged if we don't see that on your transcript. The question we're asking ourselves is, have you taken advantage of the best that your high school can offer? And if you have done that, then you're competitive in the process. Now, we're not saying take every advanced course available at your high school. You need to find that balance for yourself. But we do want to make sure that you are comfortable with challenging yourself every step of the way. So beyond just GPA, beyond just ranking class, what we really are more concerned with is your journey over time, how you got there."}, {"video_title": "Making the most of high school classes.mp3", "Sentence": "Now, we're not saying take every advanced course available at your high school. You need to find that balance for yourself. But we do want to make sure that you are comfortable with challenging yourself every step of the way. So beyond just GPA, beyond just ranking class, what we really are more concerned with is your journey over time, how you got there. So when we look at that transcript, what we really do is take it apart year by year and course by course. We focus on the academic core primarily, math, science, English, history, world languages, and really try and get a sense of how well you performed in those classes, the level of rigor that you took among those classes, and again, trends over time. Upward trends are really great."}, {"video_title": "Student story Prioritizing financial aid, major, and location in the college search.mp3", "Sentence": "A very important factor to me when I was applying to colleges was the financial aid that I would be receiving. So some of the private schools I was applying to offered full coverage and I knew I definitely needed that one. So that was the most important one for me. Another thing would be an engineering program. I knew I was interested in engineering ever since the freshman year of high school and so if I could combine it with biology, which is my other favorite thing, that would have been awesome. So I was ultimately looking for a bioengineering program. Another thing, super important, weather."}, {"video_title": "Student story Prioritizing financial aid, major, and location in the college search.mp3", "Sentence": "Another thing would be an engineering program. I knew I was interested in engineering ever since the freshman year of high school and so if I could combine it with biology, which is my other favorite thing, that would have been awesome. So I was ultimately looking for a bioengineering program. Another thing, super important, weather. I absolutely despised cold weather so it had to be warm where I ended up. The last thing would be a really nice campus. I was looking for a beautiful campus."}, {"video_title": "Applying for financial aid when facing immigration challenges.mp3", "Sentence": "It might depend on the state that you live in. So in California, if you're from California, you've gone to school in California, you might be eligible under the California Dream Act and you can apply and receive federal and state aid. But if you're not, it can be really tricky to apply for aid. Certainly, every student who's academically excellent should apply to colleges just in case there's aid for them somewhere. Most private schools have aid for undocumented students. It might be worth contacting schools in advance to ask them their policy when you're choosing which schools to apply for. A lot of schools will use the CSS profile as an aid application instead of the FAFSA."}, {"video_title": "Applying for financial aid when facing immigration challenges.mp3", "Sentence": "Certainly, every student who's academically excellent should apply to colleges just in case there's aid for them somewhere. Most private schools have aid for undocumented students. It might be worth contacting schools in advance to ask them their policy when you're choosing which schools to apply for. A lot of schools will use the CSS profile as an aid application instead of the FAFSA. It can be different too, depending on your personal circumstances. So a student with DACA might be able to work and might even be able to get institutional work study to help support their education, whereas a student without a work permit might have to be more clever, borrowing from relatives, hoping for merit-based scholarships. Merit-based scholarships are often an excellent option for undocumented students."}, {"video_title": "Elements of a strong recommendation letter.mp3", "Sentence": "So when we're reading a recommendation letter, what we're looking for is what kind of presence you are in a classroom. And that's very important to us because ultimately what a university is, is it's a lot of classrooms. It's a lot of people looking to discover new knowledge. Teachers that can give anecdotes about a student in the classroom can be really helpful because we're trying to imagine this student in our classroom and we're wondering if this is a student that always is speaking up and always raising their hand. You know, the person, the student that the teacher would ask to watch the class if they had to leave the room for a minute. Or if this is a student who's fairly quiet and only speaks once in a while, but when that student speaks, it kind of turns the conversation on its head. What I recommend for students to do, for you to do in this process, would be to sit down with that teacher and maybe even give them four or five bullet points of why you wanted them to write your letter of recommendation."}, {"video_title": "Elements of a strong recommendation letter.mp3", "Sentence": "Teachers that can give anecdotes about a student in the classroom can be really helpful because we're trying to imagine this student in our classroom and we're wondering if this is a student that always is speaking up and always raising their hand. You know, the person, the student that the teacher would ask to watch the class if they had to leave the room for a minute. Or if this is a student who's fairly quiet and only speaks once in a while, but when that student speaks, it kind of turns the conversation on its head. What I recommend for students to do, for you to do in this process, would be to sit down with that teacher and maybe even give them four or five bullet points of why you wanted them to write your letter of recommendation. Remind them what you did in their class, right? So, love the group work. That was a real favorite of mine."}, {"video_title": "Elements of a strong recommendation letter.mp3", "Sentence": "What I recommend for students to do, for you to do in this process, would be to sit down with that teacher and maybe even give them four or five bullet points of why you wanted them to write your letter of recommendation. Remind them what you did in their class, right? So, love the group work. That was a real favorite of mine. I felt like that really gave me a chance to do some teaching in the class as well as learning. Or that paper that I wrote on Twain, James, and Howell I felt was a good representation of my writing ability. Or I really felt like that group project that we had to do allowed me to both be a participant but also a leader."}, {"video_title": "Elements of a strong recommendation letter.mp3", "Sentence": "That was a real favorite of mine. I felt like that really gave me a chance to do some teaching in the class as well as learning. Or that paper that I wrote on Twain, James, and Howell I felt was a good representation of my writing ability. Or I really felt like that group project that we had to do allowed me to both be a participant but also a leader. And really, again, remind them of what you did in the class so they can write a much more personalized letter. The last thing in the world you want to get is sort of a template, sort of a letter, where they're sort of plugging in things about good student, always gets the work done, works hard. The biggest thing we see with recommendations is what we call the template recommendation, which is basically a very kind of form recommendation."}, {"video_title": "Elements of a strong recommendation letter.mp3", "Sentence": "Or I really felt like that group project that we had to do allowed me to both be a participant but also a leader. And really, again, remind them of what you did in the class so they can write a much more personalized letter. The last thing in the world you want to get is sort of a template, sort of a letter, where they're sort of plugging in things about good student, always gets the work done, works hard. The biggest thing we see with recommendations is what we call the template recommendation, which is basically a very kind of form recommendation. And all they need to do is kind of take out the names, the activities, some of the personal attributes and replace them in order to describe one person, but also describing 20 people. So to really help your teachers write a terrific letter recommendation that doesn't look like a template, you really want to get specific with those examples. Really let them know who you are."}, {"video_title": "Elements of a strong recommendation letter.mp3", "Sentence": "The biggest thing we see with recommendations is what we call the template recommendation, which is basically a very kind of form recommendation. And all they need to do is kind of take out the names, the activities, some of the personal attributes and replace them in order to describe one person, but also describing 20 people. So to really help your teachers write a terrific letter recommendation that doesn't look like a template, you really want to get specific with those examples. Really let them know who you are. Remind them who you were in their classroom. Because basically admissions officers, they like those anecdotes. They like the specificity."}, {"video_title": "Elements of a strong recommendation letter.mp3", "Sentence": "Really let them know who you are. Remind them who you were in their classroom. Because basically admissions officers, they like those anecdotes. They like the specificity. That's really going to help them understand you in the context of that classroom. Another thing that I look for a lot in recommendations is something I call separating. So is your teacher saying, this is a top student in 10 years?"}, {"video_title": "Elements of a strong recommendation letter.mp3", "Sentence": "They like the specificity. That's really going to help them understand you in the context of that classroom. Another thing that I look for a lot in recommendations is something I call separating. So is your teacher saying, this is a top student in 10 years? Are they separating you from the group? Or are they saying, this is a good student? Both of those are fine, but one does suggest that you are doing something extraordinary in the classroom that's making you stand out from the crowd."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "So why don't you start me off at the estimated cost of attendance. So let's say at the first institution we're looking at the total cost of attendance is about $25,000. So that might break out to tuition of $11,000, a room and board or housing and food costs of about $10,000, an allowance for books $2,000 a year, transportation depending on where you're coming from of about $1,000 a year and maybe some other expenses that are unique to that institution that would add up to the $25,000 cost of attendance. Great. And just to be clear for the point you mentioned earlier, you may see on a financial aid letter just tuition, room and board included. That's right. And if that's the case, you want to actually add in your own book allowance, transportation allowance, other allowance because those are actually going to be costs that you're going to incur and so you want to factor that in."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. And just to be clear for the point you mentioned earlier, you may see on a financial aid letter just tuition, room and board included. That's right. And if that's the case, you want to actually add in your own book allowance, transportation allowance, other allowance because those are actually going to be costs that you're going to incur and so you want to factor that in. Exactly. The idea is that with the cost of attendance, you've got an understanding of the total cost of being at that institution and your exact cost might be slightly different than someone else. Okay."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "And if that's the case, you want to actually add in your own book allowance, transportation allowance, other allowance because those are actually going to be costs that you're going to incur and so you want to factor that in. Exactly. The idea is that with the cost of attendance, you've got an understanding of the total cost of being at that institution and your exact cost might be slightly different than someone else. Okay. So we've got our cost of attendance here of $25,000. You mentioned some different types of scholarships. Why don't we put in some numbers here from school, let's say $10,000."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "Okay. So we've got our cost of attendance here of $25,000. You mentioned some different types of scholarships. Why don't we put in some numbers here from school, let's say $10,000. What would be a reasonable amount from a Pell Grant? Let's say if a family had an income of around $50,000, what would be a typical Pell Grant they might receive? So a family at that income level, depending on what else is going on with the family, family size, how many family members in college, let's say that they would qualify for a $1,000 Pell Grant."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "Why don't we put in some numbers here from school, let's say $10,000. What would be a reasonable amount from a Pell Grant? Let's say if a family had an income of around $50,000, what would be a typical Pell Grant they might receive? So a family at that income level, depending on what else is going on with the family, family size, how many family members in college, let's say that they would qualify for a $1,000 Pell Grant. Okay. So $1,000 Pell Grant, we'll go ahead and say there's a $3,000 grant from the state that this student has obtained and then why don't we go ahead and also put in $1,000 outside scholarship. This is a scholarship that's not coming from the school itself."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "So a family at that income level, depending on what else is going on with the family, family size, how many family members in college, let's say that they would qualify for a $1,000 Pell Grant. Okay. So $1,000 Pell Grant, we'll go ahead and say there's a $3,000 grant from the state that this student has obtained and then why don't we go ahead and also put in $1,000 outside scholarship. This is a scholarship that's not coming from the school itself. It probably won't be included on the financial aid letter unless you've already told them about it, but it is something you want to include here because these are your own calculations of what your costs are going to be. One sort of side note is you do actually want to let the school know about those outside scholarships because it can have an impact on your financial aid. You want to understand your true cost of attendance and if you've already gotten that scholarship, your cost of attendance is going to be a little bit lower."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "This is a scholarship that's not coming from the school itself. It probably won't be included on the financial aid letter unless you've already told them about it, but it is something you want to include here because these are your own calculations of what your costs are going to be. One sort of side note is you do actually want to let the school know about those outside scholarships because it can have an impact on your financial aid. You want to understand your true cost of attendance and if you've already gotten that scholarship, your cost of attendance is going to be a little bit lower. That's right. So we put in that $1,000. That gives us a total scholarship amount of, looks like $15,000."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "You want to understand your true cost of attendance and if you've already gotten that scholarship, your cost of attendance is going to be a little bit lower. That's right. So we put in that $1,000. That gives us a total scholarship amount of, looks like $15,000. And so now, remind me again, how do I get to the net cost here? So that net cost is going to be the difference between the $25,000 of cost of attendance minus the $15,000 of scholarships or free money that doesn't have to be paid back. So what this institution is actually going to cost you is $10,000."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "That gives us a total scholarship amount of, looks like $15,000. And so now, remind me again, how do I get to the net cost here? So that net cost is going to be the difference between the $25,000 of cost of attendance minus the $15,000 of scholarships or free money that doesn't have to be paid back. So what this institution is actually going to cost you is $10,000. Great. So $10,000 is what I'm responsible for on a yearly basis. That's not one time, that's every year."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "So what this institution is actually going to cost you is $10,000. Great. So $10,000 is what I'm responsible for on a yearly basis. That's not one time, that's every year. That's right. That's not saying that you have to come up with that cash all up front out of your pocket right away. There are options offered to help you come up with that $10,000, but that would be the annual cost to you."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "That's not one time, that's every year. That's right. That's not saying that you have to come up with that cash all up front out of your pocket right away. There are options offered to help you come up with that $10,000, but that would be the annual cost to you. Okay. So in that situation, why don't you give me some, what would be sort of reasonable work-study and loan amounts that a school could offer? So let's say a work-study amount of $2,500, which would allow you to work less than 10 hours a week, I think is a really reasonable expectation."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "There are options offered to help you come up with that $10,000, but that would be the annual cost to you. Okay. So in that situation, why don't you give me some, what would be sort of reasonable work-study and loan amounts that a school could offer? So let's say a work-study amount of $2,500, which would allow you to work less than 10 hours a week, I think is a really reasonable expectation. And then a loan amount of another $2,500. So there's $5,000 of that net cost that's taken care of between work-study and student loans. So that leaves the family or the parents with $5,000 to cover of that total educational cost of $25,000."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "So let's say a work-study amount of $2,500, which would allow you to work less than 10 hours a week, I think is a really reasonable expectation. And then a loan amount of another $2,500. So there's $5,000 of that net cost that's taken care of between work-study and student loans. So that leaves the family or the parents with $5,000 to cover of that total educational cost of $25,000. And is that $5,000 going to be due right away? Like day one of school, they pay the $5,000? Or when do you actually have to pay it?"}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "So that leaves the family or the parents with $5,000 to cover of that total educational cost of $25,000. And is that $5,000 going to be due right away? Like day one of school, they pay the $5,000? Or when do you actually have to pay it? Typically, no. It's usually paid, you know, if it's a semester school, it would be half of it. Half of it at the start of the year, half of it halfway through the academic year."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "Or when do you actually have to pay it? Typically, no. It's usually paid, you know, if it's a semester school, it would be half of it. Half of it at the start of the year, half of it halfway through the academic year. So it depends on that school's academic calendar and their billing cycle. Great. And the last question I have for you is, you know, $5,000 for some families that may be completely doable, for others that may be far above what they can contribute."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "Half of it at the start of the year, half of it halfway through the academic year. So it depends on that school's academic calendar and their billing cycle. Great. And the last question I have for you is, you know, $5,000 for some families that may be completely doable, for others that may be far above what they can contribute. The very first thing I would recommend to a family that's concerned about paying the expected family contribution that's showing up on their award letter is that they talk to the financial aid office and make sure that the financial aid office has taken everything into account that that family has, the financial situation that they're facing. But after you've had that conversation, if you're looking at a parent contribution that you're going to need some help with, then it's time to start talking about additional loans. Gotcha."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "And the last question I have for you is, you know, $5,000 for some families that may be completely doable, for others that may be far above what they can contribute. The very first thing I would recommend to a family that's concerned about paying the expected family contribution that's showing up on their award letter is that they talk to the financial aid office and make sure that the financial aid office has taken everything into account that that family has, the financial situation that they're facing. But after you've had that conversation, if you're looking at a parent contribution that you're going to need some help with, then it's time to start talking about additional loans. Gotcha. And it looks like in this situation, I mean, you might be able to bump up the student's work study a little bit. Or the student could take out sort of these low interest rate loans. That's right."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "Gotcha. And it looks like in this situation, I mean, you might be able to bump up the student's work study a little bit. Or the student could take out sort of these low interest rate loans. That's right. Which might be better options than the parent taking out loans. Right. As a first year student, actually, from the Stafford loan program, a student can borrow up to $5,500."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "That's right. Which might be better options than the parent taking out loans. Right. As a first year student, actually, from the Stafford loan program, a student can borrow up to $5,500. So that typically would be the first thing we would recommend to a student who's looking for some additional help. Great. Is there anything else that I should be looking at when, you know, I'm understanding the different components of a financial aid package?"}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "As a first year student, actually, from the Stafford loan program, a student can borrow up to $5,500. So that typically would be the first thing we would recommend to a student who's looking for some additional help. Great. Is there anything else that I should be looking at when, you know, I'm understanding the different components of a financial aid package? Well, I think it's critical that you identify the difference between scholarships and loans and work study that are being offered. Unfortunately, it's not always readily apparent from the information that you're receiving from the school. So make sure you understand what's a scholarship, what's a loan that has to be repaid, and what's work study."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "Is there anything else that I should be looking at when, you know, I'm understanding the different components of a financial aid package? Well, I think it's critical that you identify the difference between scholarships and loans and work study that are being offered. Unfortunately, it's not always readily apparent from the information that you're receiving from the school. So make sure you understand what's a scholarship, what's a loan that has to be repaid, and what's work study. If you have any questions about that at all, go to the financial aid office to ask. Okay. So students really need to kind of put this sheet together for themselves."}, {"video_title": "Financial aid package example Part 2.mp3", "Sentence": "So make sure you understand what's a scholarship, what's a loan that has to be repaid, and what's work study. If you have any questions about that at all, go to the financial aid office to ask. Okay. So students really need to kind of put this sheet together for themselves. It's not necessarily going to be handed to them on a silver platter. That's right. But it's a good thing to do to make sure you understand what's going on with your financial aid and how much are you signing for in student loans, for example, to really understand the bottom line of what you're getting into."}, {"video_title": "Appealing a financial aid package.mp3", "Sentence": "The quicker you do it, the better. And, you know, what you want to do is be able to bring that offer, you know, call the financial aid office and, you know, ask them to explain that offer. You know, they can be very helpful to sort of say, this is why we came up with this package and why we think it fits your family. There are some schools that may say, if you have other need-based financial aid packages that are similar to ours, that are a little bit better, send us those so we can sort of see what they're also evaluating. So schools are generally very willing, you know, to look at, you know, look at a package. And, you know, they may or may not change, but they're always, I think, willing to look at that. The sooner you do it, the more funds they may have to make changes in that package."}, {"video_title": "Appealing a financial aid package.mp3", "Sentence": "There are some schools that may say, if you have other need-based financial aid packages that are similar to ours, that are a little bit better, send us those so we can sort of see what they're also evaluating. So schools are generally very willing, you know, to look at, you know, look at a package. And, you know, they may or may not change, but they're always, I think, willing to look at that. The sooner you do it, the more funds they may have to make changes in that package. The reasons why they may make changes typically are based on, you know, information that they didn't have. So there may be new information or information that just wasn't included in the FAFSA in the profile. So, again, examples of that may be things like, you know, you have health care expenses that your, you know, health care program doesn't cover and they're out-of-pocket expenses."}, {"video_title": "Appealing a financial aid package.mp3", "Sentence": "The sooner you do it, the more funds they may have to make changes in that package. The reasons why they may make changes typically are based on, you know, information that they didn't have. So there may be new information or information that just wasn't included in the FAFSA in the profile. So, again, examples of that may be things like, you know, you have health care expenses that your, you know, health care program doesn't cover and they're out-of-pocket expenses. So if you can document those expenses, that could change your package significantly. If you have grandparents living with you in your house and your parents have, are, again, using funds to help support those folks, that may change your package. We had a situation a few years ago when I was doing college admission where a family's home was actually moved off of its foundation from a tornado."}, {"video_title": "Appealing a financial aid package.mp3", "Sentence": "So, again, examples of that may be things like, you know, you have health care expenses that your, you know, health care program doesn't cover and they're out-of-pocket expenses. So if you can document those expenses, that could change your package significantly. If you have grandparents living with you in your house and your parents have, are, again, using funds to help support those folks, that may change your package. We had a situation a few years ago when I was doing college admission where a family's home was actually moved off of its foundation from a tornado. So our financial aid office asked that family to show them the three estimates they had to fix that problem. And they factored that in and changed their financial aid package, knowing that they had to put X number of dollars towards fixing their home. That was, had to be done."}, {"video_title": "Appealing a financial aid package.mp3", "Sentence": "We had a situation a few years ago when I was doing college admission where a family's home was actually moved off of its foundation from a tornado. So our financial aid office asked that family to show them the three estimates they had to fix that problem. And they factored that in and changed their financial aid package, knowing that they had to put X number of dollars towards fixing their home. That was, had to be done. So I think financial aid offices are willing to look at that. They may or may not change, but it can't hurt to ask. And again, the sooner you do that, the better, because they probably have more funds at that point."}, {"video_title": "Student story Extracurriculars that are self created.mp3", "Sentence": "In high school I knew that I was supposed to get involved with clubs, but I wasn't really interested in any of the options. I think I was choosing between the cheese club and social committee and frankly none of those things were things that I was passionate about. So I decided I should just create opportunities for myself and I should just look for places where I could do things that I wanted to do. And so when my high school was moving campuses I realized, oh, this is something I can do. I can help coordinate a move. I can organize movers. I can move furniture."}, {"video_title": "Student story Extracurriculars that are self created.mp3", "Sentence": "And so when my high school was moving campuses I realized, oh, this is something I can do. I can help coordinate a move. I can organize movers. I can move furniture. So I went to the director of my school and said, can I help you move this school? And she said, sure. So I invited 20 of my friends and we organized the move."}, {"video_title": "Overview Applying to college.mp3", "Sentence": "That application will have in it, you know, biographical information, your extracurricular activities, essays that you've written, basically giving an overview of who you are and what you're doing. But there'll also be lots of other information that's submitted that an admissions office will use. From your high school, they will submit a transcript with your grades and courses you've taken. They'll send along a profile that sort of details that school and gives some information about the school you're in. And there also will be probably a guidance counselor, a college counselor letter of recommendation. A lot of schools also require one or potentially two letters of recommendation from teachers, so that could possibly be in the file as well. You'll also, if the school requires any kind of standardized testing from SAT, ACT, potentially AP or IB scores, those sorts of things, they could be in your file as well."}, {"video_title": "Overview Applying to college.mp3", "Sentence": "They'll send along a profile that sort of details that school and gives some information about the school you're in. And there also will be probably a guidance counselor, a college counselor letter of recommendation. A lot of schools also require one or potentially two letters of recommendation from teachers, so that could possibly be in the file as well. You'll also, if the school requires any kind of standardized testing from SAT, ACT, potentially AP or IB scores, those sorts of things, they could be in your file as well. You may be required to do an interview for that school. And there are also opportunities to submit, if you have special talents in things like the arts, theater, music, athletics, there may be special ways to submit samples of your work to also be evaluated. So in general, I would say most selective and highly selective schools are going to put the most emphasis on your program and grades, number one, just to make sure they feel you can do the work at their school."}, {"video_title": "Student story Prioritizing location in the college search.mp3", "Sentence": "My mom raised me that way. It was like me, my mom, my little brother forever. And so I was used to taking care of other people. So I wanted to go somewhere where I didn't have to take care of other people or feel obligated to do so because I'm so far away. So that's a good thing because I could just worry about myself. And I had so much freedom to work with that it was just amazing because I was so far away. But I do tend to miss my family."}, {"video_title": "Student story Prioritizing location in the college search.mp3", "Sentence": "So I wanted to go somewhere where I didn't have to take care of other people or feel obligated to do so because I'm so far away. So that's a good thing because I could just worry about myself. And I had so much freedom to work with that it was just amazing because I was so far away. But I do tend to miss my family. And there was a couple times when my mom had some accidents. So she may have ended up in the hospital. And those things are really hard for me because I'm so family-orientated."}, {"video_title": "Student story Prioritizing location in the college search.mp3", "Sentence": "But I do tend to miss my family. And there was a couple times when my mom had some accidents. So she may have ended up in the hospital. And those things are really hard for me because I'm so family-orientated. And so not being able to reach out, not being able to help my brother with that math class, it's kind of hard to see my family struggle a little bit without me being there. But I know that, and my mom always encourages me that, I'm making the right decision and bettering myself being far away for four years and then deciding what I want to do afterwards. So it's hard, but then again it's not as hard as I thought it would be initially."}, {"video_title": "Selecting your college.mp3", "Sentence": "You're going to college and that's amazing and you should be so excited about that. I'm jumping up and down just thinking about it. Your life just changed. The truth of the matter is now I imagine perhaps maybe you got into more than one. You have several schools that you're thinking about and maybe you're even surprised and pretty excited. But now actually we find often the most confused. Cuz now you have to make a significant decision that really dictates the sort of the beginning of the rest of your life."}, {"video_title": "Selecting your college.mp3", "Sentence": "The truth of the matter is now I imagine perhaps maybe you got into more than one. You have several schools that you're thinking about and maybe you're even surprised and pretty excited. But now actually we find often the most confused. Cuz now you have to make a significant decision that really dictates the sort of the beginning of the rest of your life. Which place should I go to? And the truth of the matter is you need to do your homework. You need to really do a deep dive into the nature of these institutions and ask all of the questions you possibly can of yourself about one thing."}, {"video_title": "Selecting your college.mp3", "Sentence": "Cuz now you have to make a significant decision that really dictates the sort of the beginning of the rest of your life. Which place should I go to? And the truth of the matter is you need to do your homework. You need to really do a deep dive into the nature of these institutions and ask all of the questions you possibly can of yourself about one thing. And that is, where will I be deliriously happy? And if you can answer that question by looking at these respective institutions, and part of it might be even in the engagements and interactions you might have with undergraduates who you talk to. Or other people who have attended there."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on special focus or affiliation.mp3", "Sentence": "We're here with Sean Logan, Director of College Counseling at Phillips Academy. And Sean, in addition to deciding between a public and a private school or a university versus a liberal arts college, students oftentimes consider schools with special focuses or affiliations. Can you talk us through a little bit about what's out there, what are sort of some of the options? Sure. So as students start to get into the research process and really, again, do some reflection or really thinking about what they want in a four-year experience, you know, they may start to come across schools that have real particular interests for them. And again, there are many different schools that may fill that interest for them. And let me give you a few examples."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on special focus or affiliation.mp3", "Sentence": "Sure. So as students start to get into the research process and really, again, do some reflection or really thinking about what they want in a four-year experience, you know, they may start to come across schools that have real particular interests for them. And again, there are many different schools that may fill that interest for them. And let me give you a few examples. So there are art schools out there. I think some of the, you know, the ones that students might know are schools like Juilliard, RISD, which is the Rhode Island School of Design, Savannah College of Art and Design is another one. These specialty art schools allow a student to get a four-year degree, so that Bachelor of Arts, but really being specific in an area that they're interested in."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on special focus or affiliation.mp3", "Sentence": "And let me give you a few examples. So there are art schools out there. I think some of the, you know, the ones that students might know are schools like Juilliard, RISD, which is the Rhode Island School of Design, Savannah College of Art and Design is another one. These specialty art schools allow a student to get a four-year degree, so that Bachelor of Arts, but really being specific in an area that they're interested in. Military academies are another one that pop to mind. You know, again, the West Point, the Naval Academy, the Air Force Academy, Coast Guard Academy, these four offer students a very specific opportunity and, again, may be very appealing to them in what those schools offer, especially because all four of them would be free, but certainly have to give back years of service time after that. There are single-sex colleges."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on special focus or affiliation.mp3", "Sentence": "These specialty art schools allow a student to get a four-year degree, so that Bachelor of Arts, but really being specific in an area that they're interested in. Military academies are another one that pop to mind. You know, again, the West Point, the Naval Academy, the Air Force Academy, Coast Guard Academy, these four offer students a very specific opportunity and, again, may be very appealing to them in what those schools offer, especially because all four of them would be free, but certainly have to give back years of service time after that. There are single-sex colleges. You know, I think the ones that come to mind are schools like Wellesley, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Scripps, and Bryn Mawr College are some of the all-female schools. And again, as a woman in this process, they may be really appealing for the education that they give. There are historically black colleges that students may find very interesting and appealing to them."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on special focus or affiliation.mp3", "Sentence": "There are single-sex colleges. You know, I think the ones that come to mind are schools like Wellesley, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Scripps, and Bryn Mawr College are some of the all-female schools. And again, as a woman in this process, they may be really appealing for the education that they give. There are historically black colleges that students may find very interesting and appealing to them. So again, Spelman, Morehouse, Howard are, again, examples of that. And probably, again, another group that would have interest for students might be religiously affiliated colleges. So I think some of the nationally known ones that students would know are places like Notre Dame and probably Georgetown and Boston College that are Catholic schools."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on special focus or affiliation.mp3", "Sentence": "There are historically black colleges that students may find very interesting and appealing to them. So again, Spelman, Morehouse, Howard are, again, examples of that. And probably, again, another group that would have interest for students might be religiously affiliated colleges. So I think some of the nationally known ones that students would know are places like Notre Dame and probably Georgetown and Boston College that are Catholic schools. But there are other schools that are out there, again, Yeshiva University, BYU, and so forth that have other affiliations that students could be very interested in. So this is one of those areas that, again, may very much appeal to students as they do research. Great."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on special focus or affiliation.mp3", "Sentence": "So I think some of the nationally known ones that students would know are places like Notre Dame and probably Georgetown and Boston College that are Catholic schools. But there are other schools that are out there, again, Yeshiva University, BYU, and so forth that have other affiliations that students could be very interested in. So this is one of those areas that, again, may very much appeal to students as they do research. Great. And in all of these schools, Sean, do students still get the standard BS or BA degree? They do. So again, these are four-year colleges."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on special focus or affiliation.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. And in all of these schools, Sean, do students still get the standard BS or BA degree? They do. So again, these are four-year colleges. They get the four-year degree. But the schools themselves have a very particular mission and opportunities that they offer that may really appeal to students. Great."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on special focus or affiliation.mp3", "Sentence": "So again, these are four-year colleges. They get the four-year degree. But the schools themselves have a very particular mission and opportunities that they offer that may really appeal to students. Great. Thank you so much, Sean."}, {"video_title": "Comparing colleges based on special focus or affiliation.mp3", "Sentence": "Great. Thank you so much, Sean."}]