The latest college admissions and financial aid news. Please share!

Volume 3 | May 4th, 2020

News & Updates

Dear GCSA Community,

We are so happy our newsletter is being received well and provide some highlights of the ever changing world in college admissions. Honestly, even our heads start to spin as each day brings new information.

This issue features a number of topics:

GCSA Service Feature: NEW DATES announced for our Common Application College Essay Jump-Start Webinar.
NACAC (The National Associations for College Admissions Counseling) and their statement related to The College Board and ACT's handling of their standardized test.
More information about online college fairs.
Our summer experiences list continues to grow.
Financial Aid and Scholarship information especially as many of our clients and future clients are grappling with the question about affordability. We even have a great new FA appeal process that is FREE and just released. This will be a game changer!

Please share and if you know someone that could benefit from this information.

Please have them subscribe by clicking the button below or they can visit our website!

Be well friends and family!

Dr. Bruce C. Neimeyer,

President and Founder

Global College Search Associates, LLC

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GCSA SERVICE SPOTLIGHT

Common Application College Essay Jump-Start Webinar Series

THIS WEBINAR WILL:

fill up some of their down time in the coming week;
help them gain valuable writing tools and techniques for their college admission essay;
help them to START WRITING THEIR ESSAY;
free up their time during senior year so they can actually enjoy that time of their life.
gain other valuable college search information and insights from our GCSA consultants | webinars hosts who have 60+ years of combined experience based in this profession.

WHAT ARE THE WEBINAR DATES?

May 11th, 13nd, & 15th, 2020

June 1st, 3rd & 5th, 2020

COST:

These webinars are only $50 (a $500 value) for a limited time to ensure more students can take advantage of this opportunity. We will apply this amount toward the cost of our comprehensive service if you decide to hire us for your college search and application journey.

WHAT ARE OUR WEBINAR OUTCOMES?

100% of our students DOUBLED their confidence in being able to write a solid common application admissions essay after day one of this webinar series.

3/5 students finished the 3-day webinar with a solid draft of their

common application admissions essay.

98% of our students rate their webinar experience 5 out of 5 stars!

(The other 2% give us a 4! We like that!)

We have ONLY 50 SPACES per session available for this webinar series, SO ACT FAST!

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE & REGISTER TODAY

UPCOMING EVENTS

Upcoming Events

Online Virtual College Fair

(US AND INTERNATIONAL COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES)

FAIR #1 - NEW EXTENDED DATES!

There is another virtual college fair schedule for April 20th - May 8th, 2020

There will be information sessions about FA, Scholarships, and individual college presentations. It is a wealth of information you can gather right from your home.

CLICK HERE TO SEE SCHEDULE AND REGISTER

STANDARDIZED TEST CONVERSATIONS

FREE

Are you still worried about the SAT or ACT? Not sure what is going to happen or how to move forward with planning around this?

Our partners at 3RPrep hold a session on YouTube Mon-Thursday evening discussing these tests and issue related to them. To tune in, just search for 3RPrep and see what's happening on those nights.

SUMMER EXPERIENCE OPPORTUNITIES

Did your summer experience plans just get cancelled? Read here for ones that are still happening.

Due to the COVID-19 many of our students have experienced the cancelation of their summer experience opportunities. In order to provide options for our students, we, along with other Independent Educational Consultants have assembled a list of summer opportunities that are still happening or have been developed due to shelter-in-place practices.

CLICK HERE to see our UPDATED (April 2020) spreadsheet of options.

We will be updating this list and making it available through our newsletter. Stay-tuned for new additions!

ADMISSIONS UPDATES

NACAC Urges Colleges To Reassess Their Standardized-Testing Policies

The Chronicle of Higher Education (4/29) reports that according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling, colleges should “reassess their standardized-testing policies because of the ‘extraordinary hardships’ the novel coronavirus will pose to the next round of applicants, especially low-income students.” In a “forceful” written statement, NACAC also “expressed deep concerns about testing companies’ proposals for at-home administration of the ACT and SAT later this year, as well as the revamped Advanced Placement exams that high-school students will take online in May.” If high schools “do not reopen this fall, the association said, requiring online college-entrance exams would ‘further jeopardize educational equity and raise legitimate questions about the fairness of admission practices in this cycle.’”

What does this mean for you?

As many schools have already stated that they will be test optional, the urging of NACAC to question the validity of these scores will certainly weigh in favor of colleges using other parts of their applications to make admissions decisions.

This doesn't mean that you should not take the test or submit scores to your colleges. Remember, nothing is optional if you are attempting to provide another data point to secure your admission into your dream school. But, it may change the amount of weight that some schools will place in these scores and likely increase their scrutiny of other parts of their application such as the admissions essay and letters of recommendation. That is why we work with our clients to maximize each and every part of their application. This year will be all the more important that students give extra thought and attention to these parts of their applications.

THE COLLEGE BOARD AP TEST

The folks at Arborbridge have put out a useful guide to help students prepare for the newly formatted, online, AP exam. Here is a link to their electronic guide.

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TEST OPTIONAL SCHOOLS!

Because of CORVID-19 the number of Accredited 4-Year Colleges and Universities will have ACT/SAT-Optional Policies for Fall 2021 Admissions. 1

To learn more about who these test optional schools are, please check out FAIRTEST.org

FINANCIAL AID UPDATES

HOW TO APPEAL YOUR FINANCIAL AID OR SCHOLARSHIP AWARD

At GCSA, we have often discussed with our clients the process of requesting additional aid or scholarship based on what they have received from comparable institutions. As we say, if you don't ask, the answer is 100% no so why not ask?!?!

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many families are now facing uncertainty around their ability to pay for some of their students college options. Some may feel that the school they were set to attend is now unaffordable. Before you make that decision, it is critical that you speak with that school's financial aid office and determine if any additional resources might be available.

To help you accomplish this, the Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation introduced this week a free tool ( SwiftStudent ) that will guide you through requesting more funding, explaining eligibility, the documents applicants need and the kinds of appeals. It provides templates, powered by software company FormSwift, that let users plug in their information to generate a letter for submission to their school’s financial aid office.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE