A new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows that in multiple states, childcare expenses are greater than college tuition…
Tag: Planning
The Middle Class Squeeze
In the last several years, our middle class clients are being confronted by flattening incomes and college costs that have risen over 1000%. More and more families are finding themselves not only planning to pay for college when their children are quite young, but asking for more financial assistance when their children are ready to…
University of California Flagship Cuts Staff
The stress from the continuous reduction in state funding over the last decade has finally come to the University of California’s flagship campus, Cal Berkeley. The Washington Post reported on April 13: a workforce reduction of about 6 percent that comes as the prestigious public flagship is moving to erase a large budget deficit. In…
Texts from a College Admissions Victor
About Karli: She’s a freshman at the University of California Davis, currently studying Biology and Chemistry. Karli is a former Creative Marbles Consultancy client; we advised her as a high school senior through the college admissions process, knowing the pressures she experienced in completing her college applications. In response to a recent New York…
Know the Instructions
Did you know you’re going to be allotted a specific time period for reading during the following Advanced Placement (AP) exams? See below for the specific instructions from the College Board website. AP Exam Reading Periods Eight AP Exams – Biology, English Language and Composition, European History, Latin, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, United States History, and World…
Preparing for Your First College Admissions Interview
Going to your first college admissions interview can be pretty nerve-wracking if you don’t know what know expect. In the following podcast, admissions interview veteran, David Alcalay, shares his first college admissions interview experience, and some tips on how to prepare:
As You Commence…
You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. You can’t get there by bus, only by hard work and risk and by not quite knowing what you’re doing, but what you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover will be yourself. – Alan…
The Complexity of Choosing Colleges
The vastness of the western United States, specifically California, can actually limit our view. Each time I speak with high school juniors about college choices, I hear the aforementioned oxymoron. The diverse geography of California and distance of Northern California to Southern California can entice students to think they’re making a big move away from…
Congrats, Class of 2015?
The Class of 2015’s graduation celebrations may be short-lived. A graduation is often called a commencement, or beginning. So, what can the Class of 2015 expect for their new beginning? 1) The highest average student debt of any graduating class in the last 23 years – $35,000 per student loan borrower. 2) In addition, a…
Internships: The New Entry Level Job
Go to college. Then, get a job. The old adage may have passed its time. Now, the meme may be more like, “Compete to get into college. Go to college; work unpaid internships every semester starting your freshman year, and each summer take more internships, then, hopefully, you’ll get a job by graduation.” According to a…
The Work of Innovation
“…the core skill of an innovator is error recovery not failure avoidance.” – Pixar University’s Randy Nelson Innovators simply tweak a relatively ordinary experience to seem new. Think: Howard Shultz, Starbucks CEO, repackaging coffee (a substance humans have been drinking for thousands of years) building a whole new market. Think: Steve Jobs of Apple, building…
Ahead of the Curve: All About Financing A College Education
Thoughts from the news: Flip Side of Reducing Student Debt Is Increasing the Federal Deficit, New York Times, February 11, 2015—for every benefit, there is a cost Looking At Student Loan Defaults Through a Larger Landscape, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, February 19, 2015—student loan defaults are not only increasing, but also occurring earlier in…
The Perils of Scholarships
To many parents, winning scholarships both rewards academic excellence and various leadership achievements, while subsidizing the total costs of college. Even though many high school seniors also desire the benefits of scholarships, many scholarships remain un-awarded. Understanding the timing of scholarship deadlines may explain why action doesn’t follow good intentions.
Enjoy Childhood
Preparing for college admissions doesn’t have to begin at conception… Cartoon courtesy of The New Yorker
Wait…I Have Student Debt?!?
In a recent survey published by the Brookings Institute, current college students with student debt were unaware of the exact loan amounts, as well as what they’d eventually repay. At $1.2 Trillion and growing daily, total student debt may be more complicated than we, as a society understand. Highlights of the findings are below: At a public four-year…