Alice Kleeman

October Financial Aid Checklist for Seniors

Posted on Thu, 10/11/2012 - 10:37

 

Paying for college is a concern for most families. This is the second installment in a monthly series for seniors on what you should be doing with regard to financial aid, written by college advisor Alice Kleeman. Remember, while in most families it is up to the parents to provide the bulk of the money for college costs to the extent of their ability to pay, it is the student who applies for student aid. Read, save and use these monthly reminders!

 

          *             Check with your high school about the availability of informational sessions on financial aid or      scholarships at your school or in the surrounding community.

          *             Never pay a fee to locate financial aid or scholarship information. Beware of scams. You may see offers of help in obtaining financial aid or scholarships in the mail, on the Web, and in magazines. Some of these are legitimate. Others are not. Avoid any organization or service that either guarantees a reward or charges a fee for completing the FAFSA or applying for or receiving a scholarship. Information on legitimate financial aid and scholarships is easily available at no cost at:

                      • FAFSA

                     • The U.S. Department of Education

                     • College Goal Sunday

Do Sweat the Small Stuff! Part 2

Posted on Tue, 08/07/2012 - 10:10

Today, Alice Kleeman continues her excellent blog post about the "small stuff" that can trip up a college application process. Here are more of the frequently glossed-over college-related tasks that can make a difference:

  • Your name

        Seems like a simple question, right?  But maybe you are Maria Juana Ortiz on your birth certificate, and Maria J. Ortiz at school, MJ to your friends, and Maria Juana Ortiz-Santos to your extended family.  Maybe you think that doesn’t matter.  But when a college is trying to join your SAT or ACT scores to your file; when a financial-aid office is trying to figure out whether the aid application it received belongs to you or someone else; when your diploma and final transcript carry different names -- under those circumstances, the name you provide can cause serious delays in processing important paperwork.  Choose one name for the college process and use it every time. 

        Since the Free Application for Federal Student AID (FAFSA) requires you to use the name on your Social Security card, you might as well use that one across the board.

        •     Application “extras”

DO Sweat the Small Stuff!

Posted on Mon, 08/06/2012 - 08:25

You’ve planned your strategy:  Take challenging classes—check!  Tackle the SAT or ACT and send your scores to colleges—check!  Choose teachers who know you well to write your letters of recommendation—check!  Create a college list and pare it down to a reasonable number—check!  Write that 500-word Common App essay—check!  Create an activities list—check!

Take care of those tasks, and you’ll be at the finish line, right?

Maybe not.  Many students, after tackling the college-related tasks they perceive to be most important, begin to relax and take the “small stuff” less seriously.  But taking the “small stuff” seriously can often make a real difference.

Consider some of the following frequently glossed-over college-related tasks:

•     Written communication

        Do you have a professional e-mail address (or at least one that’s not sketchy) to use when communicating with colleges?  An off-color address can create a questionable impression. 

        Are you prepared to write to college-admission offices in “real English,” not with texting shortcuts or slang?  u better b! 

Who fares best in applying to college?

Posted on Thu, 03/22/2012 - 19:18

Earlier this week, a student from Sequoia High School in Redwood City, California, wrote a column for Patch.com with a refrain familiar to many—a lament for the more carefree days before the pressure and stress of preparing to apply to college seemed to take over her life. "It seems like everything I do, sign up for, and participate in is because it somehow will look good on my college application. I volunteer for just about as much as I can muster. I am trying to find my ‘angle’…" Dearborn wrote. Alice Kleeman, who heads the College and Career Center at Menlo-Atherton High School in neighboring Atherton, California, was struck by the column and emailed us her thoughts. We couldn't have said it better, so we wanted to share her response with you: "It makes me sad when students believe that to be admitted to college they must try to become someone other than who they truly are.

Essay Lab: Word Counts and Krispy Kremes, Some Advice

Posted on Wed, 11/23/2011 - 21:35

We're going to send you off into the Thanksgiving holiday with the following excellent advice about college application essays from Alice Kleeman, a contributor to College Admission and the college advisor at Silicon Valley's Menlo-Atherton High School. Ms. Kleeman knows her way around the personal statement and short answers of the application. She estimates she has read the essays of several hundred students each year for the last eighteen years. The two best?  "There was one about Krispy Kreme donuts and one about a student's job in a hardware store. I like that contrast!" says Kleeman. "Most important thing: The essay is all about you."

Her advice:

•             Respond to the prompt! And if it's a two-part prompt, be sure to respond to both parts.   Example: "Tell us about your world; what impact does your world have on your hopes and dreams?"

•             Don’t hesitate, if you’re working on the Common App 500-word-max essay, to choose “Topic of Your Choice” as your prompt.  That choice may help you respond more naturally and feel less confined to canned topics.

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