No Lie—It’s Washington’s Birthday

Today is George Washington’s birthday.  And for those of us located a few short steps from Mount Vernon and our nation’s capital, the date holds a special place on the calendar. 

Along with Lincoln’s birthday on February 12th, February 22nd used to be a federal holiday and a day off from school. Until the creation of a more generic “Presidents’ Day” in 1971, the shortest month of the year was distinguished by having two full vacation days honoring presidents.

In the past, DC celebrated Washington’s Birthday with the best sales of the year. Long lines formed early in the morning at Hecht’s and Woodward & Lothrop, where you could pick-up an appliance, a rug, or last season’s fashions for a song.  Somehow the Presidents’ Day "cyber" sales don’t seem the same.

Before February 22^nd became just another day, school children prepared for the holiday by cutting out presidential silhouettes and reading stories extolling Washington’s honesty and heroism. And area bakeries featured cherry pies in honor of Washington’s famous encounter with a cherry tree.

Unfortunately, little remains of the original celebrations except in one corner of the city where Washington is celebrated as both namesake and mascot. 

In 1904, the Columbian University became what is now known as The George Washington University. School colors were changed from orange and blue to buff and blue to honor the uniform George Washington wore when he resigned as Commander-In-Chief of the Continental Army on December 23, 1783.

Tonight (weather permitting), the students at George Washington University will mark Washington’s Birthday with a bonfire. This longstanding tradition draws hundreds to GW’s University Yard and includes a ceremonial procession, lighting of the bonfire, colonial-era music, hot drinks, and an opportunity to roast marshmallows for s’mores.

But in an ironic twist of history, American University probably owes more to George Washington than GW. According to Kenneth Davis, author of Don’t Know Much about George Washington, our first president never attended college and regretted it his entire life. As a result, one of his pet projects was to establish a university in the capital that would be open to all American citizens, so that none would be denied a college education as he had been. Although Washington never lived to see his dream come true, American University was founded as a direct result of his efforts.

So as you reach for a slice of cherry pie, remember that two local universities have reason to celebrate Washington’s Birthday—one owing its founding and the other its name to our first president.

The Common Application welcomes 39 new Colleges and Universities for 2013-14

VCU will be joining the Common App for 2013-14

The Common Application (CA) announced today that 39 new colleges and universities will be coming on board for 2013-14, bringing the total number of institutions accepting the association’s standardized online application to 527.

With the addition of the new members, use of the Common App will span 47 states and the District of Columbia as well as seven countries outside of the U.S.

And a number of large public institutions are among the new members including Georgia Tech, Purdue, Temple University, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Colorado at Boulder, the University of Oklahoma, the University of New Hampshire, and Virginia Commonwealth University.  

Based on previous application numbers, these colleges alone represent nearly 132,000 additional applicants for the growing Common App system.

Membership in the association is open to undergraduate colleges and universities that are accredited by a regional accrediting association and are nonprofit members in good standing of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC). All members must agree to promote college access by evaluating students using a “holistic” selection process.

This year, the next generation Common Application Online (CA4) is set to launch on August 1, 2013, with a number of new features designed to enhance the application process for hundreds of thousands of high school seniors applying to college for the first time. 

To date, 670,979 students have registered with the Common App—a ten percent increase over this time last year. And 72 percent of these applicants attend public schools.

With the addition of VCU and Mary Baldwin College,  local Common Application members include American, Christopher Newport, George Washington, Catholic, Johns Hopkins, Goucher, Hood, Howard, Loyola University of Maryland, Salisbury, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Stevenson, the College of William and Mary, Mary Washington, UMBC, St. John’s of Maryland, UVa, Towson University, the University of Richmond, Randolph-Macon, and Virginia Wesleyan.

The newest Common Application members are:

• American International College
• California College of the Arts
• Central Connecticut State University
• Chicago State University
• Eastern University
• Felician College
• George Fox University
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• Georgian Court University
• Hawai'i Pacific University
• Kettering University
• King's College London (UK)
• Lexington College
• Mary Baldwin College
• Marywood University
• Mercy College
• Modul University Vienna (Austria)
• Monmouth University
• Newberry College
• Pine Manor College
• Purdue University
• Saint Joseph's College (IN)
• St. John's University
• Sterling College
• Temple University
• Trinity Christian College
• Unity College
• University of Aberdeen (UK)
• University of Birmingham, England (UK)
• University of Bristol (UK)
• University of Cincinnati
• University of Colorado Boulder
• University of Maine at Presque Isle
• University of New Hampshire Manchester
• University of North Carolina Greensboro
• University of Oklahoma
• Virginia Commonwealth University
• William Paterson University of NJ
• William Peace University

The 'Jesuit Excellence Tour' makes a Return Engagement

JET 2012

Midway through a grueling year-round schedule of visits to different regions of the country, representatives from the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) will once again be hosting Jesuit Excellence Tour (JET) College Nights in Baltimore and DC next month.

Popular undergraduate destinations, the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities form the institutional membership of the AJCU. Although each college is separately chartered and entirely autonomous, the schools are bound by a common heritage, vision, and purpose.

Beginning in September, Jesuit Excellence Tours featuring any combination of the 28 Jesuit colleges and universities are scheduled from California to DC. Although daytime activities mainly target parochial high schools, JET College Nights are open to the public.

“These programs are a wonderful way for students and parents to meet representatives from Jesuit colleges and universities across the country,” said Anna Follensbee, senior assistant director of undergraduate admission for Loyola University Maryland. “Though all of our institutions share the Jesuit philosophy of ‘cura personalis’ (care of the whole person), there is a great variety amongst the schools in terms of size, setting, location, and academic and extra-curricular programs."

The Baltimore JET College Night will feature 21 Jesuit colleges at Loyola Blakefield on Monday March 4 (6:30 to 8:00 pm). Twenty-two of the 28 schools will attend the Georgetown Prep College Night scheduled for Thursday, March 7 (7:00 to 9:00 pm) in the Hanley Athletic Center:

• Canisius College, NY
• College of the Holy Cross, MA
• Creighton University, NE
• Fairfield University, CT
• Fordham University, NY
• Georgetown University, DC*
• John Carroll University, OH
• Le Moyne College, NY
• Loyola University Chicago, IL
• Loyola University Maryland, MD
• Loyola University New Orleans, LA
• Marquette University, WI
• Regis University, CO
• Rockhurst University, MO
• Spring Hill College, AL
• St. Joseph’s University, PA
• St. Louis University, MO
• St. Peter’s University, NJ
• University of San Francisco, CA
• University of Scranton, PA
• Wheeling Jesuit University, WV
• Xavier University, OH

* Georgetown Prep JET College Night Only

For students just beginning their college search or those seniors making final enrollment decisions, JET College Nights offer opportunities to connect directly with college admissions representatives and to learn what each school has to offer.

Note that JET College Nights are held in other parts of the country. In fact, the Chicago/Milwaukee JET takes place next week, and tours in Buffalo and Phoenix are scheduled in mid-March. For more information, check directly with any of the 28 AJCU member colleges or visit the JET Facebook page for a schedule of events for the rest of the year.

64 Colleges Claim to meet full Financial Need

University of Richmond

US News & World Report (USNWR) recently released its annual survey of 1,164 colleges and universities claiming to meet 100 percent of financial need for all students.

Up from last year, the list shows how the economy may have affected the ability of some schools to meet the goal like Arkansas State, the University of Southern California, and Washington & Lee University—all of which dropped off the list. And yet, the University of Notre Dame is now on the list after not making the cut last year.

Frankly, there aren’t many institutions wealthy enough to make a commitment to meet the full financial needs of all admitted students. Locally, Georgetown, UVa, and the University of Richmond are among the few.

But as usual, there are strings attached. Most of the colleges appearing on the USNWR list will only guarantee to meet the needs of students who are US citizens and who apply for financial aid before the school’s posted deadline. For many schools, all bets are off if you are foreign, late, or waitlisted.

And as always, the Wizard of Id’s “Golden Rule” applies. In other words, “He who has the gold makes the rules,” so there are varying definitions of need—most of which will NOT match yours.

For example, some colleges provide enough grant money to make up the difference between a family’s federal Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and the school’s total Cost of Attendance (COA). Others calculate their own EFC, using data collected from the CSS PROFILE or other school-based financial aid applications. These more “personalized” formulas may or may not count home equity or other elements of net worth. Under these rules, a student’s level of “need” can vary wildly from college to college.

And how do schools meet full need? That too varies significantly by institution. Some schools provide enough in grants and work-study income to meet a student’s entire need without throwing loans into the mix. Others will offer aid packages that include subsidized student loans.

So it becomes very important for families to review and analyze aid packages to determine the balance between free money or grants that don’t have to be repaid and loans which come due at graduation. The FinAid website has a great award comparison tool for this purpose.

While the list of colleges claiming to be committed to meeting full financial aid might seem appealing, keep in mind that you could end up with lower tuition bills at other institutions when you figure in merit scholarships, residency, and regional tuition breaks. 

Nevertheless, according to US News and World Report, the following is the list of schools meeting full need in the fall of 2011 (the most recent collective data available):

• Alabama:  Amridge University,* Concordia College*
• California: California Institute of Technology, Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Occidental, Pitzer, Pomona, Scripps, Stanford, Thomas Aquinas
• Connecticut: Trinity, Wesleyan, Yale
• DC: Georgetown University
• Georgia: Emory University
• Indiana:  University of Notre Dame
• Iowa: Grinnell College
• Illinois: Northwestern, University of Chicago
• Massachusetts: Amherst, Boston College, College of the Holy Cross, Franklin Olin College of Engineering, Harvard, MIT, Mount Holyoke, Smith, Tufts, Wellesley, Williams
• Maine: Bates, Bowdoin, Colby
• Minnesota: Carleton, Macalester, St. Olaf
• Missouri: Washington University in St. Louis
• North Carolina: Davidson, Duke, University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill
• New Hampshire: Dartmouth College
• New Jersey: Princeton University
• New York: Barnard, Colgate, Columbia University, Cornell, Hamilton, Vassar
• Ohio: Oberlin
• Pennsylvania: Bryn Athyn College of the New Church,* Bryn Mawr, Gettysburg, Haverford, Swarthmore, University of Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island: Brown University
• Tennessee: Vanderbilt
• Texas: Austin College,* Rice University
• Virginia: Richmond, University of Virginia
• Vermont: Middlebury College
• Wisconsin:  Carroll University*

* Did not appear on last year’s list