Admissions Tip: Character Matters

Brennan Barnard: "When it comes to college admission, everyone seems to be watching and according to a recent survey, character counts. This week, the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) and the Character Collaborative released a research brief entitled Character and the Admission Process, which includes results from a survey of trends in college admission. For the first time, the annual survey added a section on the use of character attributes in the application process, and the results highlight what many professionals have known all along: character attributes are a factor in admission."

"Of the 447 respondents to the survey, 26% said character was 'considerably important' and 44% said it was 'moderately important' in admission decisions. The fact that 70% of admission officers deem character to be moderately to considerably important to an applicants’ candidacy should have students’ ears perking up. It reinforces the reality that it matters who they are beyond a grade or test score. Empathy, resilience, integrity, selflessness—these attributes are significant and could be factors that give an applicant the bump they need to land in the admit pile."

"The reality is that in the high stakes environment of college admission, few effective tools currently exist to evaluate these attributes in an application. In the absence of a formal tool, the survey found that admission officers were gleaning character from" personal essays, teacher recommendations, extra-curricular activities and interviews."

Beloit Opens 'Powerhouse' Student Center

Wisconsin State Journal: "There’s a swimming pool, fitness center, 160-seat auditorium, study areas, a cafe and fourth-floor event space for 200 people. An elevated indoor track for walking and running rims the facility while a 17,000-square-foot, glass-enclosed field house with artificial turf is scheduled to open in May. Students centers aren’t supposed to look like this. Neither are decommissioned power plants. But a $38 million collaborative project by Beloit College has used donations from alumni and the community, a gift from Alliant Energy and the inspiration and design work from a world renowned architectural firm to save a piece of this city’s history and create a one-of-a-kind amenity for the school and its 1,100 students."

"Many power plants that have ceased operations end up being razed to make way for public green space. And that was the plan for the former Wisconsin Power & Light steam-powered, coal-fired power plant that since the early 1900s has been a fixture at the bottom of the hill just below the college. The powerhouse stopped generating electricity in 2005 and the facility was shuttered by Alliant in 2010."

"The powerhouse project adds to the continued renaissance of the city but also fills a need for the college that was founded in 1846, two years before Wisconsin achieved statehood. The school has not had a dedicated student union and its field house, home to an indoor track and some fitness equipment, is in a World War II-era airplane hangar but will be demolished after the new field house opens. The Sportscenter, home to the school’s basketball and volleyball facility, will remain."

Financial Aid: How to Compare Offers

The New York Times: "After the college acceptance letter comes the financial aid offer. But beware: The offers are not always easy to decipher, and different colleges often use different jargon for the same types of aid or loans ... A study in 2018 by the New America think tank and uAspire, a nonprofit group that promotes college affordability, examined thousands of award letters and found that not only was the financial aid insufficient for most students, they often used confusing terms. Among the colleges that offered a common type of federal loan, for instance, researchers found more than 100 terms for the loan, including two dozen that didn’t even mention the word 'loan'."

"To compare aid offers, student advocates recommend that you first determine the total cost of attending each college, including 'direct' costs like tuition, fees, on-campus housing and meal plans, and 'indirect' costs like books, supplies, transportation and other expenses. If your aid letter doesn’t include a breakdown of these costs, call the financial aid office, visit the college’s website or try tools on the Education Department’s College Navigator. Next, subtract any 'gift aid,' which includes grants — including federal need-based Pell grants — and scholarships. This will give the 'net' cost to you of attending the school — the amount you will have to come up with from savings, income or borrowing. Calculate this amount for each college."

"In general, an undergraduate can borrow up to $5,500 in federal student loans as a freshman, $6,500 as a sophomore and $7,500 each during the junior and senior years, for a total of $27,000 over four years. (Students can borrow more if they take more than four years to graduate; also, the limits are higher for independent students.) If families need to borrow more, parents can borrow federal PLUS loans, which carry higher interest rates, up to the total cost of attending. Families can also seek private student loans from banks and other lenders, but those loans lack important consumer protections available with federal loans, like the option for payment plans based on the borrower’s income."

"Four-year tuition guarantees, sometimes called 'fixed' tuition, can help families budget for college. They aren’t widespread, but they’re out there, so they are worth asking about. The University of Arizona and the University of Illinois system are among the institutions pledging that freshmen will pay the same tuition rate for their four-year undergraduate degree."