An economic downturn affecting both families and universities is causing many of the region’s college-bound students to take a closer look at options older siblings may never have considered.
Five summer tips for college-bound high school students
Write a generic admission essay: Prepare an essay in advance that can be tailored to different applications.
Develop a preliminary list of colleges: Call, write, or use the Internet to gather information. Find an alumnus in your area.
Participate in interesting activities: Volunteer, develop an internship, try something creative and productive.
Keep a summer journal: Chronicle your activities, and help yourself determine what you truly want and need in coming years.
Begin scholarship searches: Use books and the Internet to start searching for private money, and how to get it.
“The financial side of things is going to change admissions quite dramatically,” said Shirley Levin, an education counselor and founder of Rockville-based College Bound. “State universities are going to become more selective and may have to limit enrollment.
And in order to stay competitive the more expensive private schools will be offering more merit-based scholarships.”
In both cases, it means an even stronger push for high school students to take college-level classes.
Levin shared her message last week at a Montgomery County middle school packed with parents and students taking their first steps toward planning, filled with newfound uncertainties. Topics ranged from timeless worries like standardized test scores to the effect of current events.
“A lot of kids have always liked the California schools, but I’m not sure they’d want to look that direction now,” Levin said, explaining the state’s enormous economic difficulties will almost certainly have negative effects on its higher education faculty and facilities.
In the same vein, she cited schools like financially troubled Tulane University, in the process of phasing out its engineering program. She prodded families to look closely at how a school is focusing its resources at a time of plummeting endowments.
As families face their own declining resources, Levin encouraged looking for schools that offer cooperative programs with employers to give students paid experience in their field before graduating. And she reinforced a familiar message: Take as many college-level classes as can be managed, and then use them to earn credit at universities and save tuition.
“Taking those strong courses is more important now than ever before,” she said.
Zollie Perry sat at one of the tables with his daughter Elena, a 10th-grader at Rockville High School.
“It’s a much more complicated process for students today than it was for me,” he said.
And for most families, the added complexities don’t change the most important goal: a top institution.
“I came to learn how to prepare for college,” said Maurya Chaurasia, 13, who came with his father.
“A good college,” said his father with a smile.
