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No one follows the lead of a seller's realtor when negotiating a deal to buy a house. 

Why do parents follow the lead of the college in negotiating a deal to buy a college education?

That's exactly what parents do when they attend college information sessions and arrive home to preach their gospel. The information-session presenter on campus tours are highly trained to get parents to think how they want them to think. It's their strategy to get your buy-in to their business model. 

CollegeLogic-parents often know more details of the college they are visiting then do the presenters. It's part of prequalifying the college for understanding what they might be buying. It's the same as getting to know everything you can about a house before you visit and enter purchasing discussions.  

In those information sessions, following the presenter's lead is like following the lead of the seller's realtor. They will tell you what they want you to believe, such as- 

• you don't have to know what you want to study
• you don't have to submit SAT/ ACT scores
• if you submit ED and get accepted, you must cancel other applications
• we meet demonstrated-need at 100%
• our graduates have a 90% job placement rate

If you arrive home and base your college plan on their instruction, then you will be falling prey to the big business of college.

Read all about here in our new book- 

     Dissecting the Big Business of College

For saving college costs, here's our Strategy # 6- Have a plan to create quality options

Our application-strategy is designed to get 6 - 8 acceptances resulting in a range of costs centered around the academic standard of the student. In doing so, we like to create a baseline of cost-affordability for comparison purposes. This creates leverage and choices in preventing a cost-prohibitive college outcome, now that’s college-logical!

Anything without a plan is left to guesswork and random chance. 

When parents think high school counselors will take care of the college process for them, then a random college choice is what to expect.

When parents think travel team coaches will take care of their recruiting for them, then a random chance is what to expect.

When parents think the college will show them how to save on college costs, then overpaying for college is what to expect.

In all three situations, each is a matter of reactive behavior resulting in typical, undesired outcomes. That might be ok for buying a pair of shoes, but not for buying a college education!

If better outcomes result from being knowledgeable, aware, and involved in the college process long in advance of submitting applications and settling on college costs, then why don't more parents do it?

1. It's not convenient
2. They don't know how
3. They don't know when
4. They are too consumed with other matters
5. It's easier and less expensive to rely on others 

That's a prescription for choosing wrong colleges, studying wrong majors, staying in college too long, overpaying for college, and for athletes, sitting on the bench. 

Learn all about this and much more in our new book- 

     Dissecting the Big Business of College

For saving college costs, here's our Strategy # 5- Have a plan to submit early applications

Most people randomly submit applications to a handful of colleges without having a strategic plan. They hope to get accepted into a few of them, then make a college choice leaving the worry of costs and possible majors until later. Not us. Rather, we have a defined plan to win preferred acceptances and maximize scholarships.

Our client-families submit their applications prior to the start-up of their senior year. Why so early? There are two reasons. One, the senior year begins very busy for the students with no letup in site. Submitting applications after it begins becomes an after-thought with other more pressing situations to attend to until its late. And when it’s late, college applications become the pressing situation. That’s neither a strategy nor a plan. It’s ineffective and can only lead to predictably disappointing results. 

Secondly, late submitted applications typically compromise acceptance rates and scholarship awards. It’s just the way it works. We don't like to be late to anything, much less college. 

Your reward for being early? You will likely be given preferred treatment by the admissions office for an acceptance and scholarship for two primary reasons. Early applications reflect serious intent of the student. And admission counselors generally appreciate early applicants giving them a chance to review the application before they get swamped with late applications. This strategy often leads to higher acceptance rates and larger scholarships. It makes good college-logical sense to me!

If you want to be desired by colleges, then be a desirable applicant.

Bowdoin College, Sacred Heart Univ., Bates College, Franklin & Marshall,

Fairfield Univ., Drexel Univ., Middlebury College, Drexel, Calif. State Universities

And the list goes on several hundred deep.

These colleges don't require students to submit their SAT/ ACT scores on their application. Obviously, they don't value those test scores. They likely don't think SAT's or ACT's are relevant any longer. Right? That's what 75% of people now believe. All those schools are living proof they say. I say they are flat wrong!

Why then don't they require SAT or ACT scores? You have to look closely into the college perspective to see the BIG BUSINESS MACHINE OF COLLEGE at work here.

The colleges want you to believe test scores are not important. Why? Because it drives up the number of applicants. Imagine a policy that increases applicants by 5,000 resulting in $400,000 additional fee income. Imagine a policy that increases applications resulting in a lower acceptance rate and improved "selectivity" rating. That's a pretty good policy! Oh, what do you think is the average acceptance rate for those students not submitting test scores?

Learn more about it along with details on our top ten strategies for saving college costs in our new book- 

     Dissecting the Big Business of College

For saving college costs, here's our Strategy # 4-

Have a complete application for receiving preferred acceptances and higher scholarships

College admission counselors from colleges across America report to me that they look quickly (within 5 minutes) to disqualify a student applicant. They report that too many applicants have a weak application, although they may have strong credentials. Weak applications show themselves quickly in a number of ways that render unnecessary denials. That’s just the cold hard truth…5 minutes and out.

Therefore, a key component to building college credentials is having a complete application, one that yields great value to the prospective student. Many students rush through applications, just trying to get them done and submitted for which the admissions counselor can quickly spot. Those don’t usually get serious consideration, and why should they? 

Our students have complete applications, including SAT/ ACT test scores, quality essays, insightful responses to supplemental questions, a Personal Statement, and all related information provided timely. They win preferred admissions and higher scholarships. It's that simple, yet that elusive. Seems college-logical to me!

Don't just talk about. Live it!

The BIG BUSINESS OF COLLEGE is an industry built around an educational environment. It is centered on the academic community of the college where learning, research, study-abroad, internships, and community projects go on every day. No offense to Best Buy, but college is not centered around computer and television sales. You can walk into Best Buy oblivious to the environment you enter and still get a good deal on your purchase. You can't be oblivious to the academic community when entering a college campus and expect a deal to be worked in your favor. That doesn't happen. However, most student-families arrive on college campuses every day oblivious to the environment they enter.

Not our CollegeLogic-students and parents. Gone are the days when a college visit entailed just walking around campus on a tour being led by a graduate student. Those visits come up empty in creating advantages with Admissions. Rather, it is important to connect in a meaningful way with the people who will decide upon your application and scholarship award. What do you need to do? You should plan on meeting the admissions people and in doing so, not just talk about your interests but show that you are living it.

It's all described in detail here in our new book- 

     Dissecting the Big Business of College

To continue on with our ten strategies for saving thousands on college costs, we have- 

Strategy # 3- Build unique credentials beyond grades for increasing scholarship awards

How have things changed over the past ten years? For one, students today have an abundance of credentials. Admission acceptances and scholarship awards were traditionally based on the academic record of the applicant. The new norm is for high GPA and SAT/ ACT scores to be a given. The new norm is for a list of volunteer assignments and minor leadership roles to be a given. The new qualifiers for distinguishing students from the pack calls on them to do extraordinary things, such as-

• Start a new club
• Create a blog site
• Have real leadership achievement
• Have genuine community service
• Have specific mission-driven work
• Expand cultural diversity with study abroad or cultural immersion trips
• Be knowledgeable and aware of current events and important national issues 

This is how students distinguish themselves from others for winning admission acceptances and increasing scholarship awards. Sure seems college-logical to me.

The BIG BUSINESS OF COLLEGE is a debt-fueled industry, that's scary. Students will borrow $70 billion from the Federal Government with its Stafford Loan. That's the student-loan which caps out at $27,000 over four years and it's the only loan the student can sign for themselves. Parents are estimated to take out on average three times that amount, bringing the projected loan total for this years high school graduating class to $280 billion. That means over 50% of college costs ($500 billion industry) will be paid through loans. That's debt-fueled and that's astounding. What do you need to do? You need to understand the implications of the business transaction you are about to encounter.

We have the implications here in our new book, available only in digital form for the next week or so-

     Dissecting the Big Business of College

This book exposes the college interests. It exposes the parent's weak tendencies. It teaches parents the college perspective. And it gives parents my Top 10 Strategies that's proven for saving thousands on college costs. Upon learning, implementing, and executing, parents will advance their position of strength in dealing with colleges.

To continue on with our ten strategies for saving thousands on college costs, we have- 

Strategy # 2- Be knowledgeable of the authority, influences, policy, and numbers

This game belongs to the college. They set the rules by which you play. You don’t have to like the rules, but you should know the rules if you want to have any chance of winning the game.

For starters, know who controls the dollars, that would be the authority. For merit scholarships, the authority is the Admission Office. For athletic scholarships, the authority is the Athletic Office. For financial aid, the authority is the Financial Aid office. It’s your job to understand how each college works in regard to its financial awards. It begins in the office of authority.

You must get to know what influences the awards. For merit awards, the influences are twofold, one being the student’s credentials which are awarded upfront upon acceptance; and two being the strategy of the admission office to use merit scholarships as a tool for incentivizing students to enroll which are awarded on the backend of the process upon appeal. The goal is to maximize the upfront scholarship while creating leverage for backend negotiations.

Through your early college visits, you will have the opportunity to learn the policy for which drives financial awards. Every college has a policy for scholarships and it’s your job to know it by asking the right questions.

Through your personal homework and research on the college, you have the opportunity to learn the numbers that result from the policy. The numbers reflect in the results of the college policies. It's college-logical to me.