The official e-newsletter of The Equestrian College Advisor.

...excerpted from this week's #highered #CollegeChat on Twitter with athletic recruiting expert @CLDorman of Leonard Andrew Consulting.

From the blog:

We boarded the buses bright and early on Day Two of the Independent Colleges of Indiana tour and soon arrived at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Terre Haute. And though the skies were gray and storms threatened the area, the programs at Rose-Hulman were so fascinating and the students who led us on campus tours so full of information, that no one seemed to notice. Read More

It's official - at some colleges and universities across the nation, students are going to the dogs.

Literally

.

5 Lessons Learned from the College Application Process.

It sounds crazy, but one college counseling expert argues that students should never have a first choice college.

Instead,

he recommends the following

.

The Prior-Prior Year FAFSA and You2015 was a big year – Queen Elizabeth became Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, Pope Francis visited the United States, and the Internet split widely over whether a particular dress was blue or white.For current and prospective college students, 2015 was also a big year financially because, thanks to a restructuring of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), 2015 will count double towards students’ financial awards from their chosen colleges.The BasicsThe term “Prior-Prior Year” refers to a new federal policy that allows families to file a FAFSA utilizing their tax return information from two years ago; the policy launches in October 2016 and will apply to the 2017-18 award year. Thus, a student planning to enroll in the fall of 2017 can file a FAFSA using tax information from 2015. (Current college students will also file using this information for the first time in 2016.)When those same students file for the 2018-19 award year, they will use two years of tax returns: 2015 and 2016. Hence the term “Prior-Prior Year.”What You Need to Know

• Each institution is addressing PPY differently. Families aren’t the only ones grappling with this change to the FAFSA – colleges and universities are changing their operations to adapt to the new calendar this year too. Not all schools will shift as quickly as others so check with your individual colleges to find out how they will work with PPY in 2016-17.

• PPY works to your advantage. The old FAFSA worked against the application process and families because it required hard financial data before taxes were filed, requiring families to file them earlier and often with estimated information. PPY FAFSA will reduce stress on families because they will utilize IRS information already on file and verified. It will also allow them to receive earlier cost information on the colleges they’re considering.

• PPY streamlines the FAFSA filing process. Because it pulls from existing IRS information, the new PPY FAFSA will interface seamlessly with the IRS Data Retrieval Tool online so families can import already-verified tax returns and spend less time crunching numbers and pulling documents to verify information.

2015 was a big year in many ways but many of the changes made to federal student aid programs in the U.S. should have a big impact in both 2016 and 2017 in a positive way. As colleges, counselors, and students align with the new system, future award years should see students more easily able to receive aid to support their educational goals.

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