• For traditional four-year degree applicants, you should apply to 8 colleges — with at least two of them being “safety” schools. The high number will help to ensure that you find the best fit for you academically — and financially. Since aid offers can vary from school to school, it’s a good idea to have as many financial aid award letters to compare as possible.

• The trend among college applications is to do away with the long, personal essay. In order to maximize your 250-500 words, aim to say something about you that isn’t already in your application or transcript. Don’t just rehash your academic record, rather relate a unique attribute or experience that you have had. Remember: Choose your words carefully! This post is about 250 words, so it’s really not that long at all!

• Be aware that some colleges are checking out applicants’ Facebook and Twitter accounts. You don’t have to shut your social networking down altogether during college app season, but use some common sense about what you put out there. If you wouldn’t want your grandmother to see pictures of what you did last weekend, then you shouldn’t want your college admissions counselor to see it either!

How are your college apps going? Any pearls of wisdom to share with your fellow Financial Aid Finder reader? (Here’s more from us on college admission.)

It’s a good idea to schedule your trips to a wide variety of campuses — large and small, urban and suburban, private liberal arts colleges and public research institutions. The more places you visit, the better you will be able to assess what you really want in a college or university.

As you plan your college visit schedule, you may not be sure what to expect. Here are five tips for making the most out of your college visits.

1. Take the Guided Tour
When you call the Admissions Office to set up your campus visit, be sure to schedule a guided tour of the campus. Typically, these tours are led by an undergraduate volunteer, who takes groups of students and parents through the main parts of the campus. You will see the major buildings, including the library, campus center and academic buildings, visit a dorm room and maybe even pop in a dining hall. All the while, you will be hearing about campus life, academic requirements, and university history.

2. Meet with the Office of Financial Aid
If you plan to apply for financial aid, it’s a good idea to schedule a meeting with a financial aid counselor. Be sure to ask about financial aid application deadlines and any special scholarship opportunities you might be eligible for.  It’s also just a good idea to have a name and number of someone in the financial aid with whom you can speak about any questions or problems that come up in the future.

3. Sit In on a Class
Whether you know what you want to major in or not, it’s probably a good idea to sit in on a freshman class — especially if you can choose one you might want to take yourself. Are classes taught by professors or by graduate students? Does that matter to you? How many students are in the class? If it’s a large lecture hall, does the instructor engage the students despite the class size? Yes, this is only one class from one teacher, but the experience might be helpful to you in gauging whether or not the teaching dynamic is a good fit.

4. Spend the Night
If you are planning to live on campus, you might want to schedule an overnight visit for the top two or three colleges on your list. (It might be worthwhile to wait until you have received your acceptance letters and then schedule your overnight.) Staying in the residence halls will not only show you what dorm living is like, it will also teach you a lot about campus life in general. Be sure to ask your hosts questions about the pros and cons of living on campus vs. off campus, the differences between coed vs. single gender dormitories, etc.

5. Eat a meal
Visit a dining hall or the campus center, and share a meal with a college student. Again, you will not only see what the food is like on campus (which may, or may not, be an important factor for you), but you will also get a sense of how students interact with each other. Be sure to take the opportunity to ask your host about life on campus beyond the meal plan: What do they think of the classes? Do they like their professors — and what do they like about them? Are they glad they chose this school and why?

What tips do you have for making the most of your campus visits? Share your thoughts in the comments section!

(And, if you need even more help with getting organized, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for the Fall Action Plan for High School Seniors coming in September!)

1. Take the ACT or SAT
Hopefully you already did this last spring, but if not, there is still time. Sign up now, and start studying. The next SAT test is October 10, 2009, but you must register by September 9. The next ACT test is September 12, with a registration deadline of August 7.  If you’re not sure which test to take (or whether you need to take both of them), check out Kaplan for a good run down on the ACT vs. SAT.

2. Make a list of colleges
Even if you already know where you want to go to college, it’s a good idea to keep your options open — at least until you have an acceptance letter (and a financial aid award letter) in hand. Start with a 15-20 possibilities, and be sure to include a number of different types of schools — small liberal arts, large research universities, private and public schools, local and long-distance options as well. Request application packets from the schools on your list and review the requirements for admission.

3. Set up college visits.
Get a feel for the different schools on your list by visiting as many of them in person as possible. Don’t rely on your best friend’s opinion — or your impression of the school’s website. The best way to know if you jibe with a particular college is by being there, in the flesh.

4. Prepare for AP Exams
Scoring well on AP exams is an easy way to receive advanced placement — which can save you a bundle by letting you graduate a semester or more early. (For more on how AP classes can help you to save money, see this article on 7 Creative Ways to Pay for College). The summer is the perfect time to start studying for your AP exams.

5. Review your resume & fill in any gaps
University admission offices are interested in your academic achievements, but they also want to know what kind of person you are. One way to assess this is by the activities you are involved in. Consider volunteering this summer or next fall, or explore some new extra curricular activities.

6. Research scholarships and grants
Unless if you have an extremely well-padded 529 Savings Plan for college, financial aid will likely be an important factor in your choice of school. Don’t plan to rely just on federal and university aid, however. Take charge of your own destiny by applying for as many scholarships and private grants as possible. You can learn more about scholarships for the Finder’s new Student Scholarship Search and our weekly Scholarship Announcement post every Friday.

Tell me, what are you doing this summer to get ready for college in 2010?

• Essential FAFSA Documents
• FAFSA PIN
• Common FAFSA Mistakes

And remember that next week, I will be answering your FAFSA questions, so send ‘em in to me on email or leave me a comment with your queries.

Today, I am focusing on FAFSA deadlines. You would think that with something like a deadline, this post would be pretty short. But the reality is, when it comes to the FAFSA, deadlines are anything but cut and dry.

Let’s start with the obvious. The federal deadline for FAFSA on the Web applications is midnight Central Daylight time, June 30, 2009.

But June 30th is far from the end of the story and here’s why: Although the FAFSA is the form you fill out to receive *federal* student aid (student loans, grants, work study), it is also your key to state aid and some private scholarships as well.  Which means that you need to know when your state deadline is, as well as when your school requires you to have filed your FAFSA plus any scholarship that you want to apply for that requires the FAFSA.

The first step in figuring out your specific deadline requirement is to call your college’s office of financial aid. Just ask them what their deadline is — and, while you’re at, what the state deadline is.

You can also check out this list of state deadlines (scroll half way down the page) from the FAFSA website. The deadline for some states, like Connecticut, have unfortunately already passed. But most states have March – May deadlines, so you still have some time.

** Please note that if you live in one of the following states, your deadline is Sunday, March 1st.  I think I know what you will be doing this weekend!

Arizona
Idaho
Maryland
Michigan
Montana
New Jersey
Rhode Island
Tennessee
West Virginia

The First Rule of Financial Aid is to apply! It should be rule number two and three as well, it’s that important.

Why is it so important? Because you will never know how much money you can receive until you apply, if you don’t apply you are guaranteed nothing. This may seem quite obvious but a recent article in the WTOP (Capital News) has shown that lower income earning families are not applying for federal aid.

The FAFSA can be a pain to fill out but think of how much more of a pain trying to juggle all your debt will be down the road. Federal aid comprises the bulk of financial aid so filling out the FAFSA is a good idea. The form is now online and the FAFSA website can be read in both Spanish and English. In addition there is information that will help you to fill the thing out.

The WTOP article brought up another good point: don’t wait until the deadline has passed. This may seem like common sense but there are a lot of people that wait until the deadline has passed and then apply. When their bill comes around they are surprised at the amount but since the deadline passed they really never applied, pay attention to those due dates!

Don’t let the sticker price scare you off and if your reading this article your on the right path to find money for school. But make sure you apply for aid at every kind of school, whether it be private, public, community or trade get your application for aid in and try to do it as early in the game as you can.

Student Financial Aid >>>

Throughout most of the application process the potential student is courting the college but as a recent article in the New York Times points out, when decision making time approaches the roles are reversed.

Some schools will lay on the charm extra thick to entice students to choose their acceptance. Personal e-mails, letters, phone calls from Professors, small receptions are all just a few examples of how the college will court their acceptees. According to some college admission staff high quality students have more options to choose from because they are applying to more schools, therefore to them it is increasingly important to lay it on thick.

I don’t know about you but I missed the boat when it came to personal invites to sail on the dean of admissions yacht before I made my decision on where I ended up. But if it had happened I’m pretty sure I would have based my decision on which school was going to cost the least.

It’s a tough time to be applying for college these days. Not only are college tuition rising but the number of applicants are increasing in droves while the number of spots for admittance are staying the same.

This translates into lower admission rates and a sharp increase in competition. Enter the new college counselor or the Independent College Consultants.

College Consultants are offering their services to parents and their high school students to help these kids get an edge over the competition. The consultants look at scores, admission rates, geographic representation, extra curriculum and diversity factors to determine which colleges need the kind of students their clients represent.

The college consultants spend quality time with their clients but it comes at a hefty price. Enough research and time can accomplish the same thing for any student or parent who really does their homework but many parents and student s claim that paying someone else to do this time consuming research is worth the large sum the consultants charge.

Contact your local high school college counselor for information on where to find a college consultant or perform a search on google or your favorite search engine.

• Brown University
• Columbia University
• Cornell University
• Dartmouth University
• Harvard University
• Princeton University
• University of Pennsylvania
• Yale University

Don’t automatically rule these schools out by presuming they are out of your league. Many of these schools offer a great multitude of scholarships and are often very good at offering financial aid as a means to “diversify” their students. The rule of thumb is you never know until you apply!

The first thing to remember is that you are not alone. Students have been dealing with this reality for a long time.

Do not assume that you won’t qualify for aid since your parents earn over the eligibility mark. Always fill out the FAFSA no matter what. You may qualify for a Stafford Loan. It will be more difficult to try to get a large loan as a student but federal loans like the Stafford will help.

Try making your case to the financial aid office of your choice. This does not always help but it is worth a shot. At the very least they deal with students in your situation all the time and will have some helpful advice.

Don’t forget to scour for scholarships and grants as they do not need to be paid back. Most importantly get your information in as early as possible. Money for college is not infinite and the early bird does get the worm!

Remember there are plenty of college graduates that earned their degree without the financial support of their parents so you know it is possible. Please use our website to do some important research on how to get your financial aid for college.