Case Study

One student's journey through the college admissions process

A few years ago, when Ken was a counselor in a Jesuit high school in Phoenix, a young man who was a counselee of his applied to 21 top universities across the USA (college is a buyer's market ... remember that).

The counselee had a B average in college prep courses and a slightly higher than average SAT score (1150). He was accepted into 18 of these schools including: Santa Clara, University of San Diego, Loyola, Marymount University, University of Colorado, University of Denver, Marquette, ASU, University of Arizona, NAU, Boston University, University of Portland, Hawaii Pacific, Loyola of New Orleans, USC and SMU, among others.

He decided to see which schools would offer him the most financial aid. He was not a college-bound athlete. When USC offered him all but $4000 in his financial aid packet and SMU offered him all but $2000, he was very happy. However, he emailed USC's Financial Aid Office and told them he was grateful for the aid package, but that SMU was willing to give him more. What would USC do to match SMU's offer? Overnight, USC faxed him a new financial package that included an additional $2000!

He decided to go to SMU. He majored in Engineering, a five-year program, graduated, and owes a total of $10,000 over the entire five-year span. Considering that a single year of college cost well over $20,000 at the time, this was an exceptional deal.

This is a clear example of what Ken refers to as the college world being a "buyer's market."
This demonstrates how you, the student, are in control of the process.
This shows what you can do if you know the answer to the question "Where do I start, and how do I get there?"

Allow Ken the opportunity to make you my next success story!