It's August and summer is just about over.  If you have a senior at home, they are probably enjoying these last few days before school starts and they have to juggle rigorous senior year classes, activities, and college applications. But do not let them get too comfortable! If they are just using this time to relax, they are wasting their summer! Before school starts, seniors can complete a few tasks to ensure they do not miss important college application and financial aid deadlines this year.  

In August, seniors should be:Here are some important reminders and milestones to hit as you prepare for applications: 

1. Make a list of qualities that you want to have in a college like distance from home, avg GPA and SAT/ACT score, room styles, activities, avg class size, and cost of attendance.
2. Research colleges and create a college list (6-10 colleges)
3. Create FSA ID for student and parent
4. Research application materials needed for every college including essay topics
5. Make sure parents have their 2015 tax information easily accessible so they can fill out the FAFSA in October without any problem

The most important items on this list are #1 and #2.  Your child needs to understand what they want in a college and they need to have a solid college list so they then gather all required application materials such as teacher recs, counselor recs, essays, and application fees.  Students also need to know if the colleges on their list require any additional testing.  If so, students need to make sure they register and take these tests before the deadlines.  It is important students do all of this before their hectic senior year begins.  By using an advisor from Riley College Advising, you know you are getting expert advice and information.  Our College Advisors will help your student create solid college list and research the required application materials and deadlines.  This way, you know that your child has all of the information they need to get right into filling out the applications with the help of our College Advisors.  

From the day they are born, we want the best for our children.  We buy the best toys, send them to the best schools, see the best doctors, get them swimming lessons, and music lessons.  We will stop at nothing to make sure our kids have the right tools to make their dreams come true.  Planning for college, completing financial aid, deciphering financial aid letters, and choosing a college to attend are just some of the big milestones students must hit during their senior year.  They need to do all of this on top of completing their most challenging classes, participating in extracurricular activities, and enjoying the last remaining moments as an adolescent with their friends and family.  And of course parents help their kids with all of these items; however; parents are incredibly busy themselves.  While high school counselors do their best to meet with their students individually, many counselors just do not have time for such individual attention.  There is so much to do during your child's senior year so it makes sense to hire an independent College Advisor.  

Here are a few reasons students and parents hire Riley College Advising:

• Gain a competitive edge
  • For every parent that you hear talking about working with an independent College Advisor, there are 5 more that are using one but do not want to disclose it.  A study out of Standford University reported that 26% of applicants in 2013 hired a "private admissions counselor" and this was three times as many than was reported in 2003.  As admissions becomes more and more rigorous, it is important to give your child a competitive edge during an incredibly competitive process
• Personalized attention
  • Clients get personalized recommendations and advice tailored to their clients.  All materials we use with clients is created by us for every student. We do not use templates or old materials; nothing is cookie cutter.  Everything is personalized for the client by their College Advisor. At Riley College Advising, we take great pride in getting to know the student and the family so we can proceed with our advising and ensure it is personalized.
• Relieve stress for both parents and kids
  • Knowing an expert is guiding your child through this process each step of the way can ease the stress and tension at home.  Often times parents call Riley College Advising after a big family argument because their child is not as motivated or industrious as they would like him/her to be.  When this happens, we make sure to talk to everyone involved and we create a simple, stress-free timeline with very clear goals to meet every day or every week.  We suggest weekly meeting with your College Advisor to keep you on track and help with anything that is not getting done.  The clear plan, weekly meetings, and accomplishing real goals will not only make parents feel relieved that their kid is making real progress on their college applications and the work they are doing is being monitored by a qualified professional.  In turn, students will also feel a great sense of relief because they will feel they have some control over this crazy process after they talk with their College Advisor and they see their personalized plan and timeline.  
• Get insider information
  • It is incredibly complicated to know all of the admissions information, different systems colleges use for applications, financial aid, and admitted students as well as information about great college with less name recognition that offer incredible study abroad programs, great housing, leadership and research opportunities, and valuable support services.  And this is just the beginning of it! Our Advisors have a vast catalog of information about colleges that families can't access through a big blue book or via a website search engine.  It has been acquired over many years with countless college visits, meetings with admissions officers, and one on one talks with admissions and financial aid officers. We also offer unbiased advice;  we do not receive any funds or materials to promote one college over another and all of the work we do is strictly confidential.  We will never release your name or identifying information to anyone or any institution.  
• Create the best application package
  • Students only get one chance to apply to a college and you want to make sure the application is the BEST representation of your child.  Our College Advisors will make sure that everything in their application package highlights their uniqueness, potential, and credentials.  This starts with the college essay and ends with teacher recommendations.  There are many pieces of a college application package and each one of them is important and should be treated as such.  Our Advisors will ensure that every piece of the application package perfectly represents your student and gives them the best possible chance of gaining admission into that college or university.

College application and financial aid deadlines are quickly approaching and it is imparitive that students do not miss any of them.  Doing so could lead your son or daughter to miss out on being accepted into their dream college and lose financial aid money. Contact Riley College Advising today for your FREE 30 minute evaluation! (724) 591-1924 or Riley@RileyCollegeAdvising.com

We all know colleges value community service on a student's application and resume but the reasons might surprise you.  When colleges are reading applications, they are looking for students who would not only be a good fit for their campus but also add value to their campus.  They want students that can juggle many responsibilities, students that have great time management and are able to work with others.  Participating in community service activities helps a student learn these skills but it also shows colleges that the student has a heart. They can infer that a student with significant community service experiences, especially a student who has volunteered at one or two places for a long period of time, is committed to really making a change in their community.  The student will probably carry this interest with them to campus and take part in making their college better.  Because of this, students should actively seek out community service opportunities throughout their high school careers.  They should focus on volunteering at an organization regularly and for a long period of time.  It is great to help out at a soup kitchen three or four times a year, but it is so much better to volunteer every Saturday for two years.  Students should also think about using community service as a way to gain real world experiences and knowledge that they couldn't get inside a classroom.  By regularly volunteering at soup kitchen regularly, a student could, after time, move into a managerial role or work in outreach. Volunteering is a great way develop skills, learn more about career options, make friends, and acquire professional contacts.

With all of this being said, where can students in the Pittsburgh region go to volunteer? 

• Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy: Volunteers of all ages, interests, and abilities can help out at one day events or more often! This organization has a great program for teens called Urban EcoSteward.  This program is for long-term volunteers that work at parks to remove invasive species, plan native flora, slow erosion, and clean up trash.  
• Tree Pittsburgh: This organization uses volunteers to plan trees in the Pittsburgh region.
• Bike Pittsburgh: Bike Pittsburgh organizes OpenStreetsPGH, a family-friendly celebration that creates 3.5 miles to walk, dance, run and play in Downtown.
• Just Harvest: Just Harvest is a nonprofit that works to end hunger and poverty in Allegheny County.  This organization is always looking for volunteers for many jobs such as outreach, administrative, and market assistant.
• American Red Cross: Volunteers are accepted as young as 13 with the youth volunteer application.  They offer many volunteer opportunities! 
• Pittsburgh Marathon: 4,000 volunteers are needed for the event each May! 

Need help connecting with organizations or evaluating extracurricular activities? Riley College Advising can help!

April is the season of acceptance letters and of course, rejection letters from colleges. For many kids, a rejection letter from their dream college can be crushing.  If they planned well, they should have at least  one acceptance to another college, which they might have deemed their "safety school". College admissions is more competitive than ever so rejection letters are expected.  The New York Post recently published an article suggesting that parents can take the rejection just as hard as their kids.  Parents can drive themselves crazy thinking about what they could have done differently. Where did they go wrong? Should they have paid for an SAT prep class? Did they make a mistake by having their kid take AP Calc instead of AP US History? What about that internship? Second guessing could go on forever and it will do no good.  

We've worked with many families where students have taken the rejection letters better than their parents.  Students are preparing themselves for the rejection, even if they don't seem like it. They know that there is a chance that they could not get in.  Parents, on the other hand, feel like they've done everything they can to make sure kid will get into the best, most prestigious college and when that doesn't happen, they can take that rejection personally.  How could a college not totally fall in love with your baby? How could they reject your talented, smart, witty kid? Take comfort in the knowledge that you and your child did everything you could and college admissions is complex.  It is not just about grades or community service. It is more than what is on a student's transcript or application.  Admissions officers have complicated and secretive processes for accepting and rejecting an applicant. Riley College Advising can help you and your child navigate the college admissions process.  We will help your child create a well thought out college list, making sure to include a variety of schools that fit your child's personal, academic, and financial interests. We will help your family celebrate the many college acceptance letters he or she will surely receive but we will also help if a rejection letter makes its way to your mailbox. 

The Washington Post recent published an article that chronicles a parent's frustration with financial aid.  In her article entitled When he’s accepted to college, but we can’t afford it, Tracy Major explains how she and her family must come off the high of their kid's many college acceptances to amazing colleges, many of them very selective colleges, when they realize that the financial aid packages that many of these colleges have created for their kid means that they are too expensive and unrealistic. She writes about "merit aid roulette" and how the merit aid offered by many colleges is set aside, often times, for freshmen with outstanding test scores and grades.  Merit aid is not something student can count on receiving until they see it on their financial aid letter and merit aid is at the discretion of the college. This ultimately leads her family feeling disappointed that they can only afford to send their kid to a few of the colleges that he actually got into.  

We've definitely seen this in the financial aid packages we review with families. Students and families will bring in their acceptance letters from one college after another, racking up Yes after Yes.  These Yes's eventually turn into No's for families when, after careful review of the financial aid packages they've received from these colleges, many of acceptances are not realistic because they are nor affordable.  Working with a College Advisor will help your family carefully evaluate every financial aid letter so you can make an informed decision when choosing what college your son or daughter ultimately attends.  It is important to think about cost when creating a college application list; however; you will not know how much a college will actually cost for your student until the financial aid packages is awarded. For middle class families, it often comes down to what college is most affordable but you do not want your student to only look at schools that seem inexpensive. Many colleges that look expensive on paper can turn out to be affordable once the financial aid letter is reviewed. But sometimes a college that told families they give out tons of financial aid and that they offer lots of scholarships to students, turns out to not be affordable because that money did not, in reality, make it onto the student's financial aid letter.  Make sure you work with an experienced College Advisor who will help you make a great list of colleges to apply to.  They'll have the knowledge of having seen many financial aid packages from these colleges and can recommend colleges they know give good financial aid.  

Thinking about majors can be grueling for kids and parents. As parents, we want to make sure our kids will go to college and then get a great job that fulfills them and pays well. This, as we know, is not always reality.  When considering majors, students and parents should think about life after college! What can someone with this major do in the working world? The US Department of Labor has a site called the Occupational Outlook Handbook that allows users to search for careers based on median pay, education, number of new jobs, growth rate, and on-the-job training.  It also provides lists of careers with highest paying, fastest growing, and most new jobs.  Topping the list of highest paying are Physicians, Surgeons and all other with a median salary of $187,200.  Wind turbine service technicians have the highest projected growth rate coming in a 108% and personal care aids have the highest number of new jobs. Users can also search by career and bring up profiles that show  lots of details about the job including work environment, how to become one, pay, job outlook, and similar occupations.  

Another great site is My Next Move which provides similar data to the Department of Labor site but it is a little easier to use.  It also allows users to search by industry and has a section for people who do not know what they want to do! This sections includes an interest profiling quiz and then provides users with a list of potential careers. Definitely helpful for students who are completely unsure about what they want to do with their lives. 

A 529 plan is a plan operated by a state or educational institution with tax advantages and possible other incentives to make it easier to save for college or other post-secondary training for a child or grandchild.  Money put in these accounts are NOT subject to federal tax and usually not subject to state tax. Contributions to these plans are not tax deductible.  

​What can a 529 be used for? Beneficiaries can use the money for the cost of any computer technology, related equipment and/or related services such as internet access.   The funds are most commonly used to pay for college, or an "eligible institution" which includes college, university, vocational school, or other postsecondary institutions that the government deems eligible to participate.

Who can set up a 529 plan? Anyone can set up a 529 plan and name anyone as a beneficiary- a relative, a friend, even yourself! There are no income requirements and there are no limits to the number of plans you can set up!

There are two kinds of 529 plans: pre-paid tuition plans and college savings plans. All 50 states sponsor at least 1 type of 529. Some private colleges and universities offer pre-paid tuition plans.  While there are many differences between the two types of plans, the biggest one is that the pre-paid plans offer less flexibility in where the funds can be used.  Use this article to get more info on the differences between the two plans. 

There are a few surprising things you can do with a 529 plan like use it for yourself! Some parents decide to change careers or go back to school. They can use the funds from the 529 plan if they change the beneficiary. Use this article to find out more surprising tips on using a 529!

While study abroad is one of the most sought after experiences in college, many students squander the experience and take on extra debt. Some mistakes include taking advantage of the lower drinking age overseas and spending too much money on drinks and wasting time being drunk and hungover.  Students also need to consider the effects of being too reliant on their smartphones when traveling.  This can disconnect them from their experiences and make them too concerned with that is happening at home instead of what is happening on their trip. They need to be present and available for all that their study abroad program has to offer. If you know of a student thinking about or on their way to a study abroad program, share this article  from the New York Times with them!

Data from the IRS, Treasury Department, and the Department of Education was used to create the College Scorecard, a new online comparison tool to help families in the college search process.  Information includes average income earned by alumni, graduate rates, and average cost after financial aid.  Below is our rundown of the Scorecard:
Pros: 
-Lots of data is great! 
-Allows you to compare apples to apples
-Does NOT rank colleges
-Lots of information in one place

Cons:
-Lots of data can be difficult to navigate, despite the attractive graphs
-Not ALL colleges made the list, schools that participate in Title IV federal financial aid programs and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System
-Data can only go so far. These numbers do not provide a complete picture of the colleges. 
-No anecdotal information provided so families need to get this "other" info elsewhere and balance it with the data on the Scorecard
-Data is not value-neutral

While the Scorecard is a step in the right direction, it seems to merely take already existing data and present it in a more visually pleasing format.  This data is helpful but is definitely the only tool families should use when searching for colleges.  Riley College Advising is here to help you in this search.