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College is a purchasing decision!

Here are 3 top reasons people overpay for college and why most families will continue to overpay.

“Either you know the perspective of college,
or you will overpay. It's a guarantee.”

Go ahead and buy the wrong shoes. No problem, you can toss them in the back of the closet.

Go ahead and buy the wrong color television. No problem, you can easily replace it.

Go ahead and buy the wrong car. No problem, it may cost a bit but you can trade it in for another.

Go ahead and buy the wrong house, and oh, you have a problem, but you can get out of it.

Go ahead and buy the wrong college, and you have a big problem that will stick with you forever. You will incur both tangible and intangible costs-           
your retirement savings and your child's future.

Parents are risking it all when they don't understand both sides of this equation. College is a purchasing decision. You are in the market for buying educational services, whereas, the college is in the business of selling educational services. 

If it sounds, feels, and looks like a buy-sell process, it just might be one. Not treating it as such is the essence of the problem. Do I have your attention yet?
 
Reason # 1 why people overpay for college-  they don't know any different. They don't learn the college perspective. They fall prey to the big business machine of college. They operate from their own model of thinking, one that's likely out-of-date and out-of-touch; and that's costly. You must know the college's analytics that drives their admissions and scholarship decisions. Without it,  your position is greatly compromised.

Reason # 2 why people overpay for college- their child remains unknown to the college admissions office throughout the entire process. They are "Stealth Applicants", a costly tag to have in admissions. They wrongfully believe that the admissions process is merely a process of submitting applications. No, it's a personalized, relationship-based process that results in bigger scholarships. It's that simple, yet that elusive.

Reason # 3 why people overpay for college- the student-applicant's credentials fall short in qualifying for maximum scholarships. Most people think that the academic record for grades and board scores is the final determinant of a scholarship. Wrong, it's the beginning determinant for an admission acceptance. The student's ability to express their vision and plan, reflecting true passion and knowledge, and having real interest in life issues related to college studies is all taken together for maximizing scholarship potential.  

Parents and students enter the college process in a weak position. 

Colleges occupy the dominant position and they know it taking full advantage of parents vulnerability. But don't blame them. The parents weakness is not their problem. It's the same in sports when a coach gets blamed for "running up the score." Whose problem is that? And that's exactly what colleges are doing, they are running up the score! 
 
They will continue to run up the score until you, the parents of America, decide to become stronger in your position. We can help you with that, all you have to do is ask.  

“The successfully recruited athlete turns tasks that they don’t like doing into habits.”

Here are the 4 must steps to take for creating college recruiting opportunity and why most people don't take them.  

Let’s face it, becoming a recruited athlete and playing college sports is a big challenge. Sure, the top 1% of high school senior athletes get 95% of the recruiting attention. But what about the rest? Inside the numbers shows that there are 100,000 incoming freshmen college athletes each year of which 5,000 are highly recruited. That means coaches from top NCAA DI programs actively recruit them. Not so for the other 95,000. Therein lies your opportunity.

For the balance of college freshmen recruits, the job is on them to target market themselves to the coaches of colleges for which they have identified as a good match for their admission acceptance and possible sports opportunity. For this group of athletes, being recruited is not a pure talent contest. Rather, it is a contest in strength-of-purpose, diligence, relationship building, personal marketing, and continuous effort; all of which applies to athletes and parents. This requires having a proactive, knowledge-based strategy, and knowing how it works.

The formula for being recruited requires taking four initial steps in a sequence of ten steps. You can’t leap-frog to the fifth step, much less the tenth step. Therefore, we will focus on the first four steps to get you to the critical point.  

1. Step one in every college search process, athletes or students, is to build a college list and work from this list.  

It is essential that an athlete-family begins with building a list of colleges that match the student-athlete’s qualifications and interests, along with the parent’s interests and needs. Make no mistake, this is the starting point from which all activity follows. Without it, all of your work is nothing more than mere guesswork.    

2. Step two in every college recruiting process is to create a personal marketing package for use in broadcasting the student-athlete’s interest to colleges.

Marketing is the dreaded term of many people, however without it, talented athletes go unnoticed and unrecruited. Predictably so, their competitive sports come’s to a premature end while standing on their high school graduation stage. But with an active, engaging, marketing package and mindset, a college sports career becomes many more times likely.

3. Step three requires the student-athlete to collect the contact information of the coaches from the colleges on their college list

This is a simple task, yet one that few athletes will ever do, thus creating your advantage in doing so. It requires organization and a bit of effort to go on their websites for identifying the coach’s name, email, and phone number. But without doing so, your recruiting effort and likely outcome will fall short.

4. Step four requires the student-athlete to contact and connect with the coaches from the colleges on their college list. We call this “target marketing.”

Contact means to begin communications by sending their personal marketing package by email. Connect means to begin building a personal relationship by placing a call to the coach, the head coach at that. Herein lies the barrier for the majority of high school athletes and their parents. It’s not hard to send out an initial email, although few do it. What’s harder is the diligent effort that must follow. 

Too many athlete-families send out a single email in hopes that it triggers extensive interest. But that doesn’t work. Rather, it takes several follow-up emails along with phone calls to make the real connection. Very few athletes will go to that extent, but the ones who do will create substantial advantage over all others. Where most people see this barrier as being a 50’ concrete wall, I see it as being a mere one foot step to get over. It’s the perception of this great big prohibitive wall that stops talented and qualified student-athletes from continuing their sport in college.

The ultimate goal in taking these steps is to connect with college coaches in a meaningful way beyond casual emails and camp invitations. For those who do, playing college sports becomes much more within their reach. Once the relationship is established, everything will progress as necessary leading to step ten, planning for evaluations. Otherwise, athlete-families will be left to the hope, wait, and wish strategy; leading them down a frustrating, dead-end path and disappointing outcomes.

The college recruiting process rewards proactive involvement and a commitment to performing tasks that most young people don’t like doing. But transforming these tasks into routine habits will establish your advantage for becoming a collegiate athlete. I guarantee it!

Hans

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

On a winter afternoon in February, the mail arrives to mom’s anticipation. She goes out to check it and finds three letters with college letterhead on the envelope. To the thrill of the family, she yells out “The college admissions letters have arrived, everyone come look!” The family circles around her, she hands them off to her child, the applicant, and says, “Here we go, let’s open them up.”

Denied…

Denied…

Deferred…

To the astonishment and utter disappointment of all, they gently put the papers down and everyone moves back to their previous place. “How can that be?” the mother utters in quiet dismay to the father. “That makes no sense at all. I wonder if there’s been a mistake.” Yes, several mistakes in fact.

Turn back the clock to that mid-month day in November, when mom said, “It’s time to get your applications going. Let’s open up the Common App.” A couple of weeks later, six applications were randomly submitted, casually prepared, a last minute essay written and attached, briefly considered supplemental questions answered, and off they went into cyberspace, to land one day upon a person’s computer for review. Predictably so, denials and defers came rolling in. Why would one expect anything different?

October comes around each year, then November, then December. For high school seniors across the land, they begin to think about submitting college applications and writing a quick essay. They know the applications are due, but the family is busy and application deadlines are months away. So, no hurry. What’s the deadline date they ask? Oh, we have time, so they think. That’s wrong.

Then at their convenience, they go on line, quickly fill out the “regular decision” application, attach their essay and casually hit the “submit” button. Feeling pretty good, they get through the holiday season informing family and friends of their preferred college interests. After all, they met the basic academic requirements for their colleges with a good GPA, a decent SAT or ACT score and a few AP classes taken. However, in most cases they remain unknown to the admission office. As such, they leave it all to chance and put their college future at risk. For too many families, this is the typical approach that often results in needless rejections.  

So let me share some insight here. We’ve identified the five most common and costly mistakes made by student-families in the college admissions process.

1.  A common mistake of college applicants is that they view their weak application essay as being strong.  

There is a big difference between a good essay and a great essay, between a nice story and a meaningful story, between an essay that captures a reader’s immediate interest and those that don’t capture any interest. That’s why many essays don’t get read past the first two sentences. Don’t get read? That’s right.

Every quality essay has a title and a conclusion, flows from an introduction through to a meaningful conclusion, is written with vivid description, and concludes with a strong statement reflecting probable college success. Quality essays are easy and interesting to read while holding the reader’s attention. Anything otherwise is not good enough and won’t serve the purpose—denied!

2. A common mistake of college applicants is that they submit incomplete applications.

There are a few key areas of an application through which admission officers can quickly determine that a student rushed the application, leaving it incomplete.

First and foremost is the “Additional Information” box found in the Writing component. It is reported to me that this is left blank in over 95% of applications. That’s a big mistake, but it makes for a big benefit to those who enter insightful information. Then there’s the “Activities” section where most people rush through and either enter a couple of activities or list activities that provide little value. Responses to supplemental questions can determine the fate of an application. It is reported to us that many admission officers go right to this area of the application to review the responses. If they lack insight or attention, then it reflects poorly on the applicant—denied!

3.  A common mistake of college applicants is that they fail to connect in a meaningful way with the admissions office.

Welcome to the key driving term in every admissions office- “conversion rate.” The business model of the university runs through the admissions office and is driven by the conversion rate. The conversion rate reflects enrollments as a percentage of acceptances.

The admissions office is run by analytics. The acceptance rate is the number of acceptances as a percentage of applications. The number of acceptances is driven by theconversion rate. Without this being an exact science, the admissions office must rely on conversions of acceptances into enrollments. Otherwise, the college is left with open seats and a significant loss in revenue. Therefore, it is important to connect with the admissions office throughout the process. The admission officers must sense the likelihood of your enrollment if you are granted an acceptance. It’s the big business of college at work. If they don’t believe you will enroll—denied! 

4. A common mistake of college applicants is that they don’t have an application and scholarship strategy.

College is a purchasing-decision, and it should reflect a buy-sell process. In considering that colleges are service providers while families are buyers, it seems that having a proactive, detailed, and knowledge-based strategic plan would be the starting point for everyone. Does anyone buy a house without having a plan and strategy?

Hoping, waiting, and wishing for good news to come in the mail is not the best way to secure good news. Rather, beginning as early as 9th grade, a strategic plan for finding the right college should be in place. An effective strategy results in receiving 6 – 8 acceptances, offering a range of experiences and costs to consider. After all, we’re not talking about buying televisions here, rather, we’re talking about buying a college education and a once-in-a-lifetime college experience. Blindly submitting applications that seem right or that Naviance picked as a match is not a strategy—denied!

5. A common mistake of college applicants is that they fail to protect the integrity of their social media.  

In a recent survey, over 40% of admission counselors acknowledged that they immediately access the applicants Facebook account to look for improprieties that might negate the applicant. Qualifying credentials and a good essay cannot overcome such improprieties. You know what those improprieties are, anything that might upset grandma will likely negatively reflect on an applicant. Let’s face it, if an admissions officer is looking to make a five-minute decision, then Facebook will do it—denied!

Poor planning, inattentiveness, or carelessness can all contribute to application denials. These are all avoidable mistakes over which you have more power and control than you think. Understanding common mistakes and managing the process to avoid pitfalls will make for improved outcome. It seems college logical to me. See how we do it atwww.mycollegelogic.com 

Hans Hanson, Founder and CEO of CollegeLogic