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The recent college ruling rains down manna from heaven. Get the details such as: Why the new ruling turns you into a free agent How to earn college financial aid even after you've accepted a college offer The new negotiation rules you have in your...
The recent college ruling rains down manna from heaven. Get the details such as:
Back. In. The Saddle. Welcome to the College Prep Confidential Podcast, Episode 25. And I've gotta tell you, I haven't been this excited since I saw a dirty movie on Showtime as a teenager! My adrenaline is pumping, my mouth is salivating, and my testosterone is raging because of what I'm about to tell you.
So let's not screw around and waste anymore time. This week, episode 25, we must talk about the Seismic Shift, the Government Gift from God for college students, in an episode entitled, Now's The Time...To Stick It In Nice and Deep.
The other day, a massive shockwave hit the nation. If this was an earthquake, it would have registered as a 9.0 on the richter scale, It sent a rumble through the entire college industry. The location: articles like the Wall Street Journal. The date: September 28, 2019. This day will live forever in infamy as the day the scales tipped in favor of the college student. Before I tell you the details of the article, let's discuss the run up to this moment and why this will change your life...
Up until a few years ago, colleges and universities had a monopoly on the system. You'd spend more and more money each year in an arms race to get into a good college, just to put it on your resume to get into a good school. Costs, pressure, and hurdles went up each year to do this.
As technology evolved, students got more of an upper hand with online courses. Colleges still had the mystique and appeal, but more employers were looking at online courses, online colleges, Udemy, boot camps, etc.
Then, the job market transformed. And it suddenly revealed the emperor had no clothes. It revealed how a college degree DID NOT necessarily mean you'll get a good paying job out of college.
Ah, but still, the colleges and universities played games and tried to stifle competition, early decision rules, and lock you into a life of indentured servitude, debt, and NO guarantee of a full-time job after a degree.
And the media continued to spoon feed you that a college degree would be your master key into a high-paying career.
But then... everything changed.
Now, in all fairness, I've been preparing you for this moment.
College bound students and their parents, listen closely...Now is the time to strike. Now's the time to stick it in nice and deep.
What is "it"?
Except we aren't in the prison yard. We're in negotiations for your future. Your higher education. your future career, which, if you play your cards right, is worth lotttttttttts of money.
I want you to understand the value of what I'm about to tell you. I want to squeeze your greed glands so you understand what a massive shift this is...
Close your eyes, if only for a moment, and picture yourself holding a stack of $100 bills. It's a half-inch thick solid of $100 dollar bills. This 1/2 inch adds up to $10,000. Can you picture it? Can you feel it in your hands? How much would an extra $10,000 from college feel like? Pretty damn good, right? So check this out, here's the deal...
The recent ruling, which I'll get to in a moment, creates a paradigm shift. You know what this means. A massive power shift has taken place. And it's shifted in your favor.
Who do I mean by you?
From the Wall Street Journal...
"College counselors and admissions officers from the National Association for College Admission Counseling voted to scrap elements of their ethics code that the Justice Department said stifled competition, under threat of legal action from the federal government.
The changes will now allow schools to offer incentives like extra financial aid for binding early-decision applicants, let them more aggressively pursue new undergraduates who already committed to other schools and recruit as transfer students applicants who were admitted but chose to enroll elsewhere." (end quote)
Ah yes, what a great day. And by the way, this has been a long-time coming. Back in the 1990's, the Federal Government investigated Ivy League colleges for price fixing. They acted like a cartel, setting equivalent financial aid so there would be no competition. So this is nothing new. What's changing is the power shift to student's hands. Now, negotiations and bidding wars can happen all throughout the year.
By the way, for context, the NACAC includes professional school counselors, college access counselors, admission and financial aid officers, and others
More from the WSJ article:
It eliminated a section that discouraged pursuing students after May 1, which stated, “Once students have committed themselves to a college, other colleges must respect that choice and cease recruiting them.”
Cutting that line opens the door for schools to continue dangling more financial-aid packages to woo students who accepted offers elsewhere. That could help students lower their college costs, but could also leave schools struggling to predict enrollment because students could walk away from deposits.
End quote...
"Awwww, cry me a river. The same colleges who for years rigged the system are now crying that students have more negotiating power." By the way, this is huge for you as the student and you as the parent. This means right up until the end of decision time, you can still be fielding offers, negotiating, renegotiating, and sticking the proverbial knife deep in the university bellies until these universities bend to your will.
If you've got good grades, a good essay, and a good profile, colleges will now be bending over backwards to get you and make you happy. You are now the master of your college domain.
Now, the college recruitment market will work like the pro-sports market. It will work like the job market. To the best offer and best bid go the winners. As it should be. The seeming university monopoly will begin to evaporate, and the power shifts back to students and parents. And the people in the NACAC are actually going to have to do some work to pursue, recruit, and give students more money and better treatment.
By the way, in the WSJ article, there' a link to how college use scholarships to lure students away. Well now, they can use this little tactic all year long. Check out this example...
Let’s say you've accepted at a university in December. and in January, a competitor college comes knocking on your door because you added them on your FAFSA forms, and you've made your presence known to them on social media. Here's how this ruling benefits you, the other college, the competitor, can make you offers all throughout the year.
Let's say you liked this other college when you first applied, but maybe their offer wasn't the best. Well now, they can throw more financial aid, more scholarships, more perks your way and continue to do so until you tell them to stop, or until you like the offer. And you know what this means, right? This means if you do take the competitor college up on their offer, the first college you originally accepted has two choices:
Ah, but back to the college admissions conference from the article. Like clockwork, right on cue, the college admission officers are crying in their beer, yet they still will not admit the old way wasn't working. Like this quote:
“My college counseling friends are very nervous about the fact that although the public believes this may give young people more choice, the reality of the matter is young people also need structure, and they really function well under some of these guidelines,” said Angel B. Pérez, vice president for enrollment and student success at Trinity College in Connecticut (and an occasional opinion contributor to Inside Higher Ed). “We're a little nervous about what this actually will mean for students and the public.”
I'm laughing hysterically at the "students need structure" statement. No Angel, students need to get the best offer possible, like pro athletes and the job market. The more money and perks they get up front, the easier their student debt will be paid down. The better job offers they'll get. The faster they can stack money up to the ceiling and live the life they were promised when they went to college.
I mean, listen, you've gotta understand, back in the day, and I'm 43 years old at the time of this recording, but back in the day when I graduated, the Big Story sold to us was, "get a degree from a good college, and you'll get a job which pays pretty well." it's the first step in the American Dream.
Well...guess what...It's not the case anymore. It's not the 90's anymore. And anybody preaching this fairy tale should have their head examined. College doesn't guarantee you a good job anymore. And even if you get a job, the job market has transformed. I'm reading 47% of the job market is now contractors or gig workers. So nothing, nothing at all is guaranteed.
The good news is, with this change, competition will force colleges to up their game. Better financial aid, better facilities, better packages, and better connection to the job market so students can find a career which pays well. Now, the colleges have to run the dog and pony show, and pull out all the stops. It's going to turn into the dating game, where colleges have to woo and woo prospects like a potential mate.
I'll say it again, if you're applying to colleges now or in the next few years, now's the time to strike. Now's the time to stick the proverbial knife in nice and deep. Get while the getting is good. Apply to multiple colleges because it guarantees more competition. And with this new ruling, you'll have more colleges scratching and biting and bending over backwards to recruit you, since they must compete all the way to the end of the application year to ensure you go to their school.
Also, Get your profile out there, get your grades up, connect with various college alumni and or college admission officers up front. So you're profile is front and center.
And listen to this podcast. I'm trying to help you tighten up your social media, maximize financial aid, and secure every advantage possible for applying to college.
This ruling, by the way, was prompted by the Justice Department for antitrust practices. So you've got the government and the world on your side. I want you to picture a stadium filled with people. And you're standing in the middle, applying for colleges. And the entire stadium is chanting your name, over and over again. This is your time...right now. So please, if you listened to nothing else this episode, listen to this. Apply to multiple colleges. Treat this like an academic draft. And you can go first round if you play your cards right and get colleges negotiating against each other.
Oh, what a time to be alive right now if you're applying to be a college student. And it all starts with maximizing your financial aid. I work with a team of certified college prep planners. And they're super power is helping you maximize financial aid.
So what I've done for you, in celebration of this ruling is, reserve a free strategy session with this team of experts. They usually charge $250, but for you, the podcast listener, it's free. And what a perfect time to book in light of this ruling.
So if you're interested in putting more money in your pocket while attending your dream school, go ahead and call 1-800-234-2933 to book your free strategy session. Again, that's 1-800-234-2933. Leave your contact information with my assistant, and mention the free college prep strategy session.
I want to thank you for listening, and congratulations to all of you, the college bound student, the parents of those students, on this recent ruling. I'll see you next episode.
