50-50 Highlights: Schools with Phi Beta Kappa Chapters

graduation cap with honors tasselOne reason many people give for attending a prestigious or ranked college or university is the need to be among intellectual peers. There is this worry that students won’t be challenged enough at less-well known schools. This is often accompanied by the networking argument–it’s the class peers along with faculty that will be crucial in developing future opportunities. Read More

Do You have to Play High School Baseball to be Recruited to Play in College? Part 2

Baseball mitt and ballPart One covered the situation of wanting to play college baseball when there’s no high school team available. But what if there was a high school baseball team available?

Now we’re entering tricky territory.

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Best College Admission Blogs Worth Reading and How

hands holding a tabletThere are so many college admission blogs out there, it’s hard to decide which  ones to read. After all, you can’t read them all and you don’t want to waste your time reading posts on the same topics. And how do you know which are any good?  If you do a search on “best college blogs” you’ll find things like “50 best college admission blogs,” “Top 25 College Blogs,” and  “22 College Blogs You  Should be Reading.” Not very helpful. Read More

Invitation to parents who are trying to figure out how to pay for college

Invitation to webinarSummer is the perfect time to start getting smart about finding a college and figuring out how to pay for it. Sure, it would be nice if your teen was motivated to start researching colleges but that’s a hit or miss proposition for most parents. But there’s nothing keeping parents from educating themselves about the process. After all, who has more motivation than the person who will actually be paying the bill? Read More

50-50 Highlights: Average Endowment per Student

gold coins under a roofWhy look at a college’s endowment when trying to decide where to go to school? This falls into the category of all other things being equal, why not attend an institution that is in a better financial situation? Or more importantly, why risk going to a university that is facing financial difficulties? Read More

Do You have to Play High School Baseball to be Recruited to Play in College?

Baseball scoreboardThis is the type of question that if you are asking, you probably already know the answer as it applies to you. You’re just looking for some validation. For the rest of you who are wondering what the heck I’m talking about, the answer is “it depends.” Read More

How to Find a Good College

Face looking from laptopFirst you have to know what “good” is.

And that’s the problem. How do you know what makes a college “good?” Is it the college where the good students go? After all, the colleges that admit only a small percentage of students with high GPAs and college test scores must be good. But does that mean the school is good because it admits good students or do good students go there because it is a good college? Read More

Help Me Find A College: Florida

Where to Start Looking to Find a College in Florida

Florida Highway SignThe Florida Student Scholarship and Grant Programs is sponsored by the Florida Department of Student Financial Assistance. This is essentially the state site for state funded grants and scholarships. The website includes information on the Bright Futures Scholarship Program and the Talented Twenty Program. The site contains the online and PDF version of the Florida Financial Aid Application. Read More

50-50 Highlights: Average Net Price for Students with a Family Income of More Than $110,000

Graduation cap and cashFamilies are told not to avoid private colleges and universities because of their high sticker prices. The fact is that very few people pay the actual sticker price. Most private schools have some form of tuition discounting more commonly known as “merit aid.” Since some 50-50 schools are more likely to offer merit aid than others, it’s a good idea to get a feel for the differences. Read More

9 Ways to Improve Your Chances of Playing College Baseball-Part 2

BaseballI’ve already listed four of the nine things that you can do that will improve your chances of playing baseball at the college level in a previous post. These tips aren’t going to make a D2 player into a D1 player. They will give the D2 player a better chance at actually playing on a D2 team. These are the things you can do off the field that will set you apart from other players. It isn’t just about having the best skills; it’s about making it as easy as possible for coaches to know that you have the skills and choose you over another player. Read More