Weekly College Update
Dear Thunderbirds, Huskies, Snow Leopards, and Bulldogs,
As of today, 94% of Summit seniors have submitted applications to four-year colleges. Awesome work! Now we can breathe a sigh of relief that the first big deadline of application season is over and CSU/ UC applications are done. From December-February, we can turn our attention to private school applications.
This week’s focus is applying to private colleges.
There are many reasons to consider applying to private universities. Often they are smaller and better funded than public colleges. This means that private school students get smaller class sizes, more access to professors, more availability of the courses needed to graduate, and more student resources on campus. All of this supports students at private colleges to complete their degree requirements and graduate on time in 4 years. Meanwhile, the average incoming freshman at a CSU school will take 5.6 years to graduate.
Additionally, many private schools have strong reputations as well as active alumni networks that can help students with future career opportunities.
However, a lot of students miss the opportunity to apply for private schools, because they think private schools are too expensive or too difficult to get into. Here are some reasons to reconsider:
According to the “Trends in College Pricing” report published by College Board in 2013, the average student enrolled full time in a private nonprofit four year college got enough grant aid to cover 60% of the tuition and fees! Your expected family contribution (EFC) will be the same whether you attend a public or private school. Private schools have a higher “sticker price,” but they give more generous financial aid packages to help make them affordable for families.
As far as being “too hard to get into,” it totally depends on the school. When you hear “private school,” often what comes to mind is a highly selective ivy league school like Harvard or Yale. However, the reality is that there are over 1800 private four year colleges in the U.S. and each one is unique. A few of them are really selective, but there are also many private schools with high admission rates.
So, over the next couple of months, I hope you keep up the application process momentum and add some private schools to your list.
Respectfully,
Ms. Hannon
Director of College Readiness
khannon@summitps.org
