Volume 9, Number 4
Training and Careers
Telephone Tips
Tips from 20-Something Employees
Community and Technical Colleges
Locating Technical Programs
Colleges and Universities
Who Benefits from Early Decision?
Grade Point Averages for College Freshman
The REAL Evergreen State College
Campus Tour Check - List
Money Talk
What to do with the Student Aid Report?
Quick Financial Aid Facts
Neglected Grants and Scholarships
Why has Private College Tuition Gone Up So Fast
?
By the year 2020, Washington's population will grow 45%. Within that growth,
different segments of our population will change dramatically. For individuals
making education and career choices, these changes will have an impact on
employment opportunities.
According to Terry van der Werff, a Seattle-based speaker and consultant
on global trends, "The choices won't be easy, but the issues are
real. The decisions are yours. You had better plan for them." Terry
van der Werff's column in the April 1996 issue of Washington CEO provided
the following demographic projections.
Future Vision - How much will Washington's population grow by 2020
Racial-Ethnic Mix in Washington: 1996 2025
How can you use this information as you plan your future? As you consider
a college major or career path, consider how the population you will serve
is changing and how those changes might effect goods or services your job
might provide. An example would be the impact of a 155% jump in the 55-64
age group. What will this mean to leisure or medical industries? Will your
prospective career be positioned to serve the needs of expanding Asian and
Hispanic American communities? Careful planning means future opportunities.
According to the annual survey of college freshman reported by The Chronicle
of Higher Education,
Telephones are everywhere today. With the growth of cellular phones, and
new phone services that allow callers to follow you anywhere, the telephone
is the most important communication tool today. The phone can connect to
computers, fax machines and e-mail/voice mail machines. Few tools are more
important in a business setting and learning to use the phone effectively
can add dramatically to success in the workplace. The following are phone
tips to polish your on-the-line communication skills.
1. Project a positive image on the phone. Smile before you dial or pick
up the phone to generate a friendly manner.
2. Use a three-part greeting. Good morning/afternoon, company or department
name and say this is (your name).
3. When calling a business, control the conversation with questions. The
person asking questions is always in control.
4. When calling somewhere for the first time, act confident, as if you have
called many times before. Use first names and never get wordy or upset as
that makes you appear nervous.
5. Your voice mail or answering machine is your electronic business card.
Be sure your message is upbeat, friendly and motivational. Give clear directions
to the caller.
"What my generation faces is trying to survive in a brutal job market.
And when you do find a job, it's either low wages, no benefits, over-demanding
managers or all of the above."
Generation X is the first generation predicted to earn less than their parents
did. According to Marc H. Muchnich, Ph.D., Business News, Summer 1996, "Eighty
percent of all entry-level new hires in virtually every industry are currently
sourced from the X Generation" For X-ers to succeed in the job market,
it is critical understand the expectations of managers and mutual responsibilities.
Below are tips offered by Generation X employees to improve workplace relations.
· Let managers know if they are checking up too much. Identify the
precise behavior and explain how it makes you feel.
· Give input to managers on how they can best challenge you.
· Show managers that positive reinforcement goes both ways. Express
gratitude and praise them on their special accomplishments.
· Go out of your way to lighten your manager's load, if possible.
Take fewer peak-season vacation days. Try to look at your manager's concerns
as if they were your own.
· Have managers spell out performance standards, goals and expectations.
Ask for a written job description and set up time to discuss work objectives.
According to Dr. Muchnick, there are five key areas that effect manager-employee
relations. They are:
Dr. Muchnick says that "Generation X employees want what we all
want - a fair shake, an honest relationship and the chance for reward."
Community and technical colleges offer a wide variety of training and academic
programs that can be completed in two years or less.
Nearly all schools offer the following programs:
Contact each school individually for full admission and financial aid information.
In addition to the programs listed above, two-year schools offer these programs.
Many colleges offer students the opportunity to apply for early admission,
which includes both early decision or action. Early admission programs are
designed for students who are certain of their first choice college. The
student applies in the fall (usually November) and hears within a month.
There are two kinds of early programs: early action and early decision.
Early decision involves a commitment on the student's part - so that if
accepted, the student is automatically matriculated. Early action, on the
other hand, does not involve that commitment. The student accepted under
early action programs has until late spring to notify the school whether
or not he/she will attend. Early decision is the more restrictive of the
early admission decisions and due to increased use by colleges and students,
should be clearly understood.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education (3/15/96), more students
are using early decision. Some universities like Johns Hopkins in Baltimore,
say their applications for early decision rose by as much as 25% over 1994.
The College Board says that 470 colleges have early decision programs, up
from 400 in 1991. Many college counselors are concerned by the rise in early
decision applications. They say that early decision locks a student into
a college choice before they can consider all the implications of that decision.
A further concern is that early decision is used mostly by students from
wealthy families who do not need financial aid. Students needing aid often
must wait for aid offers in April before selecting a college.
Why do students use early decision? Some students believe that early decision
applications have an advantage as a higher percentage are accepted. While
statistically this may be true it is often because the early decision applicant
pool is usually made up of students with more academic merit. Some students
just want to simplify their lives by concluding the admission process as
quickly as possible, so they can focus on other priorities. While this can
make sense, it can also result in limited financial aid options with no
opportunity for comparison with other schools.
Why do colleges encourage early decision? The Chronicle of Higher Education
states, "...aside from being interested in good matches, there are
some self-interested reasons why colleges might want to fill their classes
this way. In most early decision programs, students promise they will enroll
in the college if they get in. The pledge eliminates some of the guess-work
that characterizes the spring admission season, when a college might lose
to competitors half or three-fourths of the people it admits." For
colleges, early decision responses are critical to their budget planning
cycle.
Should students use early decision? If they clearly understand the limitations
of their decision and realize that early decision is often more convenient
to colleges than to students, this choice may be appropriate. Do students
using early decision have an advantage over students using the regular admission
process? In the majority of situations, experts agree the answer is no.
240,082 freshman entering 473 two and four-year colleges Fall of 1995, reported
the following grade point averages in high school. It is important to realize
that a wide variety of colleges accept students with all different GPA's.
The key for students is to check on the average GPA recommended for admission
at prospective colleges and find a good match.
· A or A+ 13.3% · A- 14.8% · B+ 18.8% · B 25.4% · B- 12.2% · C+ 09.7% · C 05.4% · D 00.4%
"It's a hippie school," or, "Employers don't take Evergreen
seriously," some say. What do you know about Evergreen? In our state,
myths persist about Evergreen because of the school's unique educational
philosophies. Grades are not stressed, you're encouraged to design your
own major, and the student to teacher ratio is 22-1, meaning that every
class is seminar-style. Unorthodox? No: misunderstood. This small college
of 3200 students, has one of the highest graduate school placement percentages
of any school in the nation. Evergreen is recognized nationally for it's
progressive methods, attracting more out-of-state students than any Washington
state school.
Why is Evergreen more popular nationally than within Washington? "At
Evergreen, learning is very personal," says Ileana Dorn, Evergreen
admissions counselor. Because of it's size and classroom structure, students
become quite familiar with professors and peers. Also, diversity and multi-culturalism
are important factors in Evergreen's campus life. An intentional plan to
diversify student body and faculty has been followed for years, with the
result that 22 percent of faculty, 21 percent of staff and 17 percent of
students (enrolled in Fall quarter of '95) are people of color. For students
who want to move beyond the traditional curriculum framework, such as an
outlined set of GERs (General Education Requirements), large impersonal
lecture halls and prescribed routes of study, Evergreen allows you to choose
themes to study for extended periods of time. If you desire to study the
making of modern America, the literature, history, economics, and art influencing
20th century America are studied. You study the humanities and sciences
in correlation to one another, as opposed to at other schools where students
need to take GERs as the classes are available. Also, because you choose
your themes each quarter, (and can study the same theme for up a year at
a time), you study together with others sharing the same passions.
"There is nothing easy about Evergreen," says Dorn. In
fact, the curriculum is quite rigorous because students must take responsibility
for every aspect of their learning. Because you're encouraged to design
your own major, intensive career counseling and hands-on internships are
stressed by APEL (the Academic and Experiential Learning office), to ensure
and reinforce students' commitment to their chosen field. As far as grading
is concerned, it begins when students write their contracts outlining specific
goals and class expectations. Periodically, narrative evaluations involving
the professor's evaluation of the student's work , the student's evaluation
of his or her own work and an evaluation of the class is completed. "The
A is not stressed, a student is not compared with other students. Without
this structure, we find that students come together to help each other learn,"
says Dorn.
Summer is an excellent time to tour college campuses. As colleges have summer
classes, visiting campus can include interaction with students and provide
an actual experience of college life. Visiting colleges when they are on
break is to be avoided as it is quite different from the campus environment
when in session. For this reason, campus visits in the last two weeks of
August are not recommended. When arranging a campus visit, start with the
admission office. Ask if there are special campus visit events or weekends
planned during the summer or academic year. Many colleges arrange special
times to visit and many pay food, housing and even transportation costs.
When you arrive on campus, be sure to include the following if possible:
1. Visit the admission, financial aid and student housing offices and pick
up all necessary applications and informational materials. You may want
to meet with admission and financial aid officers to discuss your specific
situation and determine the likely-hood of admission and financial aid offers.
2. Make sure your campus tour includes:
- the department representing your major
- a class-in-session that relates to your major
- campus housing
- campus food services, try the food, check prices
- student services, counseling and advising
- the computer lab
- the athletic complex if you enjoy sports
- the bookstore
- the library
- multicultural affairs (key for students of color)
3. Ask to speak with a student who is pursuing the same major you have chosen.
Ask what campus life is really like in the classroom and the dormitories.
4. Take a camera for pictures of key areas and make good notes to review
as you make your final choice.
Four weeks after sending in a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA),
a Student Aid Report (SAR) will arrive in your mail box. Many students and
parents are confused by this report as it tells you very little and seems
to repeat the FAFSA data you just submitted. While instructions are provided
with the SAR they can be confusing.
The purpose of the SAR is to confirm your answers on the FAFSA, as they
have now been recorded for the federal needs analysis process. The SAR also
alerts you to any errors or omissions identified by the national processing
computer. On the front page of the SAR you are told if you are eligible
for a federal Pell Grant. Your application date is identified in the upper
right-hand corner and under the date you will find 'EFC' which stands for
Estimated Family Contribution. The number that follows EFC is the dollar
amount that according to the federal formula, your family can contribute.
Good News! The EFC is always a negotiable number based on special circumstances
you can explain to the financial aid office. Further on in the SAR are many
additional codes that break the EFC into student and parent contributions
from income and assets and other data. For many families the break-down
of the EFC is not essential. You can call 1-800-4-FED AID to ask about these
codes or any other aid-related questions.
What should you do with the SAR? First, review the answers you provided
on the FAFSA. Correct any errors in the space provided. At the same time
you can change your answers if you have better data. For example, you may
have used estimates of your tax return numbers when you originally sent
the FAFSA. If you have actual numbers from your completed return, you can
make any corrections to your estimates. Once you are satisfied with the
answers on the SAR, make copies of the original for every college to which
you are applying for financial aid. Sign each copy with original signatures
and date. Send a copy of the SAR to each college financial aid office. It
is not necessary to send the SAR back to the national processor, even though
this is mentioned in the SAR instructions. College financial aid offices
recommend that you send the copy of the SAR directly to their office. This
can save you considerable time. The only reason to return the SAR to the
national processor is if data was missing that made it impossible for your
EFC to be calculated. As a general rule, a '0' or any numbers following
the EFC mean that you DO NOT need to return the SAR to the national processor.
If you are unsure, call the financial aid office and check.
Be sure to save the original copy of your SAR. Colleges do not need the
original to process your financial aid offer. Many people ask why the SAR
needs to be sent to colleges as they already receive an electronic report
from the FAFSA? The simple answer is that colleges need a copy of the SAR
to check for any corrections or changes to the data. When the SAR is sent
to college financial aid offices, families can also include letters explaining
any special financial circumstances not identified on the FAFSA.
When students and parents have questions about federal financial aid and
the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), answers must be accurate
and timely. The Department of Education offers a special toll-free number
for just the answers many families need.
1-800-4-FED-AID (1-800-433-3243)
This number can:
· Assist you in completing the FAFSA application
· Tell you if a school participates in the federal student aid programs
and that school's loan default rate
· Explain federal student aid eligibility requirements and how financial
need is determined
· Send federal student aid publications and the FAFSA to you
There are four major categories of grants and scholarships. They come from
federal, state, institutional and private sources. When asked which category
provides the largest source of grants and scholarships, most students and
parents guess wrong. In fact, most students and parents do not consider
the largest source of grants and scholarships until after making a college
decision. The first, and largest source of grants and scholarships to consider
are institutional moneys, coming directly from each colleges own resources.
Institutional grants and scholarships are need and merit-based moneys that
come directly from the college and go exclusively to students attending
that institution. When high school students are beginning to collect college
information, a list of all 'institutional grants and scholarships' should
be requested from the financial aid office. In some cases this will be a
comprehensive publication like Western Washington University's Scholarship
Prospectus. In other cases it may be a simple list of awards. If colleges
respond that they have no list of institutional awards, be aware that attending
that college would severely limit financial aid opportunities. At many private
universities, over 10% of their annual budget is directed back to students
in institutional awards. Public universities like Washington State University
give out hundreds of awards each year. Even community and technical colleges
have institutional grants and scholarships to distribute. Some high profile
universities like Stanford and Ivy League schools are confident that they
can recruit students without offering any grants or scholarships based on
merit.
Families should carefully review institutional grants and scholarships as
they consider other factors in selecting a college. Colleges should be asked
what criteria is used for the award of academic merit scholarships. These
awards are often distributed during the admission process. Most public and
private colleges will automatically consider all financial aid applicants
for their need-based institutional awards, when a Free Application for Federal
Student Aid (FAFSA) is submitted. Some private colleges ask for supplemental
applications to be submitted in order to be considered for institutional
grants and scholarships.
Often, institutional awards are the least competitive to receive. Some are
neglected with few applicants even applying. Recently at Bellevue Community
College, only five applications were received for two $500 Alumni Merit
Awards. Don't overlook institutional awards, it should be the first place
to start looking.
Since 1980, private college tuition has increased at a rate of 4.5% per
year, exceeding the rate of inflation. At the same time, private college
spending has risen only 3.4%. A professor at Duke University, Charles T.
Clotfelter has been trying to understand why tuition costs have exceeded
college spending? His conclusion is that costs have not been tied to spending
for faculty, administrative expenses or financial aid. Rather, the increases
have gone toward "unbounded aspirations" to be "the best"
without any real definition of what that meant - or what it would cost.
As reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education (4/26/96), Clotfelter says
that colleges are not places where administrators were "looking for
ways to waste money. They have long lists of ways they can make their colleges
better." He says, "I think there is a general sense out there
that college has gotten about as expensive as it can be. There's the perception
that people do suffer - a lot of middle class families who are not going
to qualify for aid." Parents and students certainly hope that more
realistic tuition increases are ahead.
