Since 2003, UC schools have offered Freshman Seminars to freshmen in addition to the obligatory lectures, discussions, and labs.  Freshman Seminars are one-unit courses offered exclusively to freshmen.  These courses are graded Pass/No Pass and are designed to give students a break from the rigor of their everyday schedules.  Each Freshman Seminar has no more than 20 students, allowing professors to interact with the participating students on a level not possible in large lecture halls.Freshman Seminars allow students to learn about a subject that may be of interest to them but may not necessarily have anything to do with their majors with less time commitment than an average class.  Some students at UC San Diego opted to take a Freshman Seminar called The Physics of Surfing.  This popular course combines hard science with the passion and pastime of many UCSD students—catching the perfect wave.Professors strive to intrigue students with their Freshman Seminar topics, and perhaps convince a few to consider pursuing a major in their department.  This spring, UCSD offered Freshman Seminars with titles such as: Urban Agriculture; Crime Scene Investigations; Cult Films of the 1950s – 2000s; Art, Language and Culture of Flamenco; Math in the Movies; Beginning Ukulele ("prior experience not needed but should not be afraid of singing"); Slavery in the Work of Mark Twain; Psychology of Humor; and Christian Exorcism in Modernity.  Among UC Davis’s Freshman Seminars were American Roots Music, Who’s Afraid of Freud?, Physics of Baseball, Contemporary Shamanism, Life of the Poor in Victorian London, Zombies, and Introduction to Cryptology.

High School Juniors: 
Get the application edge over other students by participating in some great summer activities that other teens are not doing!  This will get you noticed and make you stand out when those admissions officers are reading your application next November!  Don't just participate, be a leader and then write about it in your admissions essays. 
Some of these ideas might sound a little far fetched but they just might get you thinking of some new and exciting options. 
1.  Start a recycling program at your old elementary school.  Make sure you partner with at least one teacher and get other adults involved.  Show that you can plan, organize and manage adults as well as other teens and children. 
2.  Conduct some scientific research.  Not as hard as it sounds, look in your community for a need or problem such as clean drinking water.  Start taking samples from school drinking fountains and go from there.  Get noticed by calling your local paper, radio and TV stations.  Present the findings at a City Council meeting!
3.  Write articles for your local paper.  Not that hard, most local papers would be thrilled to have an occasional free lance writer that they do not have to pay!
4.  Climb Mt. Everest/Mt. Everest Jr or swim the English Channel
5.  Volunteer at a medical clinic in a third world country.  Think about turning your family vacation into a Volunteer Vacation.  Going on an extended trip to visit family?  Have your relatives help set up a volunteer job for you.Help run a local campaign.  Is there a Special Election in your area this summer?  Get involved in one of the campaigns that you care about.
Don't forget to document whatever you do and take notes for future essays! 

In today’s trying financial climate, it is apparent that low-income families are not the only people looking for scholarship money to help ease the monetary burden of sending a child to college.  Many colleges attempt to satisfy this need, as well as saving money themselves, by offering large scholarships to students from affluent families.Since the mid-1990’s, the amount of grant aid awarded to families making over $100,000 a year has skyrocketed in many prominent institutions.  Experts reason that this shift came as colleges realized that it was more cost-effective to offer aide packages to students from affluent backgrounds rather than students from lower-income brackets.  For example, a student from a lower-income family may need $30,000-$40,000 in grant aid from a college, whereas a student from a higher income bracket may accept admission at the temptation of $10,000 in grant aid.  Because of this, colleges are now making large amounts of grant money available to families making over $100,000 per year.In order to be eligible for this grant money, students are advised to follow these guidelines:    1) Apply to schools that you know you qualify academically for.  You are less likely to get grant money from a “reach” school than from a sure bet.    2) Don’t apply to big name private schools like Harvard and Yale.  Pedigreed private schools can afford to give all accepted lower-income students the full financial aid that they need, and so students from higher income families are less likely to receive grants.  However, this doesn’t mean you should give up on private schools—many are slashing their tuition by more than 50% for higher-income students.    3) Look at out-of-state schools.  Many schools from other parts of the country are eager to accept students from the West, and often offer grant money to higher-income students.  Especially look at big-name public schools, as they are eager to attract smart, affluent students.    4) APPLY FOR FINANCIAL AID.  Even if you are sure you won’t qualify, some schools wont consider giving you grant money unless you fill out the FAFSA and/or the CSS/Financial Aid PROFILE.  Rumor has it that President Obama will do away with the FAFSA but it has not happened yet so educate yourself!  There is a 91% error rate on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid so get some professional help.  Come to a College Planning Workshop and get the insider secrets you need to know.  Visit www.collegeplanningexperts.com today.

By Joe Hurley, founder, Savingforcollege.com

The $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, signed by President Obama, could have an impact on how you build and spend your 529 college savings account. One change made by the Act: The list of eligible 529 expenses is expanded to include purchases of computer technology and equipment, along with Internet access for students and their families.
However, this expansion applies only to the years 2009 and 2010; starting again in 2011, computers etc. do not qualify unless required by the educational institution as a condition of enrollment or attendance.
For students attending post-secondary school in 2009 and 2010, the Hope Scholarship credit is beefed up under the Act. The new temporary version, called the American Opportunity Tax Credit, is available to more families than was the old Hope credit. It can be used for the third and fourth years of college in addition to the first two years; course materials are included as an eligible expense; and the credit phases out at a higher range ($160-180,000 for joint filers and $80-90,000 for all others). Futhermore, the maximum annual credit amount increases from $1,800 in 2008 to $2,500 for this year and next (100% of the first $2,000 of eligible expenses plus 25% of the next $2,000 of eligible expenses); it can be applied against the alternative minimum tax; and it is up to 40% refundable for students not subject to the kiddie tax.
Families with a choice between the American Opportunity/Hope credit, the Lifetime Learning credit, and the above-the-line tuition deduction will almost always opt for the American Opportunity/Hope credit.
Under the anti-double-dipping rules, families will have less opportunity to take tax-free withdrawals from their 529 plans as compared with the old Hope credit because the new credit will consume more of their qualified expenses ($4,000 versus $2,000). However, they will have greater opportunity to take tax-free withdrawals from their 529 plans as compared with the Lifetime Learning credit, which uses up $10,000 in tuition costs to generate a maximum $2,000 credit.
Finally, the Act provides an incentive for your college freshman to move off campus and purchase a home by November 30, 2009. First-time homebuyers receive a 10% tax credit on the purchase price of the home, up to a maximum $8,000 credit. The tax credit must be repaid if the buyer moves away in less than three years, so beware if your child later wants to transfer schools. Housing costs qualify for tax-free 529 treatment, although the student must be enrolled at least half-time, and the eligible amount for an off- campus student is capped each year to the amount reported by the school in its "cost of attendance" summary.
If you have not registered for a FREE workshop on "How to pay for college without going broke, please visit www.collegeplanningexperts.com and register.

UC wants the truth on student applications
The university uses random checks to make sure that grades, honors and extracurricular activities are properly reported.
Reporting from Concord — The gray-and-green warehouse in suburban Concord seems an unlikely headquarters for a statewide detective operation, and the fact checkers at work there insist they are not mercilessly probing the lives of California's teenagers.Still, there is an element of hard-boiled sleuthing in the University of California's unusual attempt to ensure that its 98,000 freshman applicants tell the truth about themselves and their extracurricular activities. The stakes are high; UC enrollments may be canceled if students are found to be evasive or lying.
Each year, a small number of UC applicants — fewer than 1% — are caught fibbing about such claims as performing a lead role in a school play, volunteering as a tutor for poor children or starring on the soccer field.But UC officials say there is a broader purpose beyond the relatively few "gotchas": to scare everyone else straight."We take the admissions process very seriously and we want to uphold the integrity of the whole process," explained Han Mi Yoon-Wu, a coordinator in UC's central admissions operations.
In an era when tough competition for college entrance may lead some insecure or conniving applicants to hype, or invent, parts of their records, experts say many colleges and universities do some informal checking on students' extracurricular claims, especially if something seems fishy. But the UC effort appears to be the only formal, systematic program in the nation, they say.For many years, UC has checked the final high school grade transcript of each admitted student in the summer before enrollment. Failing grades in the last semester of high school can get a student's admission revoked, as can lies about self-reported grades in previous terms.Beginning in 2001, however, UC expanded its consideration of applicants' personal accomplishments, alongside their grades and test scores, and soon stepped further into its truth squad effort. Broadening the area for investigation to students' extracurricular activities, it commissioned the Educational Testing Service to cull a small but statistically significant random sample of applications each January and February, before entrance decisions are made.Those selected are asked for proof of just one verifiable contention, chosen on a rotating basis from among eight categories of information on the application. It could be a claim that the student was a football quarterback, worked 15 hours a week at McDonald's or volunteered often for a food bank.Clippings from a school newspaper, a copy of a theater program, pay stubs or letters from a coach or counselor quickly resolve nearly all cases. Sometimes, anxious applicants send in performance videos, artwork, poetry or a sports plaque to bolster their cases.Of the 1,000 or so applicants checked this way annually in recent years, no more than 10 or 15 send in insufficient evidence or, after several volleys of mail, e-mail and phone calls, stop responding or don't take advantage of the appeals process. And of those, only a couple each year are believed to be telling outright lies, said Mary Jacobson, a program administrator at the testing service's Concord office.UC and testing service officials agreed to allow a Times reporter a rare visit to the facility, which is set among strip malls and new housing developments in this East Bay suburb, and to review some cases, with the proviso that applicants' names and schools not be disclosed. They would not allow photos to be taken. Yet any hope of finding an FBI-like atmosphere was quickly dashed; the office resembled a low-key accounting firm during tax season.A soft-spoken woman, a mother who remembers what it's like for a child to apply to college, Jacobson says she and her staff of three verifiers do not consider themselves grand inquisitors. Real detectives "start with the premise that there was a crime," she said. "Our assumption is that it was the opposite, that will be able to verify what we ask them to verify. And our experience is overwhelmingly that they are able to." She pointed to file boxes containing voluminous correspondence from applicants.Jacobson said most applicants are truthful but some may exaggerate things because "they're kids." She advised students "to be thorough and honest and put your best foot forward." After all, she said, "it's just not a happy thing if you have to cancel their university applications."For example, a student last year was asked to prove that she was a volunteer coach for a soccer team of younger girls. She responded that she could not find the soccer officials who could confirm the claim. So UC officials wrote again, suggesting that a letter from a team member's parent would do, as would some printed material from the league. After no further response, the application was canceled and the student was never heard from again.In another recent case, a student was asked to verify her claim of a lead role in a school play. She wrote back that the drama teacher had retired and wasn't reachable and that she didn't have a copy of the playbill. UC gave her a second chance, as its rules allow, asking her to prove another item on her application, this one about volunteer work at an elementary school. What about a letter from a teacher there, the investigator suggested? The young woman did not respond and her application was discarded.This year, an applicant sent in a video of a dance performance to verify her arts activities, but Educational Testing Service staff could not tell whether she was among the dancers and are awaiting a confirmation letter, preferably on school letterhead.Other cases had happy endings. A young man verified that he was a cashier on an Army base by sending in a pay stub. Another proved that he took a French immersion class in Toulouse with a letter from an instructor, written in French and translated by a friend of Jacobson. And several UC letters to one student were returned unopened to Concord before a high school counselor told researchers that his family was temporarily homeless and vouched for his accomplishments.In the program's first few years, many students ignored the letters, but the response rate has improved, Yoon-Wu said. "At first, students didn't know they had to take this seriously, but word has gotten out that UC does and you will be canceled if you don't respond," she said. She pointed out that the final section of the UC application reminds students that they face such consequences if any information is found "to be incomplete or inaccurate."UC's truth-in-application program and the informal efforts at other schools have been set up in response to concerns that a small share of high school seniors may agonize so much about their chances of getting into college that they do something foolish, said David Hawkins, public policy and research director at the National Assn. for College Admission Counseling in Arlington, Va.The pressure that students face to show outstanding achievement has "led colleges to recalibrate their radar" looking for fraud, Hawkins said. Some schools also have begun to watch for Internet plagiarism in applicants' essays, he said.High school counselors say they urge students to tell the truth for its own sake and because applications and financial aid forms may, in effect, be audited.Still, they say the popularity of online applications makes it hard for them to catch the few students who fib."Kids being kids, I'm sure that some kids will try to pad things," said Judy Campbell, a college counselor at Hollywood High School.And the temptation to exaggerate extracurricular and job responsibilities may be especially strong for students who can't brag about academic triumphs, she added."If their grades are not so hot," Campbell said, "they may say, 'I was so busy doing all the other stuff and that's why my grades suffered.' "

Many parents ask if for college admissions purposes it's better to attend a well known private school versus a public school. The key to this question is, "for college admissions purposes." The truth is, parents should not make ANY decisions based purely on college admissions odds – that's the wrong way to address a crucial choice that involves far more variables than simply college admissions. One valid reason to send your son or daughter to private school is if you want him or her to have smaller classes, specific classes not offered at your particular public school, a different social environment, athletic opportunities not found at your local school, etc. The worst reason to send a student is in the vain hope of bettering college admissions odds. Most of the Ivies admit roughly 25% of their populations from private schools and roughly 65-70% from public (the rest from parochial or home-schooled), but that merely reflects the fact that more kids from publ ic school apply — again, the acceptance rates are usually about equal. Even a student who is No. 1 in a top public school will not be accepted to top colleges if he or she has low scores on the SAT and SAT Subject Tests. Another thing to consider is the competition: at top private schools like Andover and Exeter, only the top students get into the very top colleges. It's actually HARDER to be in the top 5-10% of the class at a place where almost everyone is qualified versus a big public school with some "dead weight." In short, you should make this decision based on the options, comfort level, course offerings, sports and specialty offerings for your child rather than trying to outwit college admissions officers who will not be impressed just by a big name private school. Most importantly, students will perform better – and be happier – at a school where they feel most comfortable. If a student truly loves Andover, and the family believes that the expense is warranted, then Andover is the right choice. If the local public school has great teachers, neighborhood friends, a full line up of AP courses, and a safe environment, then it may be worth more to a student than any of the famous prep schools.