How to Get the Best from Your Letters of Recommendation

Letters of recommendation may be the most overlooked component of the college application. Most college-bound students spend the bulk of their time stressing about their GPAs, doing loads of test prep (which is not at all a waste of time), and meticulously crafting their personal statements. Among the “big four” of college application, the letters of recommendation are generally neglected, but they still constitute an important part of the admissions process. Here are a few tips to get the most out of your letters.

 Your Writers Should Know You

Most of us have a sense of our presence in any given class. Some classes provoke our participation, others induce slumber. Even if you received high marks in a particular class, make sure that you made a lasting impression on your teacher. College admissions officers look to letters of recommendation to get a sense of your classroom presence and special academic strengths, especially those that cannot be communicated through grades and test scores. Make sure your letter writers know you for the great college student you can be.

Your Writers Should Be In Your Field

For the few of you who know your major going in to college, make sure at least one of your letter writers teaches a subject related to your major. For example, if you apply as a Biology major, aim for at least one letter to come from a science teacher; by all means, though, do not neglect to request a letter from that English teacher who can write stellar letter on your behalf. The quality of your letters does indeed trump relevance, but just remember that admissions officers will want to know how you perform in the kinds of classes you’ll be taking as an undergraduate.

Grades Shouldn’t Necessarily Determine Your Writers

It might seem ill-advised to request a letter from a teacher who did not give you an “A,” but remember, good letter-writers are those who know your strengths best, not necessarily those who give you the best marks. Perhaps you initially struggled in an unusually challenging class and then showed great determination by raising your grade to a “B.” Such a momentous improvement should not go unnoticed simply because your final grade could be higher.

A Beginner’s Guide to Financial Aid Part I

As most parents and students are aware, if you need money to go to college then you deal with the financial aid department. These are the people that are in charge of awarding grants, scholarships, student loans, and work-study packages. Figuring out how the college determines who gets money and who doesn’t can often times seem tricky, so let’s try to look at this process in as simple a format as possible.

Now, the concept is that financial aid goes to those families who need it the most. To determine this, colleges use two factors: Cost of Attendance (COA) and Estimated Family Contribution (EFC). Then, the financial aid department uses a simple formula: COA – EFC = NEED.

Your COA is pretty straightforward. It is the cost of tuition, room & board, books, fees, transportation, and an allowance for miscellaneous fees. The COA at a college can change every year, so financial aid is recalculated every year. Remember to include all of the items I just mentioned in your budget, since that is exactly what the college is doing when figuring out your financial aid. If you forget to factor in the cost of textbooks, you may not have enough money when you head off to college in the fall.

Your EFC is a bit more complicated because the college is trying to determine how much money they think your family can afford to spend on college. Unfortunately, your EFC is never going to be as low as you would prefer (unless of course it’s $0), but it is important to know what factors impact your EFC. There are many different things that go into the calculation of your EFC, but four of the biggest influences are Parent Income, Parent Assets, Student Income, and Student Assets. We will cover all of these in more detail in future blogs, so stay tuned as we continue the posts. Other factors that can influence your EFC include the number of family members in your household, the number of students in college at the same time, the ages of each family member, and even what state you live in. If this seems complicated, plenty of other families are thinking the same thing. Much like how a CPA can help you with your taxes, a good college advisor should be able to help you understand your EFC.

The last step in the process is to determine your NEED. This is high much financial aid you may be eligible for. Let’s say for example that your college has a COA of $50,000 and your EFC is $20,000. This means your NEED is $30,000 ($50K-$20K=$30K). Now, does this mean that you’re going to get a $30,000 scholarship? Not usually. Most colleges will award you some combination of grants/scholarships (free money) and work-study/student loans (self help). Keep in mind that money you receive based on this formula is called “Need-Based Aid”. Scholarships that you get for having a really high GPA or good SAT scores are called “Merit-Based” and are awarded based on separate criteria. Even if your EFC is higher than a college’s COA, you could still receive “Merit-Based” aid (so study hard!)

Next time we’ll talk about your EFC in more detail and explore the fact that there are 2 possible EFC formulas a college could use, each with a different set of questions.

About the author: Justin Munio is a Business Development Manager and Financial Aid Consultant with College Planning Strategies, LLC. With a degree in mathematics from SUNY Geneseo and over 3 years working in the CPS Financial Aid Department, Justin is at the forefront of the financial aid process for the families of CPS and the Toolkit.

About Smart Track™ Toolkit: The toolkit is a web based service that assists families with everything from admissions and test prep, to student athletics and financial aid. Our intuitive software and on-demand workshops are key components to making sure students find their top choice colleges, and families can afford to send them there.

5 Things I Wish I’d Known About MONEY When I Started College

At Grockit, we’re all about education and getting you ready to move on to the next stage in your life.  But we’re not just teachers; we’re all former and/or current students, too, and we’ve got more than just test preparation tips to share with you!

There’s a good chance that you or your parents are making a significant investment in your college education from loans or savings.  The stereotype of the “broke college student” exists for a reason: many college students really are living on a TIGHT budget.  Learn from a few of the money mistakes I made in college so you can avoid them yourself!

            1.         Credit cards are not “free money,” and they can make your life miserable if you misuse them.  They might look innocuous, all decorated with Van Gogh’s Starry Night or your school mascot or whatever, but the interest rates will kill you if you’re not careful; get one for emergencies if you must, but try to pay it off in full every month and don’t let yourself get into the habit of thinking that new boots or late-night pizza orders are “emergencies.”

            2.         There are weird little opportunities to make a little extra cash all over the place at most universities and colleges.  Have a couple of hours to spare between classes one day a week?  You might be able to spend them as a model for the art school or a mock patient for med students.  Think outside the usual part-time job box to explore seasonal opportunities or small gigs that only crop up periodically.

            3.         Unless you become a celebrity or get a really plum job involving some kind of consumer goods, you will never again get as much free stuff offered to you as you do in college.  So take the t-shirts, the boxes of sample toiletries, and the promotional water bottles; a penny saved is a penny earned, right?

            4.         Speaking of free things, if you’re smart about it you can get a whole lot of free food just by going to extracurricular activities like lectures and club meetings.  It’s an opportunity to not only score some pizza (and it will almost always be pizza), but also to learn about something, whether it’s swing dancing or quantum physics, that you might never have discovered otherwise.

            5.         There are resources available to help you through the rough patches.  It probably won’t kill you to eat nothing but ramen noodles for the last two weeks of the semester, after you’ve burned through all of your loan money, but it’s not exactly great for you, either. And more importantly, it’s probably not necessary.  Many schools have emergency short-term loan programs in place to help students out of a tight spot, so if you need help, ask for it!

What kind of helpful knowledge have you picked up about your finances?  Share it in the comments!

About Grockit: Grockit is a fun and engaging learning community that encourages students to learn from group study, game play, expert tutorials and solo study. Students that prepare with Grockit have proven to achieve higher scores on college admissions tests.

About the author: Andrea Alexander is a current graduate student in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. She's been teaching test prep for about eight years and have picked up lots of helpful knowledge along the way. She specializes in the verbal aspects of test prep, since her education and career experience as an attorney, freelance writer, and editor have given her the background for that.