Coronavirus Scrambles Admissions & Aid

NPR: "For many schools, March and April are when they send out the bulk of acceptances or denials. Financial aid packages are sent out, too — setting up the options for how to pay. Traditionally, May 1 is 'decision day,' the deadline for students to submit a deposit to hold their spot at a school for the following fall semester. But there's a growing movement this year to shift the deadline back a month, to June 1, to give students and families more time.

"Admissions tests have also been jumbled: Advanced Placement (AP) tests will be given online, without multiple choice questions. The ACT has rescheduled the April 4 test to be given in June because of COVID-19, and the College Board has cancelled the SAT test scheduled for May. For now, the SAT scheduled for June is still on the books. Because of this, a number of schools, including Oregon State and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, have announced they will be test-optional for the class of 2021. Experts wonder whether this might be the beginning of many more schools going test-optional."

"Colleges are also bracing for an influx of adjustments to financial aid packages. For many families, their financial situations are changing.Estimates predict that millions of Americans are filing for unemployment this week. And the amount families thought they'd be able to pay come fall might be different now."

7 Tips for Quarantined Students

None of us wanted or predicted this -- but here we are -- safe at home with so much time on our hands. Here are seven great ways to pass the time, be productive and also get a jump on the college process.

1 - Research colleges on your exploratory list. Check out the websites. Look at the curriculum. Visit department websites of interesting subjects. Review clubs, sports and organizations. Read websites such as College Confidential and College Prep. View YouTube videos. Read student profiles and student and admission blogs. Look at online college newspapers.

2 - Think about how you can be a leader. For example: Is there an online chat group you can start to support your lacrosse team?

3 - Contribute to your community. How can you help your community, your school, your family, your peer group? Writing letters or FaceTime with seniors in nursing homes? Entertaining younger siblings?

4 - Try something new. A free online course in Sanskrit? Yoga? Calligraphy? Ukulele? Learn French? Bake your first seven-layer cake?

5 - Think about your essay. If only the colleges knew __________ about me …

6- Shore up your academics. Did you fall behind on the readings for AP History? Do you need to review the problems you got wrong on your last math test?

7- Practice for standardized tests: The latest testing schedules and updates are available via these links:

https://www.act.org/content/act/en/covid-19.html

https://pages.collegeboard.org/natural-disasters

Stay safe and keep your social distance! :)

The Most Common College Mascots

Banner Society: "America’s most common college mascot genres are Cats (15.9%) and Birds (15.5%), followed in the non-human animal genre by Dogs (6.8%), then Bears and Horses ... The most popular human is a Sword Guy, which includes Spartans, Trojans, Knights, and so on ... The Mid-Atlantic is Bird Country, the South and Midwest are Cat Country ... The Lion, toted as a concept to America from other countries, is a big-city beast, setting up multi-Lion royal courts around New York City, Los Angeles, Boston, and Dallas ... The Southeast has a Tiger Belt thing ... "

"The single most common American college mascot is ... the Eagle. Including the Bald, Golden, Purple, Running, Screaming, and Soaring varieties, I count 91 teams named after Eagles, in addition to Auburn’s War Eagle, Liberty’s Sparky Eagle, and so on ... Second in bird-type names is the Hawk, the leader among all nickname clusters in name variety ... Bird World rounds out with 27 Falcons, 24 Cardinals, 16 Owls, 12 Roadrunners .. nine Ospreys ... eight Blue Jays, six Chickens ... and 13 others ... 41% of all college Dog mascots are Bulldogs." Other dogs include: "10 Huskies, seven Greyhounds, six Coyotes, five Terriers, three Fox variations, two Pointers, two Salukis, and two Retrievers."

"Cowboys/Cowgirls are almost entirely west of the Mississippi ... Loggers, Foresters, and Lumberjacks are mostly Upper Midwest and Northwest. The most common mascot job type, the Explorer (which includes Pioneers, Trailblazers, Mountaineers, etc.) appears all over ... The most common mascot profession is fighters ... This lumps together all Sword Guys (51 Knights, 30 Vikings/Norse/etc., 24 Pirates, 20 Spartans, 20 Trojans, 18 Religious Warriors, 17 Stabby Horse Guys like Lancers and Cavaliers, 12 Scots/Highlanders ... with 33 Warriors, 26 Raiders (often enough distinct from Pirates), 23 Soldiers, and the many other Fighting Type people, including of course the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Ragin’ Cajuns."