Willpower, Productivity, and the College Planning Process

A few days ago, I came across this great article by Andy Jenkins & Mike Filsaime. I wanted to share it with all of you because it brings up some insightful points that have an impact on families who are preparing for college and beyond.

Willpower, the ability to make smart decisions, and productivity affect ALL aspects of the College Planning/Funding process.

Enjoy ...

-----

THESIS:
We (Us Human Folk) only get a tiny bit of WILLPOWER each day. We then SPEND those bits of Willpower with EVERY decision we make.
 
What happens once we've spent all of our Willpower on making decisions?  
 
Turns out that when we run out of Willpower, we FALL BACK on the last decision we made when we had Willpower.
 
How Bad Decisions Reinforce Themselves
So, if you decided to eat crap for breakfast, it's likely that when you're out of willpower, you will again decided to eat crap for lunch or dinner.
 
How Bad Habits Remove Intelligent Decision Capabilities
When you decide to check email first thing in the morning, you're spending Willpower even DECIDING what emails to read or not - and then you've got to decide how to respond. And then, YOU Agenda for the day has now been influenced by the decisions you've made because of your Inbox.
 
Why Interruptions and Multitasking is "Deadly"
When there is an interruption - you have to spend Willpower Points to deal with that Drama… and then spend MORE Willpower Points -- to get back on Track!
 
We Think Decisions Cost Nothing.
It's weird - right?  I mean - we track our TIME.  We track our physical resources, like currency, space, and even other's resources.
 
But we don't ever seems to track our CAPACITY to make intelligent decisions. And the danger is that capacity is not UNLIMITED.
 
And we've all probably been spending Willpower like teenager in a mall with a brand new credit card who hasn't considered that there WILL eventually be a PAYMENT required from that shopping spree.
 
Being INTENTIONALLY PRODUCTIVE.
Checking Email makes you feel Busy.
Posting to Facebook makes you feel Connected.

Instant Message makes you feel in Control.
Reading Industry News or Blog Posts makes you feel Informed.
 
But it's not Productive. It only FEELS that way - because you're DOING something, but...
 
...That SOMETHING may NOT being doing ANYTHING for you.
 
The KEY to Productivity
Spending your Limited Willpower on the Decisions that will have BIG RESULTS in your Business - and in your life.
 
Here's how:
Step 1 - You Set the Agenda for Every Day.
Don't do or look at anything that could influence you in the beginning of your day.  Set your agenda with a full bank of Willpower.
 
Step 2 - So that you do NOT spend Willpower on the wrong decisions, develop HABITS to Deal with stuff you don't want to spend Willpower on.
 
Make your Check Lists.  Make your Standard Operating Procedures.  Create Your Process Trees - and practice them so you can do them WITHOUT Thinking - without making anything more than the most rudimentary decision.
 
You know that fun little rumor about Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, even Mark Zuckerberg having a very limited wardrobe to choose from - so that they didn't waste brain power on making decisions that would help them achieve?
 
I wonder…if thats why….they did that?

-----

Remember, we at Ensphere can help YOU and your friends be more productive and achieve better College Planning/Funding results.

Mike Giffin, President

Early Decision: Worth Your Chances?

Applying Early Decision to a student’s top college choice is a hard decision to make for most families. The majority of Americans are worrying whether or not they can foot the college bill, let alone pay full price should they be accepted Early Decision. Yes, financial aid is available to both Early Decision applicants and their Regular Decision counterparts. However, are the student’s chances as good for admission or a great financial aid package?

The Wealthy

Applying Early Decision may be okay for a family whose child knows without a doubt they want to attend that school, and the family will pay whatever it takes for them to go there. Early Decision is a binding agreement, meaning that should that school accept him/her, they will expect the student to attend. (Not to be confused with Early Action, a non-binding early admissions program!)

The odds of getting into a school applying Early Decision can be slightly better than applying Regular Decision. Why? The college knows that this is the number one choice for the student and will attend should they be accepted. Colleges are better able to control their enrollment numbers in this way. Even so, the boost in admission chances for Early Decision applicants is minimal at many schools.

On the flip side, by applying Early Decision, the families lose the majority of their bargaining chips in the financial aid process. Why? A student is allowed to apply to only one school under a binding Early Decision agreement. That means one financial aid offer, and no other offers to compare. The main reason we recommend students apply to 8-10 schools is for that exact reason, using the financial aid offers to gain leverage and ask for better packages from other schools. But for some wealthy families who don't find it important to maximize their financial aid offers, the bargaining tools of other financial aid packages may be less of a priority to them.

Battle for the Best Students

Colleges such as Harvard and Princeton have, in the past, tried to pull their Early Decision programs in order to give a more equal opportunity to students who cannot afford to apply Early Decision. Once they did this, these schools noticed they were losing out on some of the best students across the country to other top-tier schools with Early Decision admission programs. Top-tier schools have recently been offering great financial aid packages to students of low-income families in an attempt to "level the playing field" for less-privileged children. Some of these top students, regardless of family income, want to apply early and be accepted early, missing out on potentially better offers from other Regular Decision schools.

Early Decision vs. Early Action

Early Action, the non-binding early program, is a great option for students who want to hear back from a school early but still want the opportunity to compare financial aid offers from other schools in the spring. Students admitted under Early Action will still have until May 1st to make their final school selection. In other words, Early Action offers the benefits of Early Decision, without the drawbacks. Some schools offer only one or the other, so make sure you know the difference.

Our Thoughts

The Early Decision admissions option is rarely a good idea for most families. The many factors that come into play include family income, finances, borderline grades and test scores, athletics and legacies. It certainly isn’t for most students because the financial aid package could leave a lot to be desired. The family will not be able to use other financial aid offers to negotiate with the student’s number one choice.

This is why we do not recommend Early Decision for the majority of our families. We want to help families maximize the amount of aid they get from schools and leave the family in a position to take control of their finances through the college years.

Chris, College Planning Specialist

Do Good Grades = Good SAT/ACT Scores?

“As long as you have good grades in school, you don't need to study in order to do well on the SAT/ACT."

I’ve heard the above misconception many, many times. And I wish it were the case!

Unfortunately, the SAT and ACT do not match the content of high school courses as closely as you might think. A perfect 4.0 GPA does not guarantee that you'll achieve high standardized test scores.

I’ve encountered many straight-A students who really struggle with the format and style of questions on the SAT and ACT.

Learning what the SAT considers to be the “right” interpretation of a passage, getting used to the pacing of the ACT, and practicing other test-specific strategies will often feel very different from most students’ academic experiences in high school.

The good news is, practice really does make perfect!

The SAT and ACT are tests that you can study for. Familiarizing yourself with the test structure and most common question types is half the battle. Students need to get comfortable with the kinds of questions they’ll see over and over again and get used to how quickly they need to work through each section of the test.

Over 50% of students end up taking the SAT/ACT more than once.

The students who spend time studying are the ones who see sizable increases in their scores.

Early preparation is key. This is one of the reasons why we encourage students to take both the SAT and ACT in the fall/winter of their junior year. Doing so will leave you enough time to study and retake the test(s) before the end of junior year.

Remember, our free Method Test Prep courses can be accessed through your Career Cruising profile!

Erin, Director of Student Services