Preparing for College Night
Rancho Santa Margarita Intermediate School Theater
Rancho Santa Margarita,
March, 11 2010
7:00 - 9 :00 p.m.

Secrets of College Admission
Lake Hills Clubhouse
15230 Lake Hills Blvd Bellevue, WA 98007 [ map ]
Sunday, April 25th
5 - 6 p.m.
No matter where you are applying to college, there are always things you can do to improve your chances of admission. Join us to learn some of the strategies we’ve shared to help nearly 3,000 students in our Collegewise programs get accepted to college.

Secrets of College Admission
Lake Hills Clubhouse
15230 Lake Hills Blvd Bellevue, WA 98007 [ map ]
Tuesday, March 23rd
7 - 8 p.m.
No matter where you are applying to college, there are always things you can do to improve your chances of admission. Join us to learn some of the strategies we’ve shared to help nearly 3,000 students in our Collegewise programs get accepted to college.

Financial Aid Seminar
Warmer Library
121 North Broadway Tarrytown, NY 10591 [ map ]
February 25, 2010
7:00 - 8:00PM
The cost of a four-year private college education is surpassing $200,000 at some colleges! This is enough to make even the most affluent families worry. Even the better-known public schools have been raising their tuition to the point that it costs an out-of-state student about $43,000 a year to attend the University of Michigan. Meanwhile, stagnating university endowments and cuts to the education budgets of state governments have created a crisis in education. Some colleges have had to slash their budgets and lay off professors. And even when you factor in the new educational tax benefits, the financial aid available per student has shrunk as rising tuition and a down economy have forced more and more parents to apply for aid. This is not a seminar about how to beat the financial aid system and get more money than you qualify for. One of the things we learned in our research on this topic is that the financial aid offices are a lot like the government during tax time. They will pay out what you deserve, but they’re not naïve. They will make sure they protect the colleges’ assets, and we’ve seen no evidence that you can pull a financial fast one on the FAO (financial aid office). Nevertheless, our goal with this seminar is to give you a working education with how the financial aid offices at colleges ‘round the country decide on what your family may or may not be “awarded.” This is our newest and most popular seminar!

Financial Aid Seminar
Ossining Public Library
53 Croton Avenue Ossining, NY 10562 [ map ]
February 9, 2010
7:00 - 8:00PM
The cost of a four-year private college education is surpassing $200,000 at some colleges! This is enough to make even the most affluent families worry. Even the better-known public schools have been raising their tuition to the point that it costs an out-of-state student about $43,000 a year to attend the University of Michigan. Meanwhile, stagnating university endowments and cuts to the education budgets of state governments have created a crisis in education. Some colleges have had to slash their budgets and lay off professors. And even when you factor in the new educational tax benefits, the financial aid available per student has shrunk as rising tuition and a down economy have forced more and more parents to apply for aid. This is not a seminar about how to beat the financial aid system and get more money than you qualify for. One of the things we learned in our research on this topic is that the financial aid offices are a lot like the government during tax time. They will pay out what you deserve, but they’re not naïve. They will make sure they protect the colleges’ assets, and we’ve seen no evidence that you can pull a financial fast one on the FAO (financial aid office). Nevertheless, our goal with this seminar is to give you a working education with how the financial aid offices at colleges ‘round the country decide on what your family may or may not be “awarded.” This is our newest and most popular seminar!

College Admission 201: Admission to the Most Selective Colleges
Chappaqua Library
195 South Greeley Avenue Chappaqua, NY 10514 [ map ]
February 11, 2010
7:30 - 8:30PM
Have you ever wondered what it really takes to get into a school like Harvard? While this seminar alone will not get any student into Harvard (if it could, we’d need a LOT more seats), we will tell you how schools like Harvard, Stanford, Yale and the rest of the nation’s most selective colleges make decisions from pools full of the most qualified applicants. We’ll explain what those admitted students do to set themselves apart from the rest of the applicant pool, and we’ll reveal some specific Collegewise strategies to improve a student’s chances of admission. Of course, it wouldn’t be very Collegewise of us not to remind you that we don’t think the most selective schools are necessarily the best for everyone. But they are the right choices for some students (and a few of us even went to some of those schools ourselves), and we think this seminar can help our students make better college planning decisions.

How to make College Admissions Stress Free
White Plains Public Library
100 Martine Avenue White Plains, NY 10601 [ map ]
March 17, 2010
7:00 - 8:00PM
We want our Collegewise families to ultimately look back on the college application process as a positive experience, one in which parents didn’t have to nag kids, perfect applications were turned in early, and students were excited about the college they finally left home to attend. If you’d like to have that experience (and hey, who wouldn’t?), attending this seminar is the best first step your family can take. You’ll learn what your family can do now to enjoy a smooth application season this fall, how to get the most benefit from your work with Collegewise, and how to avoid common mistakes some families make. After helping over 2,000 kids apply to college, the most consistent positive feedback we get from families is that we helped them enjoy the process with their kids. We’d like to do the same for you and we hope your family can join us at this seminar to take the first step.

College Admissions 101 (for those of you who missed the first one)
White Plains Public Library
100 Martine Avenue White Plains, NY 10601 [ map ]
March 3, 2010
7:00 - 8:00PM
A lot of the information families hear from friends about getting into college is just plain wrong. So with the help of our Collegewise counselors who worked in admissions, we created this seminar to answer the question, “What are colleges really looking for?” Are grades, test scores and activities all equally important? What other factors are considered during the admissions process? And is it true that having a connection to someone can get you in? We’ll talk about all of those things, take you behind the scenes of the admissions offices, and show you exactly how college admissions really works. You’ll come away from this seminar feeling even more confident about the college planning choices your student is making. We should warn you that you might also come away from this seminar feeling smugly superior to all those friends who gave you bad information in the first place, but we think that’s a risk worth taking to become a college admissions expert.

The College Search
White Plains Public Library
100 Martine Avenue White Plains, NY 10601 [ map ]
February 17, 2010
7:00 - 8:00PM
Nothing is more important in the college process than finding the right schools, and this seminar is the perfect first step to ultimately finding the right college where a student will be happy and successful. We’ll discuss the many factors that need to be considered when evaluating colleges, like size, location and majors. We’ll recommend which factors deserve more consideration than others. And we’ll discuss how to visit colleges, a college planning ritual that sounds easy but, if left unchecked, can be almost as stressful as full contact karate. Families who attend this seminar are usually able to better identify and describe what they’re looking for in colleges, which helps your Collegewise counselor make the most appropriate college suggestions.

What Frosh & Sophs Need to Know about College Admissions
White Plains Public Library
100 Martine Avenue White Plains, NY 10601 [ map ]
February 3, 2010
7:00 - 8:00PM
One of our Collegewise seniors once told us, “When I started coming to Collegewise as a freshman, I had absolutely no idea why my parents were sending me here.” That’s not uncommon. To a lot of freshmen and sophomores, things like the SAT, college essays, and applications seem a lifetime away. But there are other aspects of college planning that are important today. So we created this seminar to help freshmen and sophomores understand how what they are doing today—like participating in their classes, getting involved in activities, and developing good habits, will help them be more successful when they eventually apply to college. And once we help younger students focus on what’s really important, they can then divert their attention to more pressing matters, like learning to drive.

Planning College Visits
White Plains Public Library
100 Martine Avenue White Plains, NY 10601 [ map ]
January 20, 2010
7:00 - 8:00PM

College Admissions 101
White Plains Public Library
100 Martine Avenue White Plains, NY 10601 [ map ]
January 6, 2010
7:00 - 8:00PM
A lot of the information families hear from friends about getting into college is just plain wrong. So with the help of our Collegewise counselors who worked in admissions, we created this seminar to answer the question, “What are colleges really looking for?” Are grades, test scores and activities all equally important? What other factors are considered during the admissions process? And is it true that having a connection to someone can get you in? We’ll talk about all of those things, take you behind the scenes of the admissions offices, and show you exactly how college admissions really works. You’ll come away from this seminar feeling even more confident about the college planning choices your student is making. We should warn you that you might also come away from this seminar feeling smugly superior to all those friends who gave you bad information in the first place, but we think that’s a risk worth taking to become a college admissions expert.

College Admissions 101
John C. Hart Public Library
1130 Main Street Shrub Oak, NY 10588 [ map ]
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
7:00 - 8:00PM
It seems like all the news you hear today about college admissions is bad news, like unless a student has a perfect GPA, 4,000 hours of community service and tremor-free hands that can do brain surgery, she won’t be admitted anywhere. We’re overstating it (a bit), but this kind of misinformation is making the college admissions process a lot more stressful for kids and parents than it needs to be. Attending College Admissions 101, our seminar for freshman, sophomore and junior families, will help you separate fact and fiction and enjoy the process a little more. We’ll discuss grades, test scores, activities, and everything else colleges evaluate. You’ll get straight answers about what college admissions committees really look for and how they ultimately decide who gets in. And we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to learn that kids don’t have to be tri-lingual, opera-singing rocket scientists to get into college today. Reserve your spaces today by emailing nyinfo@collegewise.com or calling us at (914) 285-8495.

What Freshmen & Sophomores Should Know About College Admissions (Freshmen and Sophomores & their par
Ossining Public Library
53 Croton Avenue Ossining, NY 10562 [ map ]
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
7:00 - 8:00PM
One of our Collegewise seniors once told us, “When I started coming to Collegewise as a freshman, I had absolutely no idea why my parents were sending me here.” That’s not uncommon. To a lot of freshmen and sophomores, things like the SAT, college essays, and applications seem a lifetime away. But there are other aspects of college planning that are important today. So we created this seminar to help freshmen and sophomores understand how what they are doing today—like participating in their classes, getting involved in activities, and developing good habits, will help them be more successful when they eventually apply to college. And once we help younger students focus on what’s really important, they can then divert their attention to more pressing matters, like learning to drive. Reserve your spaces today by emailing nyinfo@collegewise.com or calling us at (914) 285-8495.

College Financial Aid and Alternatives
Croton Free Library
171 Cleveland Drive Croton on Hudson, NY 10520 [ map ]
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
7:30-8:30PM
Reserve your space by calling 914-271-6612.

NEW! Financial Aid Seminar
Ossining Public Library
53 Croton Avenue Ossining, NY 10562 [ map ]
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
7:00 - 8:00PM
ATTENDANCE IS LIMITED TO 40 PEOPLE ONLY FOR THIS EVENT. Reserve you spaces today by emailing nyinfo@collegewise.com or calling us at (914) 285-8495.

If you would like Collegewise to speak to your organization or high school, please CONTACT US to schedule one of our speakers.