Gone are the photos of Jennie van den Boogaard at the "Rocky Horror Picture Show."
You also won't find any curse words on her Facebook profile page.
"My sister works in advertising, and she is always telling me that colleges will look at my Facebook (page)," said Van den Boogaard, an 18-year-old senior at Satellite High.
Students such as Van den Boogaard, one of FLORIDA TODAY's Verge student journalists, are being more cautious about what they post on social networking Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace in fear of giving college advisers or future employers the wrong impression.
A recent report by Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions found that one out of every 10 admissions officers visits an applicant's social networking Web page as part of the admissions process. The survey was made up of 320 admissions officers from the nation's top colleges and universities. Recruiters and employers also are tapping into the sites to screen prospective hires.
Alison Potter Bell, director of college counseling at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy in Melbourne, encourages students to not only be cautious of what they put online, but also to create an e-mail address that gives a good impression.
"These days 90 percent or more of the college application process is online," Bell said. "Making sure all the potential electronic information a college has access to puts the student in the best light is important."
Bell added: "Having an e-mail address that sounds 'cute' or is trying to make a statement of some sort may not create the best first impression."
She said one student had an e-mail address that read, "ihatecountry@ . . ."
"While he may have been making a statement about country music, if the person reading his online application came upon this and interpreted it differently, it could create an immediate negative impression," Bell said.
A quarter of the college advisers who said they viewed applicants' sites said the posts generally had a positive impact on their evaluation. But 38 percent reported that they came away with a negative impression.
Not every college is peeping. Officials from the University of Central Florida and University of Florida said admission advisers from their schools don't use social networking sites when reviewing students' applications.
"We wouldn't do it because it would be information that would be completely unverifiable," said Pat Herring, director of admissions at University of Florida. "You could never trust any of the information on there."
Still, students are aware of the risk.
"I think we are definitely cautious of what we put online," said Kendall Lightly, an 18-year-old senior at Cocoa Beach Jr./Sr. High School. "I mainly use it to keep in touch with friends who have moved away. If it's something important, I don't put it online."
Some students, though, haven't gotten the message. A review of some Brevard students' Web sites found offensive language, scantily clad girls and boys showing obscene hand gestures.
Although Jimmy McClellan, a Cocoa High senior, said his MySpace page has nothing objectionable on it, he doesn't think it should play a part in his acceptance to college. The 17-year-old student has already been accepted to the University of Central Florida and is waiting to hear from the University of Florida.
"This should not be something that would decide if a student gets accepted in to college," he said. "The Internet and texting is so impersonal, you never know what the true meaning is to some posts, such as sarcasm. Content can be taken the wrong way."
Posts in category Uncategorized
Facebook and MySpace used for College Admission
The Secret Of Enrollment Management – What Private Colleges Don’t Want You To Know About Their Financial Aid Policies!
Secret Of Enrollment Management - What Private Colleges Don’t Want You To
Know About Their Financial Aid Policies!
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of the term, “Enrollment Manager”? If not, then here’s a lesson in college
economics that most parents will never hear about.
management became prominent in the 90′s when private colleges
discovered that they were losing high quality students to public universities
due to “sticker price shock”. Many private colleges suffered from lower
admissions numbers and feared that they would go out of business if they did not
find a better way to pinpoint the high schools and markets where their best
prospects would most likely be found. As a result, they turned to enrollment
managers. In a nutshell, here’s how the enrollment management process works:
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private college hires an enrollment management firm to analyze the college’s
admissions policies, student enrollment patterns, demographics, and diversity.
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enrollment management firm analyzes the college’s revenues and costs to
determine the college’s break-even point, or the number of students the
college needs to recruit and retain in order to cover their necessary
expenses.
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enrollment management firm then adds in the college’s projected new spending
to determine the minimum revenue needed to achieve the college’s
total expenditure goals for the year.
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enrollment management firm then calculates the average EFC (Expected Family
Contribution) per recruited student that is needed in order to meet the
college’s total expenditure goal. This is called the “Target EFC”.
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enrollment management firm then develops a marketing campaign to target
students of academic quality that live in zip codes that will most likely
yield the Target EFC needed to meet the college’s financial goals.
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enrollment management firm then offers those quality students grants and
scholarships equal to the difference between the college’s total cost of
tuition and fees and the target EFC.
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the college has recruited enough students to meet the break-even point, the
enrollment management firm gradually begins to reduce the grant and
scholarship offers up to the point where the college is at full admissions.
management firms are increasingly able to accurately identify the students
likely to enroll without any financial aid. Some enrollment managers can even
predict how big a scholarship it will take to attract the kinds of students the
college is short on; such as females at engineering schools or rural kids at
urban colleges.
colleges are now using enrollment management firms to minimize the amount
of money they have to give out to meet their enrollment goals, which means
that some students attending those schools may get the short end of the
stick when it comes to financial aid.
BUSINESS and the quicker parents realize that the sooner they can put together a
game plan to get the best college deal for their money. Before you fill out your
financial aid forms, give us a call first, we’d love to help you build
that plan.
author of this newsletter is Brian Safdari.
Obama comforts crying student..
Obama meets with a college student and her financial aid counselor.
-Brian Safdari
Barack Obama’s Tax Plan
Attention
Friends and Family
Below is
information from a local CPA that is very knowledgeable in the accounting world.
He is one of the best CPA’s I’ve ever dealt with.
I’m
sending this to everyone because I get requests from clients of a good CPA. So
for those of you who would like someone to show you how to reduce your tax
liability, Sam is the right guy for you.
Please let
Sam know you were referred by College Planning Experts because I have arranged a
special discount for all my clients.
Even if
you have a current CPA, he will give you a second opinion.
Have a
nice week.
Brian
Safdari
Brian
Safdari’s “College Planning Power Hour” Radio Show Tuesday’s from 2:00-3:00 PM
KHTS AM 1220
face=Consolas>www.hometownstation.com
Brian is a
member of : National Institute of Certified College Planners, National
Association of College Admissions Counselors, Western Association of College
Admissions Counselors, Toastmasters International, Ambassador at Santa Clarita
Valley Chamber of Commerce, San Fernando Valley of Commerce, Better Business
Bureau, National Association for College Funding Advisors, Higher Education
Consultants Association, National Collegiate Advocacy Group, and Santa Clarita
Valley Concierge.
Significant Changes You Need to
Know in Obama Tax Plans:
***(Gyu)
Sam Cho, CPA is a principal of MYBL Accounting Services, Inc. He obtained a
Masters of Accounting degree from USC Kenneth Leventhal School of Accounting and
worked for various nationwide accounting firms as a tax professional. He is
responsible for the delivery of tax and accounting services to a broad array of
business enterprises and high net worth individuals. Mr. Cho has had extensive
experience in all aspects of corporate and individual income taxation and is
well versed in minimizing income taxes, including a leading edge tax planning
related to accelerated depreciation expense for new building acquisition and
leasehold
On the
campaign trail, Barack Obama proposed more than a dozen tax changes that would
affect individuals. The net effect would be to raise taxes on higher-income
people and reduce for low- and middle-income ones.
Most of
the ideas were floated before credit markets froze and the economy faltered.
Pundits say this could force Obama to shelve his tax plans while he focuses on
the economy.
“Most of
his tax proposals will be deferred because they don’t have a stimulus effect and
some of them will make the economy worse,” says Robertson Williams, principal
research associate with the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.
The
centerpiece of Obama’s tax plan is the Making Work Pay Credit. It would give
workers making up to $75,000 per year a credit equal to 6.2 percent of their
first $8,100 in annual earnings. The credit, worth about $500 per year, would
essentially refund what eligible workers paid in Social Security tax. Couples
earning up to $150,000 a year could get up to $1,000 if both work. The credit
would not stimulate the economy because it “rewards people for what they have
already done. Those people are already working,” Williams says. Like other
proposed tax cuts, the credit would provide no immediate stimulus because people
would not get the benefit until they file their 2009 taxes in 2010, unless it
was sent out in an advance refund check – a tactic used in the Bush
administration.
For
high-income people, Obama planned to restore the top two rates in effect during
the Clinton era – 36 and 39.6 percent. Today the top rate is 35
percent.
This
increase would affect people whose taxable income exceeds about $165,000
(single) or $200,000 (married filing jointly). (Taxable income is the amount you
pay taxes on; it is less than gross income.)
Obama
would also increase the capital gains and dividend tax for this same group of
people to 20 percent from 15 percent. Clint Stretch, managing principal for tax
policy with Deloitte & Touche, estimates that a family of four with $500,000
in income from wages, interest and capital gains would pay an extra $3,100 in
taxes under the Obama plan.
But
Stretch predicts that Obama “will not be anxious to raise rates until the
economy firms up. Is this the first fight he wants to have, or are there things
the new administration wants to do that would have a higher possibility of
bipartisan support?” Should you sell any capital gains you happen to have left
while rates are lower? My simplistic answer: How much would you pay in
transaction costs?
Bob Doll,
Blackrock’s global chief investment officer for equities, also doubts that Obama
will try to raise taxes as long as the economy is contracting. “If you are going
to raise taxes, you don’t do it in the middle of a recession,” he says. “We
would be surprised to see significant tax increases enacted in 2009.”
Obama’s
more recent tax proposals intended to help suffering from the downturn, but
they, too, would be a hard sell. For example, he proposed letting people
withdraw 15 percent of their Individual Retirement Plan or
401(k)
balances (up to $10,000) without paying the 10 percent penalty that applies to
withdrawals before age 59 1/2. It would apply this year and next.
proposal that tries to solve the larger economic crisis by telling people or
making it easier to use their 401(k) money is not the right solution,” says
Karen Friedman, policy director of the Pension Rights Center. During Obama’s
term, higher income people are likely to pay higher taxes. Does that mean you
should realize capital gains – if you have any left – or accelerate income into
2008 to take advantage of today’s lower rates?
Before
selling an asset to get this year’s capital gains rate, Stretch says investors
should weigh their transaction costs against how much they would save in taxes
and also consider the “opportunity cost,” or what else they could do with money
they would send to the government.
Summary of
Obama tax proposals’ effect on individuals
Permanent
changes:
(1) Income
tax: Restore Clinton-era tax rates for high-income earners. The marginal tax
rate on taxable income exceeding $357,700 (for singles and married couples
filing jointly) would rise to 39.6 percent from 35 percent.
The rate
on taxable income between $200,300 and $357,700 (for joint filers) and between
$164,550 and $357,700 (for singles) would rise to 36 percent from 33
percent.
(2)
Capital gains: Raise tax rate on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends
to 20 percent from 15 percent for people with taxable income exceeding $164,550
(singles) or $200,300 (joint returns).
(3)
Restore phaseouts: Reinstate the phaseout of personal exemptions and itemized
deductions for higher-income taxpayers. The phaseout is scheduled to end in
2010.
(4) Making
Work Pay Credit: Create a tax credit equal to 6.2 percent of the first $8,100 of
annual earnings for workers making less than $75,000 per year. This credit,
worth up to $500 per person, would refund the eligible employee’s Social
Security tax.
(5)
Seniors: Eliminate income tax for seniors earning less than $50,000.
(6)
Mortgages: Give homeowners who don’t itemize deductions a new credit ($800
maximum) equal to 10 percent of their annual mortgage payments.
(7)
College: Replace the Hope credit (maximum $1,800) with the American Opportunity
Tax Credit (maximum $4,000). Applies to qualified expenses paid the first two
years of college. Income limits apply.
(8) Child
care: Increase the credit for low-income families and make it available to
workers who don’t earn enough to pay income tax.
(9) Earned
income tax credit: Expand this credit for low-income workers.
(10)
Alternative Minimum Tax: Make the 2008 AMT exemption amount permanent and index
it to inflation. This would prevent a big increase in the number of people who
pay AMT. Some high-income people would pay less AMT because they would pay more
regular tax.
(11)
Estate tax: Make the 2009 rules permanent – no tax on estates less
than
$3.5
million per person or $7 million per couple. Amounts over that limit taxed at 45
percent.
Temporary
changes :
(12)
Retirement plans: Workers could withdraw 15 percent (up to $10,000) of their IRA
or 401(k) account without paying a penalty in 2008 and 2009.
Income tax
would still apply. Retirees older than 70 1/2 would not have to take withdrawals
from their tax-deferred retirement plans in 2008 or 2009.
(13)
Unemployment benefits: No tax on unemployment benefits in 2008 and
2009.
If you
have any questions, please call Sam Cho, CPA
Sam Cho,
CPA
MYBL
Accounting Services, Inc.
MYBL Minds
Your Bottom Line!
26007
Huntington Lane #5
Santa
Clarita, CA 91355