Congress Proposes Changes to the Post-9/11 GI Bill

The beginning of academic year 2010-11 marked the second year of operation for the Post-9/11 GI Bill. While response to the law has been generally positive, earlier this year both the House and Senate introduced bills that seek to improve and clarify the legislation. The proposed legislative changes in both versions address current criticisms and implementation problems and also make the bill more relevant to the needs of today’s veteran students. The new bills would not dramatically change the funding of public education for veterans, but they would alter the contribution to private education.

The College Admissions Consultant is to introduce "SCHOLARSHIPS ON DEMAND"

Now that many students are finalizing the application process, getting their letters of recommendations in, ordering transcripts, etc... the thing that is in the back of their minds with their parents' already worrying is how much is this going to cost and how are we going to pay for it.

It all starts with FAFSA, most of the time, but sometimes what a school offers is felt to not be enough, and so students begin to wonder where they should look for additional support.

Here, at the College Admissions Consultant, while were interacting with Public High School Counselors this fall,  talking to students, and learning how many different obstacles everyone has to go through to make college a possibility, we were asked to do a special presentation on scholarships.

The response has been so positive from not only the school, faculty, and the students, but from other counselors across the country who are interested in presenting the same idea in their schools year round, or for students who want to spend the money to get the material up front quickly.

Starting in January, 2011, we are going to offer a more extensive version of what we created for the students we have worked with this fall, and hope that if you or your students are interested in all the various types of scholarships that are available to both high school. community college, and those returning to school to retrain for a new career.... that you will contact us at prep4college2@yahoo.com and join our mailing list.

Once our program is out in January, we hope you will take a moment to just try it out.  Please share any comments or questions you have here.

DO YOU KNOW OF ANY WONDERFUL SCHOLARSHIPS? ARE YOU OFFERING ONE? WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

Students as they are beinging to near the application process will soon be looking for scholarships to help fund the expense of college.  Here ar the College Admissions Consultant, we are building a base of current scholarships that will be available as an ebook for sale come the start of 2011.

If you are a company offering a scholarship, or wish to promote a scholarship you know about, please share the informaition with us.

If you are a college or university, we want to here from you too.  Many college have a variety of scholarships that are offered, and the bigger our base, the better for your goals.

UC Regents Adopt Changes to Freshman Admissions Policy

The UC Board of Regents in February 2009 adopted a proposal to change freshman admission to give more high-achieving students the chance to apply to UC and receive a full review of their applications. The new rules will take effect for the fall 2012 entering class.
The Academic Senate proposed the changes to address concerns that current policy prevents UC from considering thousands of outstanding students with high GPAs and test scores just because of a technical flaw in their record or a missing test – chiefly, the SAT Subject Tests, which are not required by any other public university in the country.

Policy highlights

Under the new policy, all California high school seniors who…

• complete the 15 UC-required college-preparatory ("a-g") courses, with 11 of those done by the end of 11th grade,
• maintain a GPA of 3.0 or better (weighted by honors/AP bonus points) in these courses, and
• take the ACT with Writing or SAT Reasoning Test

…will be invited to apply and will be entitled to a comprehensive review of their applications at each UC campus to which they apply.
Within this "entitled to review" pool, two categories of applicants will be guaranteed admission somewhere within the UC system:

• those who fall in the top 9% of all high school graduates statewide, and
• those who rank in the top 9% of their own high school graduating class.

Together, these students are expected to make up about 10% of the state's high school graduates. If these students are not admitted to one of the campuses they applied to, they will be referred to a campus with remaining space (currently UC Riverside or UC Merced) and offered admission there, as eligible students are now. The remaining admissions needed to make up the full 12.5% pool of top students will be drawn from the broader "entitled to review" pool.
All qualified students, whether receiving the referral guarantee or not, will have their applications reviewed comprehensively by all UC campuses to which they apply and will compete for those seats. Their qualifications will be assessed using the same campus-based review processes currently in place – ones that emphasize academic achievement, but that also account for a wide range of personal accomplishments and educational contexts. More information about the comprehensive review process is available at How UC Reviews Applicants.

Differences from current policy

The new policy requires the same number of "a-g" courses and the same GPA as current policy. What is different is:

• Two SAT Subject Tests will no longer be required for admission. However, students can still choose to submit their scores for consideration as part of their application, just as they do now with AP scores. The Subject Tests also may be recommended for certain majors.
• All applicants will need to complete 11 of the 15 "a-g" courses by the end of their junior year. Currently, this is required only of students who are designated eligible by ranking in the top 4% of their high school class.
• The share of students who are guaranteed admission based on their rank in their own high school class will grow (9% vs. the current 4%).
• Fewer students overall will receive an admission guarantee (10% of high school graduates statewide vs. 12.5% now), but nearly all students who would have received this guarantee under current policy will still be entitled to a full review by their campuses of choice under the new proposal.