College Fairs, Admissions Trends, and Getting Loans with Bad Credit

Did you know that tens of thousands of families tune into Getting In: A College Coach Conversation every month? If you’re one of our dedicated listeners, you’re not alone! If you haven’t tuned in before, be sure to check it out—the most recent episode, guest hosted once again by Ian Fisher, was chock full of great information and advice, just like always! Maximizing College Fairs In the first segment Ian was joined by college admissions expert Becky Leichtling to discuss college fairs. These seemingly daunting enterprises can be incredibly useful in your student’s college search process—if you know how to approach them appropriately. In this segment, Becky and Ian discussed which types of students should be utilizing college fairs, the best time to attend a college fair, and how to make your fair visits even more productive. Did you know there’s college fair etiquette? Did you know there’s one office supply all students should bring to a college fair? You’ll have to tune in to find out the answers and why! National Trends in College Admissions In the second segment Ian got trendy with the help of college admissions expert Elyse Krantz, discussing the latest trends in the college admissions landscape. While there aren’t vast seismic shifts in the landscape year after year, there are smaller shifts that are important to understand. For example, as ever, the selective schools are becoming more selective, with more and more students applying “just to give it a shot,” as well as colleges doing more and more recruitment. Elyse shared that many selective schools also used their waitlists differently this year—with so many students applying, colleges are having a harder time predicting yield, so they’ve been putting more students on the waitlist knowing they can always turn to those students if/when they aren’t enrolling at a high enough rate. This meant that many of our College Coach students began hearing about waitlist movement as early as May 3^rd, which is unprecedentedly early. And these are just two of the five major trends the pair discussed! Good Loans with Bad Credit In the final segment, we had good news for parents with bad credit seeking loans, brought to you by college finance expert Kathy Ruby. If you have a high debt-to-income ratio or a FICO score of fair to good, it is still possible to borrow a PLUS loan! And even if a denial remains on your PLUS loan, your student could become eligible for more loans in their name. Kathy also offered up the alternative of working with a loan endorser, someone with better credit than the parent, but a different responsibility for paying back the loan. Tune in to hear the ins-and-outs of each of these solutions. Beth Heaton returns to host our next episode, tackling how a student can evaluate whether or not a college will help them find a job, maximizing the summer college visit, and answering listener finance questions.