College Tipsheet

Gary (00:02.518)
Welcome to another episode of Uh-Oh, College. Today's episode is how to best utilize college counselors in your high school. Hi, my name is Gary Stocker. I'm the fiduciary for college students, their families, and even college faculty and staff. And what does that mean? What's a fiduciary? And generally, it's someone who looks out for above and beyond the normal call of duty for other parties.

College presidents are a fiduciary for the colleges, college board of trustee members are fiduciary for that same college, but really students and their families and faculty and staff don't have their own fiduciary. So that's the role that we play. So Uh-Oh College, the podcast, is meant to be kind of a provocative, perspective-changing, yet entertaining look at colleges and all associated with colleges throughout the United States.

We will provide guidance on admissions and finances, enrollment, majors and more. But our most important focus is on the financial health and viability of colleges themselves and the programs and majors in those colleges. And we'll talk about that more in future episodes. And in our role as your fiduciary, we're here to look out for the best interests of the students and their families and even college faculty and staff.

by providing the best source of college financial health and viability information, because some colleges will close, and much, much more. Uh-oh College is primarily for college students and their families, and we use the podcast to provide a balanced source of college-related information.

Instead of the usual one-way hype colleges use to get students to enroll and more, we challenge their messages. We challenge them in an entertaining and provocative way that will provide you, the listener, with a new perspective. You'll learn what is good and what is garbage. And so how do you best utilize high school college counselors? Well, right off the top, know your stuff.

Gary (02:05.174)
Do some of your homework in advance. Whether you're the future college student or a parent, don't go in having no idea. And some things to think about is the type of college. It doesn't really matter where you're from. Is the type of college you want or prefer small or large? Urban or suburban or rural? Is it private or public, maybe for profit? And is it two year or four year college program? Those are the best basic

parameters with which to know your stuff. The next one to talk about is a little bit tougher and that's a college's financial health and that's why we're here. It is a difficult environment for colleges these days. There are too many college seats and not enough students to pay and fill those seats and colleges across the board under varying degrees of financial pressure. And you don't wanna choose a college that is either on the precipice of closing, about to close,

or one that is not going to close, but is so financially strained that they can't provide the type of quality college education that you want, desire, hope for, and deserve from colleges that you're going to. That's why we created the College Viability app and I'll provide links to that in the show notes, but not all colleges are strong. Since 2016, I think not quite one college per month has closed.

Most of those closures are private colleges. Rarely will public colleges close. They may merge and certainly public colleges are in the midst of substantial cutbacks, layoffs, program closures, major closures, those kinds of things. Publics aren't gonna close, but your student, if they wanna be a public relations major, for example, and they choose a college with only five students in public relations, that program may be at risk. And that's one of the things we can help you with.

And I guess the other, the next piece I want to share is really not my own. I'm taking this from others. It recognized that it's not what college your child goes to. The Harvards and Yales and Michigan's and Ohio States and Alabama's and Texas and USC, those big names. It's really about what they do at the college they go to. An argument, a reasonable argument can be made that your really sharp student might.

Gary (04:31.03)
find more and important and impressive niches in a college. It's not Yale, Harvard, Michigan, Ohio State, or the others that I talked about. So it's really what they do, how involved they get. And this again is guidance from many, many others. And it's an important point, I think. And the next one is increasingly noticed and recognize that in almost all cases, a college probably needs your student

more than your student needs any single college. And it goes back to the fact that colleges are under intense pressure, the market is tight, and colleges will do almost anything, including substantial tuition discounts. So good thing for you to get students to go to those colleges. And then the last point I want to talk about kind of ties in with that, and recognize that almost all scholarships, almost all, but not all,

and merit aid, almost all merit aid, are what we call unfunded discounts. Almost all scholarships and almost all merit aid are unfunded discounts. There is no actual transfer of cash from one account to another out of college. So what this means for you is be aggressive in asking for the discounts you need or even you think you deserve for yourself or your child.

But keep in mind that these scholarships and merit aid, these unfunded discounts, they do impact the college's ability to provide a quality education. So if a college has a list price tuition of $20,000, and they'll tell you we're gonna give your student a $15,000 scholarship discount for $5,000, be a little concerned.

That's quite the giveaway just to get a student to enroll. And that $5,000 probably isn't going to cover the costs for that student. So while it's good for the student, just be careful. There's a consequence of accepting such a low ball, high tuition discount offer from colleges. So there's a balance there, but it's one to focus on from your perspective initially, but also to think about the colleges as well. So that's it, another brief episode of O College.

Gary (06:47.486)
We'll continue to work to be your fiduciary for students and their families, college faculty and staff. This is Gary Stocker. Until next time.