​By Amy Johnson
 
It is true that your high school grades and test scores are important factors in the college admissions decision.  However, colleges are looking for more than just smart students to join their campuses.  They want students with strong characters and a commitment to the community.  According to BigFuture, the type of qualities that admissions counselors are looking for include:

• Leadership
• A willingness to take risks
• Initiative
• A sense of social responsibility
• A commitment to service
• Special talents or abilities
• ​
  

You can show your character on your college application by highlighting your extra-curricular activities and summer and after-school jobs.  Keep in mind that the admissions counselors are not looking for quantity, but instead for quality of activities.  The college essay is also a great opportunity to show your character and interests, and to provide more of a narrative than a list of activities can do.  Additionally, if you have the chance to provide letters of recommendation, these can help show your skills and strengths from someone else's perspective.  

Stefanie Niles, Dickinson College Vice President sums it up perfectly.  She says, "Nothing is more important than a high school transcript showing strong academic performance in a solid curriculum. We want to admit students who will persist to college graduation, so knowing that you can do the work starts with a thorough review of high-school performance. The essay also matters; we want to see that you can write, what you write and what we can learn about you. We want to enroll students who will contribute to the life of the campus, so we are eager to see how you have contributed to your high-school community or the community in which you live."

References: 
Big Future: Character Counts
Washington Post:  What College Admissions Counselors Say They Want

By Amy Johnson

Funding college is not a one size fits all proposition. Families need to know how their unique family situation fits into the financial aid process. The EFC Calculator is an Expected Family Contribution (EFC) calculator that takes each family’s unique situation into account to generate a specialized strategy for reducing college costs. Proven effective, families have used these strategies for over twenty years to be pro-active when making financial plans for college. 

By using your unique Expected Family Contribution, you can calculate the net price estimate for your desired university.  The net price for a college is the published price for tuition and fees minus your gift aid (grants and scholarships), but does not include loans for work-study money.  Obtaining your estimated net price is the best indication of how much a particular college will cost you.  

We pulled the Net Price Estimates for three universities in the area, and estimated the Expected Family Contribution for a family with an adjusted gross income of $65,000.  (Other factors are considered like family assets, but we're keeping it simple.)

As you can see from the chart below, Swarthmore College, for example has a published price of $68,876 per year, but this family will be eligible for $39,781 in gift aid and the remainder could be covered by student loans or parent loans.  So, although it appears to be the more expensive school on the surface, it ends up costing less because of their generous financial aid.

You can calculate your own Expected Family Contribution at https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/pay-for-college/paying-your-share/expected-family-contribution-calculator
or, even better, we can use our personalized tools to input your own information and desired schools and do a comparison that is specific to you.

Source for chart:  Guided Path