Not easy to navigate college admissions

By LINDA P. CAMPBELL

Here’s a radical notion: How about bringing down college costs by eliminating the tons of glossy-stock, full-color brochures with which schools inundate high school juniors and seniors?

And if universities can’t be persuaded to curb their incessant marketing mailings, how about letting each flier, booklet and pretend-personal letter from Please-Choose-Me College count for a tuition discount if the prospective student enrolls?

I realize that crimping this pipeline could put printers, marketers and postal carriers out of work, but it would save innumerable trees.

When the promos started arriving last year, I decided to keep them organized for easy searching. I alphabetized them in 3-inch-thick three-ring binders, from Amherst and Auburn, to Willamette and Wofford.

Wish I had that time back.

My high school juniors at the time had more immediate concerns than leafing through notebooks filled with random junk mail. And who really wanted to think that far ahead?

Steady flow

This year, the trickle turned to a steady flow and eventually became a torrent. Missives from admissions offices started piling up on the kitchen table, the couch, the counter. They fill two overstuffed paper grocery bags and are stacking up around the house, with several in the mailbox almost every day.

Loyola, University of Chicago, Grinnell, University of Dayton, Washington & Lee, the National Guard, St. Mary’s, Rockhurst, Syracuse, Beloit, Kenyon, Harvard, Alabama and schools you’ve probably never heard of unless you went there. Washington University in St. Louis is prolific. Oral Roberts University even more so, though I confess I tossed most of ORU’s fliers for not-even-over-my-dead-body reasons. Too much scandal and mayhem there. Wrong religion, too.

These and many other universities no doubt try to woo thousands of high schoolers every spring and summer, at what I imagine is considerable cost, even if they do mail bulk rate.

The campuses look lovely, the offerings sound challenging and the students appear industrious and a cross-section of American society. The administrators write encouraging messages. But pretty pictures of smiling faces and “come see us” postcards aren’t particularly effective enticers, if you ask me — especially not those that advertise costs totaling $35,000, $40,000 and $50,000 a year.

Here are a few things I’ve learned about finding the “perfect” college:

Internet searches based on a student’s interests are more likely to pinpoint potential schools they’ll consider than anything that lands in the mailbox. College Web sites have rich reservoirs of information, from admissions requirements to virtual tours. It takes some effort to navigate, but you can find most of what you want, including much of the material they send unsolicited. My son has spent hours studying sites and e-mailing schools he’s considering. My daughter found colleges in New York state to look at by targeting schools that offer fashion design and women’s soccer.

It’s admirable that many more schools are increasing their assistance and even offering free tuition for families of modest income. But most of us still will feel a wallop in the wallet. To find financial aid, start looking early and scan broadly. A number of universities advertise academic scholarships for which students can qualify based on high school grades and scores on the SAT or ACT. Community groups, individual high schools and even private corporations have scholarship competitions, if you know where to look. Of course, some financial aid applications must be submitted separately from admissions applications, so watch for deadlines, deadlines, deadlines.

Someone’s making a lot of money off this college admissions business. It costs $32 to $47 a pop for the SAT and ACT admissions tests, before you start adding fees for subject tests and extra score reports to various universities, change fees, late fees, prep course fees, telephone registration fees, rush fees. You get the idea. Sure, the testing companies provide services, online testing materials and college search help. But, despite what they might tell you, there’s no such thing as “free” here.

Navigating the college search is complicated, time-consuming and still favors those who’ve been there. Yes, school districts, colleges, testing services and others are increasingly reaching out to first-generation college applicants. But the more you learn, the more you realize you need to know. You almost need a college course to make sure you’re doing it right.

X Linda P. Campbell is a columnist and editorial writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.