Welcome to our monthly newsletter!

Welcome back to our monthly newsletter! Below you will find a link to a page on our website highlighting what students should be working on this month, important news in higher education, new blog posts, and other resources we feel are important to share. Enjoy!

Monthly College Updates! Welcome to our monthly update on the college search and application process. Each month, we'll be updating the link below to our webpage and including it in our newsletter, so that all of our subscribers can access summaries of what they should be thinking about at this point in the college search process. These updates will mostly focus on the junior and senior classes. Freshmen and sophomores should focus on maintaining good grades, academically pushing themselves, getting involved in extracurriculars, and making sure their summers incorporate meaningful experiences for growth. View Monthly College Updates!

Haven't joined our mailing list yet? Virtual College Counselors believes every student and family should have access to expert advice on the college search and application journey, regardless of any financial or time constraints. By signing up for our newsletter, in addition to monthly college search and application updates, you will also receive a Free College Search Starter Kit PDF containing the following starter guides: ​ ​- The College Application Timeline - Discovering College Fit - College Essay Tips - Common College Essay Pitfalls - Introduction to Financial Aid 101 Send Me The Starter Kit!

Recommended Reading: ​
The Anxious Generation

If you didn't read last month's blog post, we strongly recommend taking a look at The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. Discover why 'The Anxious Generation' by Jonathan Haidt is a must-read for educators and parents to gain insight into the impact of technology on today's youth. Sawyer provides his reasoning for the recommendation within the blog post and follows it with Amazon's summary.

Higher Education in the News

• Early Action and Early Decision options often favor wealthy students, but some institutions are using them to promote diversity in a post-affirmative action era. For instance, Duke University has leveraged early decision to admit a more socioeconomically and geographically diverse class, while schools like Virginia Tech have eliminated early decision to promote equity. Critics highlight these pathways' inequities, noting students from private schools are 3.5 times more likely to apply early than those from public schools. Meanwhile, other institutions, like Tulane, have significantly increased early decision admissions to stabilize enrollment and finances in response to shifting demographics. Can early admissions be reformed to balance access and institutional needs? Read their article for a deeper dive into this topic.​
• The University of Texas at Austin has become one of the most selective colleges in the U.S., driven by a 30-year-old state policy guaranteeing admission to Texas students in the top 6 percent of their high school class. While this policy ensures access for many Texans, it limits opportunities for out-of-state students and non-automatic admits, with only 1,200 spots available for the latter. Surging demand has made admission increasingly competitive, with UT Austin receiving over 90,000 applications this year—a 25 percent increase from the previous cycle. The university’s rising prestige as a “public Ivy” and its evolving admissions thresholds highlight the challenges of balancing accessibility with selectivity. More college systems across the country are adopting similar policies from Tennessee to New York. Learn more about the history and trajectory of these policies here.​
• Several selective colleges, including the University of Pennsylvania, MIT, Brandeis University, the University of Texas system, and Carnegie Mellon, recently announced expanded financial aid initiatives to make higher education more accessible for low- and middle-income students. These colleges join Dartmouth, Vanderbilt, Colby College, Duke, Columbia, Richmond, the Universities of Virginia, and North Carolina announcing similar plans earlier in 2024. These plans, which include raising income thresholds for free tuition and simplifying financial aid calculations, aim to address growing public concerns about college affordability, the impact of affirmative action bans on class diversity, and frustrations with the FAFSA system. The surge in such initiatives reflects broader competition among elite institutions to attract qualified applicants from lower-income brackets while responding to public criticism and legal challenges. By enhancing affordability and streamlining aid processes, these colleges hope to broaden access, particularly for students in the middle class and from underrepresented backgrounds. Review this growing trend to understand how it might impact you.
• Jimmy Carter, the 39th U.S. president and architect of the Department of Education, passed away late last December. Carter left a transformative legacy in higher education, particularly in advancing federal aid and addressing civil rights in academia. His administration expanded financial aid to middle-income students through the Middle Income Student Assistance Act, simplified the student-aid application process (laying the groundwork for the modern FAFSA), and tackled systemic issues like desegregation in public colleges and gender equity in athletics, strengthening historically Black colleges and expanding opportunities for underrepresented groups. Carter’s creation of a stand-alone Education Department in 1979 marked a pivotal shift, increasing federal oversight and funding for education while sparking debates over federal involvement in education that continue today. Learn more about Carter's impact here.
• The start of a new year often brings fresh resolutions, including for students beginning their college search. However, much like abandoned gym memberships, many students and their families lose perspective and balance after being overwhelmed by the hype and stress of the “admission industrial complex.” The process, while important, is often clouded by misinformation and unnecessary pressure, making it difficult to stay grounded and intentional. Brennan Barnard (frequently featured in our newsletter) provides a list of advice to families from college admission and enrollment professionals.​

2024-2025 FAFSA Officially Opened!

The Department of Education quietly announced the official launch of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, almost two weeks prior to the anticipated opening date! Information about FAFSA and completing financial aid forms can be found in the Monthly Updates link (also found in our monthly newsletter).
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​Don't forget to keep tabs on financial aid application deadlines (for FAFSA, the CSS Profile, state-specific, and institution-specific forms, whichever are applicable for your specific schools of interest), in addition to general admission application deadlines.
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It is also critical that students check their email inboxes daily for any correspondence from schools to which they've applied or intend to apply. Lastly, students should be sure to set up their prospective student portals for each school as soon as the login information is sent to them to ensure all application materials are received by the appropriate deadlines.

• The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is open now! As we've reminded students all year, it's critical to keep a close eye on emails during this process.
• ​Some schools use the CSS Profile to determine eligibility for institutional aid. It's a doozy of a form! The hyperlink at the beginning of this bullet point is the most complete one that exists. It's still missing some programs because a few schools have started using the CSS Profile only because of previous FAFSA delays--be sure to check the websites of each school to which your student is applying to ensure you don't miss out on the opportunity for financial aid. Every school has its own deadline when the form needs to be received for aid consideration, so this is a friendly reminder to pay close attention to those deadlines.
• We've been strongly encouraging all students to pay close attention to application requirements for each school and to submit their applications at least a week before institutional deadlines for three primary reasons:
  • Once the application is received and processed, schools will provide students access to a prospective student portal. This is important because it's where students can track which materials have been received and which are still outstanding. Most schools provide a cushion of a few days for counselors and teachers to submit their materials, but some don't.
  • Some schools have additional essay prompts or requirements that can only be accessed through the portal! The most common additional requirement is the Self-Reported Student Record. Information about all requirements can be found on each institution's website, but it never hurts to have another set of eyes double-checking for these important pieces.
  • The application systems tend to get overrun and often crash on the days of major college deadlines.
  • Our advice: For Nov. 1 deadlines, submit no later than tomorrow afternoon/early evening and keep an eye on your email for portal access. It also doesn't hurt to remind your recommenders and school counselors of this deadline if they haven't already submitted the materials on your behalf.

That finish line is right around the corner, and we are excited to be crossing it with you on this journey! Our wonderful colleagues at Big J Consulting have broken down the important information you need to know when completing these forms for the first time in this helpful blog. We highly recommend using this as a guide as you navigate the forms.

If you'd like more information on the current discourse about the FAFSA delays, we'd suggest looking into the following articles:

Relevant Virtual College Counselor Blogs:

• ​How to Understand Your Financial Aid Letter
• ​Applying for Financial Aid: A Step-by-Step Guide​
• ​What is a Financial Aid Appeal?​
• ​Can You Stack Scholarships?​

Relevant Outside Blogs/Resources:

• ​Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)​
• ​College Scholarship Service Profile (CSS Profile)​​​
• ​Big J Educational Consulting's blog page (this is a helpful resource to have all of your questions answered about the changes to FAFSA for this year, and what to expect in subsequent years.
• ​A helpful infographic from studentaid.gov​​
• ​How to determine if the parent is a contributor on the FAFSA​
• ​Information about Taxable Scholarship Reporting​

Academic Coaching Highlight:

Calibrate Academic Coaching

We want to once again express our gratitude to all of our students, their families, other professionals, and even strangers who have taken the time to peruse our newsletter. As always, if you have questions OR if you have a topic you'd like to see discussed, please don't hesitate to reach out.

info@virtualcollegecounselors.com

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