Wouldn’t it be great if you were able to go to a college or university website, enter your financial data into a secure calculator and get the real annual cost to you if your son or daughter were admitted to that school?

The new Net Price Calculators (NPC) are supposed to provide that option.

October 29th is the date when all colleges in the United States are required to post calculators on their web sites that provide this type of cost transparency to prospective applicants and their families.

The jury is out on just how effective and accurate these calculators will be, and our research to date justifies those who have expressed serious doubts about this initiative.

This post is split into two parts:

• Results of our research and why parents and planners should treat the NPC’s with extreme caution and diligence.
• An account of the background and history that has led up to this development,                (Essential Background) if you are not fully up to speed with college financial aid basics.

We must also confess that this is not the easiest or most entertaining topic, but it is an essential element to grasp and understand.

Higher Education Act 2008 – Feds To The Rescue?

• The objective is valid.  The current outcome is lacking.

• The goal of the NPC provision was to help families determine how much they will really have to pay.

• For an explanation of how students and families have been confused and disadvantaged by the college admissions and financial aid process see below: Essential Background.

• Under the new system, prospective applicants will now be able to enter financial (and in some cases, academic) data into the NPC on a college website.

• The intent was to provide a method for consumers to get a cost estimate from a college before an application for admission was made.

• The U.S. Department of Education developed a basic NPC template. Other companies also offer NPCs that add more flexibility for the colleges.

• Consequently, consumers are going to find a lack of uniformity among the NPCs they encounter and this will indeed create confusion.

Observations From Our Research Of Over 80 NPCs

• Many families will not know whether or not a college employs tuition revenue management or “financial aid leveraging” wherein students at the top of the admit pool (academically) receive preferential aid packages in order to influence enrollment decisions.
• There are close to 1,000 colleges that employ some form of this practice.  No single net price calculation will flag them.
• Even if you know the college’s policy, you will not know where you stand until you get your award letter.
• We conducted almost 200 calculations using a variety of different NPCs and found only two that truly incorporate the student’s academic record. 
• Even that does not speak to one’s standing within the pool of admitted students.
• It was very concerning to us that each of the calculators we used collected different family data.
• Colleges are permitted to use customized approaches, but without a uniform method, real comparisons among colleges are difficult to make.
• There is no uniform way that colleges are required to display NPC results.
• Finally, there will be serious confusion for divorced and/or separated parents.  Some colleges will require financial data from both biological parents to ultimately determine a financial aid package, but we have not yet seen an NPC that can “run the numbers” for these situations.

Like MSRP Net Cost Is Only Part Of The Story

• The uncertainty with regard to your standing in the pool of admitted students extends to awards made to meet financial need as well as merit scholarships.  While average merit awards are embedded in the college’s average grant aid figure, this is only marginally informative or helpful for any individual applicant.
• Merit scholarships may or may not be part of college’s aid package (a policy issue) and for some colleges any amount assumed is pure speculation.  The NPC’s we researched often include a disclaimer in this regard and note that it will be subject to the judgment of Financial Aid Office or scholarship committee.  That’s comforting.
• Our research of 80 institutions indicated that net price varied by more than $10,000 for the same college depending on the EFC (Expected Family Contribution).  We also found that variations among colleges for the same EFC can also be in the tens of thousands of dollars.
• So you must enter data into the NPC for each school under consideration using the instructions provided on the respective websites.  And, you should run the NPC in subsequent years too.  This will account for changes in TCOA (Total Cost Of Attendance), EFC formulae, family finances and other important data.
• Families should also be aware that timing is a key issue.  Colleges may change their financial aid packages in the spring depending on the applicant pool and the enrollment targets they need in order to achieve net revenue goals.  The aid estimate generated by completing an NPC in the high school senior year may differ from the aid awarded in the spring even with no change in financial data.
• We advise you to print the NPC results from each college website in order to compare the results to the award you actually get.  This will provide some potential leverage at decision time.

Establish Your Financial Comfort Zone

With all of these conditions in mind, when assessing one or comparing a list of candidate colleges it is up to each family to conduct an “affordability review” that determines precisely what you can comfortably handle for a net cost.

• Remember, true net cost is TCOA minus grants and scholarships (money you do not need to repay).
• But you will be offered student and parent loans to cover unmet financial need.

In part three of this series, we will discuss the affordability review and how it can help you evaluate your NPC results  - before you write that first tuition check!

Essential Background

For decades, the financial aid system in the United States has been grounded in three major elements:

• The college’s so-called “sticker price” (Total Cost of Attendance or TCOA)

• The Expected Family Contribution (a calculated value based on a complex formula that allegedly reflects  “family financial strength”, and

• The difference between the TCOA and EFC which is defined as “Need”(or more precisely, a family’s maximum eligibility for financial assistance)

Financial Assistance has always been delivered in two flavors:

• Self Help (Student Loans and Campus Work Study and,
• Gift Aid (grants and scholarships) which do not have to be repaid.

After financial assistance has been subtracted from the TCOA, it is up to each family to find a way to pay the EFC.  It’s the most basic responsibility in paying for a college education.

In a perfect world, each family would pay its EFC and financial assistance would cover the difference between the EFC and the TCOA.  However …

In Most Cases, Confusion Reigns And Families Pay More Than The EFC
At their discretion, colleges often award financial assistance packages that fail to provide all of the aid for which a student is eligible.

There is a myriad of reasons for this practice, but let it suffice to say that most colleges do not provide financial assistance that covers one hundred percent of a student’s financial need.

And even in cases where one hundred percent of need is satisfied, grants and scholarships are combined with substantial portions of self-help.

Unfortunately, awareness of the EFC, its meaning and how to calculate and use it are often obscure to the public until late in high school.  As a result, most families really do not plan and strategize with the EFC like they do about income taxes.

In fact, many financial services professionals will provide financial plans that simply include the time inflated TCOA when “helping” parents plan for college.  Rarely is there any discussion of net price or establishing college savings strategies focused on covering the EFC versus the TCOA.

In and of itself TCOA is not a good metric when looking for the best value or when trying to compare colleges unless you are a well-to-do, full-pay family who has no need of financial assistance.

But what about everybody else?

Our Affordability Review (a major element in our CSGP membership program) is an essential foundation of our college planning approach.  It enables a family to create a clear and realistic vision for a successful college funding campaign.

This is installment number one of our three part series on what goes on behind the curtain in the admissions and financial aid offices at over 1,000 colleges in the United States.

In this article, we discuss the use of enrollment management and financial aid leveraging by colleges who seek to enroll a first year class that can be retained and which can produce optimum revenue for the institution.

It was first explained to us as follows in the 1990’s by a former Dean of Admissions:

• A generation ago, admission into most colleges and universities was a fairly simple, straightforward process.
• Many admissions offices in the seventies and early eighties were headed by former educators with significant experience as teachers and/or counselors.
• Goals that were considered good practice and typical of the times were:

1. To match students to a college, even if it was not at his/her own institution
2. To help all students receive appropriate need-based financial aid

Then there came a “sea change” …

Enrollment Management:  The “Stealth” Game-Changer

During the eighties, college admission operations began shifting from the educational model described above to a new model utilizing a technique called “enrollment management”.

Though enrollment management can be complex and sophisticated in its full-blown form, the concept is pretty simple.

The colleges designate an executive enrollment manager (Dean or Vice President) who oversees both the admissions and financial aid offices. The mission:

• To enhance the college’s ability to achieve targeted numbers of students (new and retained)
• To do so while optimizing net tuition revenue

This seemingly innocuous, unadvertised transition changed the game dramatically for both students and parents.

Uninformed families can be blindsided by the fallout from this transition.

Enrollment management has quietly brought about increasing levels of scrutiny and competition for admission for college applicants and introduced invisible obstacles to financial assistance for parents.

Overcoming these forces to find the “right college” requires families to conduct more thorough research and to exercise due diligence in their decision making.

It is paramount to be aware that enrollment management has become the norm.

And this is not reserved to only the high profile elite private colleges.

For example, flagship state universities in many regions have adopted selective policies that adversely affect outcomes through such unusual phenomena as state lottery scholarships, diversity quotas, and admission into specialized programs such as Honors Colleges.

Diversity here is interpreted in the broadest context:

• Gender
• Geographic
• National origin
• Socio-economic factors
• Racial factors
• Academics
• Artistic and athletic interests

Some enrollment management practices offer as many as five different admission options and deadlines, and each option offers undisclosed advantages and disadvantages.

Counselors & Financial Professionals Need To Grasp This Concept

As if the tactics noted above are not confusing and stressful enough (how is the average hardworking parent or student expected to be expert in this domain?), another key building block of enrollment management is “leveraging.”

Leveraging (AKA enrollment and revenue management) is a statistically driven system designed to help colleges match aid packages to each student’s “price sensitivity.”

In other words, financial aid is leveraged toward willingness to pay vs. calculated financial need. Advocates believe that without leveraging, colleges tend to “overaward” (offering more aid than a student “needs” to decide to enroll), or they may “underaward” (not offer enough thus causing a student to go elsewhere or to not continue through graduation).

Leveraging purports to get each student the “ideal amount of aid” not just to enroll, but also to continue through graduation.

Parents and students who seek admission at colleges that are even moderately selective and that routinely reflect an annual total cost of attendance in excess of $40,000  (and rising 4-6% per year) are especially in need of professional counsel due to these practices.

Flying solo may be “penny-wise” and “pound-foolish”.

How can the average hardworking parent or student be expected to be aware of these practices let alone develop the expertise to function effectively in this domain?  The first step is to get some help and get educated.

Independent college counselors and financial advisers are in pole position to provide this essential service.

Why College Search GamePLAN Membership is Just What You Need

The information presented above came to us in the mid 1990’s,  and we have built our strategies for college search and paying for college with enrollment management in the forefront of our private practice for more than 15 years.

Later this month, CSGP members will have access to a new Special Report unveiling more specific details on leveraging and a plan to manage all of the difficult realities of the enrollment management puzzle.

This is in addition to over 20 other training modules focused on the ins and outs of developing of a comprehensive, win-win, college gameplan.

You can begin a 7 day free trial membership with College Search GamePLAN today.

Next …

In part two of this series, we will share our research and conclusions about the “Net Price Calculators.”  Our findings are based on what we discovered on 80 college websites.  We’ll also explain the relationship (or lack thereof) between the NPC you find on a college web site and that college’s enrollment management strategy.

This month we unveil a special three part series:

College Admissions and Financial Aid Today – The Inside Story

With the impending requirement for colleges and universities to provide net price calculators (also described as net cost calculators), you are not going to want to miss out on this, so keep an eye on your inbox!

In this series, Tom McGrath and I will be covering the topics of :

• Enrollment Management & Financial Aid Leveraging (the “Stealth Game Changer”)
• Ways colleges will comply with the new Federal law that calls for “net price disclosure”
• Our unique college “Affordability Review” and how this tool can help parents of college bound students combat the bewildering forces of enrollment management and net cost calculators (Visit College Search GamePLAN Members for a brief intro)

Recently, the New York Times blogged about the federal requirement to have Net Price/Cost Calculators on college web sites. This article highlights just some of the doubts and concerns regarding this application.

The bottom line is: If you do not understand college enrollment management and affordability, the entire discussion of Net Price/Cost Calculators loses relevancy.

Follow this three part series to gain a clear insight into the way college admissions and financial aid interact.

Part 1 will be released within a few days.  Stay tuned!

The movie, Race to Nowhere is being viewed pretty extensively around the country.

While not commenting on the producers’ agenda or politics, there was an instance that struck my counselor nerve:

The nervous laughter of parents realizing they were viewing their Doppelganger when the issues of the pressure to perform and the difficulty of getting into the college of choice.

When will I get there?

Consider this statement:

Colleges “market” to students, but they don’t “match make”.

The very least a family and student should do is to not allow the college marketers and outside influencers sway the search:

• Understand the implications of academic competitiveness
• Undertake a personal assessment (Myers-Briggs/Campbell/Do What You Are – you choose)
• Think about preferences (location/class size/activities and more)
• Last but not least, the financial requirements and impact on the family and student

And after all that – an actual physical, rather than online visit to the best option schools, if possible.

All this should be done ideally before any applications are made.

These are the bare essentials of our College Search GamePLAN.

What Do Colleges Seek?

This question could lead to a long and complex debate. But this is a true and recent account.

Recently, I met with admissions at a highly selective, technology oriented university in Cambridge, Massachusetts and had my previous advice validated when the counselor told a rising high school frosh that it was admirable that he was researching how to get into the school, but that he shouldn’t forget to “be a kid.”

The student, who loves Math, was asked to describe what he liked to do for fun, “and don’t say math!” and he had some trouble finding an answer.

The message here is that even highly selective schools are looking for students who still take the time to “be a kid” and enjoy life a bit; that they really wish for a varied and balanced community.

Some colleges might say that without blushing. However, our experience tells us that most should keep their fingers crossed behind their backs.

The Scourge Of The “Dream School”

No wonder the kids in the movie think they are racing to “nowhere!”

They can’t seem to get into those highly selective colleges. They keep on hitting dead ends.

Those schools do not want just Valedictorians… they want students who can bring a wide range of experience, knowledge and talent to the campus and enlighten all of the other students around them with their joie de vivre!

Working more than 6 hours a day on homework is no way to enjoy life in high school and it certainly isn’t how one should go through college. What are you really competing for?

Before you say I’m advocating laziness or lack of effort, I will tell you I am not. It is simply that students in their respective “races to nowhere” are “racing” on the wrong track.

College Search With “Blinders”

Students are not racehorses and should not be treated as such.

Why don’t students take the opportunity to explore the wide variety of stellar options for college that exist?

Because many options are completely unknown to them simply because they are being fed the same list of schools, year after year after year.

While the truly profitable exercise of an effective college search (by families and students) seems to appear rarely on the radar.

If high schools, parents, peers (and college marketing programs) continue driving students to look at too few options for college, students can expect to continue to be continually frustrated when they do not gain acceptance.

Effective College Search

This is a game of numbers as well as academic competitiveness and many other factors.

Students (and parents) should understand that there are more than 2,000 four-year colleges in the United States, and many offer tremendous educational opportunities.

There is also a wide range of subjects available, not restricted to a narrow curriculum.

Just because they haven’t heard of a school, does not mean it is not a place where they might thrive. It just means they haven’t been told or haven’t attempted to learn “what they don’t know.” An effective college search is a journey of discovery.

To break down the “competition,” let’s review some basic numbers (Source: USNews):

• The top 10 National Research Universities have roughly 14,000 seats for incoming Freshmen.
• The top 10 National Liberal Arts Colleges have roughly 4,000 seats.
• Top 20 Universities and Liberal Arts Colleges have 32,000 and 11,000, respectively.

Which colleges do the top 5% of the students in high school all apply to? Right! The same colleges in the Top 20!

Since more than 2,000,000 high school seniors applied to college in 2011, that means the Top 5% is roughly 100,000 high school students who are competing against each other for around 53,000 open seats at the Top 20 Universities and Top 20 Colleges (before special programs and legacy applications).

When was the last time you saw someone pour a gallon of liquid into a pint bottle (successfully)?

College Search GamePLAN

The philosophy of the CollegeSearchGamePLAN is to help students and parents challenge the “status quo” and break away from the “received wisdom.”

An effective college search takes into account many aspects of the student and the family. Unfortunately many elements are not taken into account or fall by the wayside.

CSGP aims to bring the family together as a team to ensure the student is empowered by having a range of excellent options, while the family is not put into a difficult or damaging position financially (or even in terms of relationships).

To the extent we can guide students and families away from their personal Races to Nowhere, we will have succeeded.

A financial planner asked us recently why we created the College Search GamePLAN teaching platform for college search, admissions and funding.

Our long time colleague, Tom McGrath had this image in his library, and it provided a clear answer…

We are like the grizzly old guy trying desperately to stop that woodpecker making more and more holes and sinking the ark with all its passengers.

In our case we are trying to help students and families achieve a successful college career while preventing them sinking in an ocean of debt.

The reason old Noah’s having such a hard time swatting that bird is that it is so fast and attacks so many different areas (as you can see).

And that is what we confront when providing college search guidance and planning to families with college bound students, and to financial planners who are responsible for helping families protect their assets.

The college search and financing process creates many challenges and problems. Here are just some of the main ones:

College – Total Cost of Attendance (TCOA)

College affordability is an ever increasing challenge.

Our database now shows 99 schools with a total cost of attendance of $50,000+ per year (and some closer to 60K). There were 8 schools at that level in 2009.

If you are a parent of an elementary or middle school student, what do you think you will be facing a few years from now? Or do you not want to think about it (remember the ostrich with its head in the sand?)?

And if you are a professional with clients that have college bound children, how will you help them confront this financial challenge?

And don’t believe for a moment that there are many schools with much lower costs. Today, very few are in the lower $20,000 range.

Not understanding academic competition

Even excellent students can find themselves on the margins of acceptance at many colleges, and not just because of fierce academic competition. The odds are stacked against them.

Take a look at the following example:

Harvard, Princeton and Yale, certainly three of the most highly selective universities announced that they received a combined 89,345 applications for a paltry 4,286 “open” seats, which implies that only 4.7% of those applicants will enter the Class of 2015.

4.7% is pretty skimpy (it would seem) but, in reality, even this number is inflated.

The fact is that after those schools have accepted their legacy students, international, minority, geographic, athletes, musicians, etc., there are probably fewer than the 4,286 “real” open seats available for the “average” qualified student.

And don’t think for a second that this process is limited to those three icons.

Many excellent students are limiting their opportunities by applying for early admission and/or applying only to their “dream school” (or just going through the motions with regard to back-up applications) …

The result: Many experience the deep disappointment of rejection or being waitlisted (which is pretty close to rejection).

There are many excellent “best fit” colleges out there. You just have to know how to search and identify them.

Flawed college search

Following on from the last topic …

Too many students are choosing a college before understanding their financial options. This is a recipe for disaster – putting families in situations where financial offers from some highly visible colleges, make attending their student’s “Dream School” a financial nightmare.

The myth of “Choose first, pay later” is just that, a myth. It’s imperative for families to learn what their financial options are.

Make sure you have a sound financial strategy in place before beginning the college search.

College drop outs/transfers/late graduation

We have all heard this proverb: “He who fails to plan, plans to fail”

According to which study you read, first year college drop out/transfer rates hover around the 28-33% mark or even higher.

Average graduation rates range from 5 to 6 years (for a four year degree).

With annual college costs ranging from $25,000 to $50,000+, the financial impact is immense.

What leads to transfers, drop outs and late graduation?

A whole range of factors come into play here. But the core lies in lack of planning and lack of awareness of how the college admissions process works.

The frequent result is typically a large financial hole filled with monetary and personal “costs” as well as a number of non-transferable credits left “on the table.”

College Debt

Total student loan debt in the U.S. is expected to reach $1 trillion in 2011. That’s more than the nation’s total credit-card debt.

The college graduates of today, who used loans to pay for college, will graduate with an average of nearly $24,000 in federal direct loans. That’s not even touching upon those who got into the private loan market or parental debt.

See the scary trends compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics here.

Not understanding the college search process
We are only scratching the surface here.

When we drill down deeper into the process, there are many challenges, obstacles and distractions that derail the quest for the right school.

Clearly thought out planning for college with cost, debt, “best fit”, academics and timely graduation is essential. And NOW is the time to start!

Our College Search GamePLAN program guides families (and professionals that have clients with college bound students) through this process in detail, step by step.

We offer a 7-day free trial so you can give it a test drive. Just click here.

As high school Juniors embark on their college searches, what preoccupies them?

Dreamy student (Photo by Julia Freeman-Woolpert)

We know that many large schools use sports programs as an aggressive marketing tool (that should give you some ideas).

And after so many years working with families, we can cite a long list ranging from brand name, class/dorm (co-ed or not) size to location, boyfriend/girlfriend, favorite teacher’s alma mater, even proximity of shopping mall … and on and on. (You would be amazed!).

But we rarely hear any concern about retention and graduation rates.

Retention is the percentage of first-year, full-time students who return to the same institution for their second year of college.

Here is a disturbing fact:

28-33% of students transfer or just drop out of college after their first year.*

With annual college costs ranging from $25,000 to $50,000+, do you really want to be included in this statistic?

For more insight, read our article, The College Search Storm.

What leads to transfers and drop outs?

Typically, the college and the student are a “wrong fit” academically, contextually and/or personally. This in turn leads to an unhappy and underperforming student and a drag on the institution also – A “lose-lose” situation.

The frequent result: A transfer or drop-out of college with money and non-transferable credits left “on the table”.

Do you want to “throw away” money for the “wrong fit?”

There is no absolute guarantee that a student will be happy at college, but a solid college search plan followed by student and parents working as a team can reduce the risk of an unfortunate choice.

Never before could the old adage “a stitch in time saves nine” be more relevant and appropriate.

Watch for the next post on graduation rates!

*According to a newly released study from ACT, Inc., retention rates at 2-year colleges are increasing (up 8.5% to 55.7% since 2004) while they are decreasing at 4-year public colleges (down 3.5% to 67.6% since 2004). Looking at the study, the drop in retention at 4-year private colleges since 2004 is down the same percentage (down 3.5% to 72.4%).

Are you the one being marketed to? Or are you smart enough to know when to dig in and look past the glossy material to discover what’s really going on behind the scenes? In other words, are the “giver” or the “taker” of information?

This cartoon (published by Randall Munroe, http://xkcd.com/773/) shows the obvious disconnect college marketing teams are facing when it comes to presenting what the prospective student (and family) really want to read about.

College Marketing versus Student Needs and Wants

Mark Twain said, “A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.” This statement could easily correlate to people who are inundated by the “expert” opinions from colleges, friends, families, counselors, etc. that are being “pushed” on them, and then they complain when they don’t get the advertised results since they didn’t do their own “homework” to discover what is real and what actually pertains to them.

Take the time to research, read, and talk to the people that will matter when you go to college – the professors, students who are already enrolled, career center and academic advisers, most of all, yourself. After all, you are the student who will be on campus for the next four years. You need to know what you’re getting yourself into and what you want to get out of the experience.

Of course, Twain also said, “Cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education.” How’s that for marketing vegetables?

What does student diversity mean to you?

Do you think colleges and universities feel the same way about diversity on campus?

Living on the East Coast, I had never heard of the group called the Future Farmers of America. Might members of that club help add to the “diversity” of the student body at most colleges? Apparently, some colleges consider that “type” of diversity to be too far out of their (political) spectrum to be admitted to their elite, “diverse” institution.

Institutions of higher learning are generally looking (or at least make the claim), to create a heterogeneous study body to enlighten each other by mixing many minds to produce many voices.

Of course, the reality is far from the hype.

In his essay published in the July 12, 2010 edition of Minding the Campus, Dr. Russell Niely writes that, “in practice ‘diversity’ on campus is largely a code word for the presence of a substantial proportion of those in the “underrepresented” racial minority groups.” Niely refers to new study by Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade and his colleague Alexandria Radford in writing his essay on how diversity punishes students of certain backgrounds more than others. Take a moment to read his interesting commentary.

I joke about it today but even though my grades and test scores from high school fit the range of the school I applied and was accepted to, I believe I was accepted on “let’s take a kid from Vermont” day when the admissions office was looking to fill some “rural” seats in the freshman class.

If there is only one thing that you take away from this post, it is that you need to understand that college admission is not about you (or your student), but rather about “them” (the particular college or university you’re considering applying to).

If you don’t “fit” what they’re looking for, then you’re barking up the wrong tree. Or worse, you get in, but then don’t get enough financial assistance to make it through all four years and become saddled with an insurmountable amount of student debt.

What a terrible way to start off your young life!

When beginning your college search, find schools that are open to giving you an opportunity to build on your competence and intelligence so that you will become successful in whatever you ultimately decide to do… rather than those entities that demand a certain type of credential before allowing a person to progress.

How would you pronounce the object in the photo? With an emphasis on the “UM” or the “BRELLA?”

UM-brella, or um-BRELLA?

I used to think there was only one way. Growing up in Vermont; it was “um-BRELLA.”

Where I went to college, people emphasized the first syllable instead.
I realized that by traveling a little more than a thousand miles from where I grew up, I could find more diversity than by traveling a much shorter distance across the Canadian border to the French-speaking province of Quebec!

I learned about people, politics, geography, the change of seasons, and most of all, myself.

1861-1865 – What does this time in history mean to you?

People across this great nation of ours are at the same time, both very similar and very different from one another. Certain preconceived notions are found in various parts of society in each state of union and I was fortunate enough to experience a variety of them by living in a different part of the country for four years. For example, I had been taught that the war between the states in the 1860′s was called the Civil War. I discovered that others had been informed that it was the War of Northern Aggression. Amazing how different those terms are, that describe the same event.

We all have seen the red and blue of the political maps on television during election season and can see that the two colors present themselves more brightly than the other, in certain areas of the country. Meeting the people that truly believed in a different point of view than mine was a fascinating dose of reality. It made me review and understand my own views with more conviction, and even open my eyes to a point of view opposite of mine.

The mountains of my home state became rolling hills and open valleys as I drove the 20 hours it took to get to school. It was amazing to see the changes in the scenery as I went off to college.

Going to Football Games

I expected the fall to resemble the crisp, dark days of New England after the leaves had fallen and the local football team was on the gridiron. Instead, I found that attending the college games were nothing like anything I had ever experienced. The men wore coat and tie women wore dresses – “Bizzaro World” for a kid from New England who was used to seeing everyone dressed in sweatshirts, jeans, boots, hats and gloves for the games! It was great to go through winter without a single snow flake sticking to the ground! Discovering the trees, plants, and flowers in bloom in March instead of June, was a real treat!

Best of all, spending time away from the community I grew up in, really helped me mature and learn about myself in an environment that did not confine my learning experiences to the boundaries of my youth. My point is that this is the time in a young person’s life to get out, explore, and really push oneself to break free from your comfort zone!