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Do you have a high schooler, particularly one who is in the graduating class of 2024? Are you wondering if it’s time to begin the college process and how to do it? Have you googled a few things about applying to college and you don’t know where to start? If you answered yes to any of these, you don’t want to miss our College Winter Bootcamp! We’re partnering with the best in the college prep business to teach you all about the college search process. And it’s 100% FREE!
Who Should Attend?
This bootcamp is designed for families with current high school juniors. If you have a sophomore or freshman, you are also invited to attend. It’s not too early to start learning about the process!
If you are a current senior in high school, check out some of the following resources that may help you more at this stage in the game.
Things to Consider Before Committing to A College
Understanding and Comparing Financial Aid Award Letters
How to Navigate Financial Aid Appeals
What Exactly is this Bootcamp?
Don’t worry, there is no physical activity or exercise involved! This is four one-hour sessions hosted by industry experts about all things surrounding the college process. From financial aid and scholarships, to SAT, ACT, and AP testing, to building a college list, we’ve got you covered. We will set you up with a solid foundation of knowledge to tackle this process. We’ll give you resources to turn to for help and offer some exclusive discounts to all our registrants.
When is the Bootcamp?
Our Winter College Bootcamp is February 21-24,2023.
Each day we will host a live session from 12-1pm EST. If you can’t attend live, we will record each session and send you the recording, IF YOU REGISTER ahead of time. And even if you are able to join us for the live session each day, you will get the recorded version as well to go back and re-watch or even share with your high school student.
Why should I Sign up and Attend This Bootcamp?
The college process as a whole has changed dramatically over the past few decades. This is not like the “old days” when some of us went to college. I don’t want to date myself too much, but I remember sitting at my dining room table looking at colorful brochures on state colleges from the mail, picking a few that looked “pretty” and had some majors that sounded interesting, filling out paper applications in pencil, sticking them in large manilla envelopes with an application check my mom handed me, and dropping them in the mailbox.
Fast forward to 4 years ago when my oldest started asking about colleges as a junior in high school, and I was completely blown away at how complicated the process now is. I was overwhelmed, lost, intimidated, and extremely confused and WISH I had a College Bootcamp to show me the ropes.
You don’t need to be nervous and stressed about this like I was. Let’s get excited about your kid’s future opportunities and get educated on how to make it happen. Join us from February 21-24, 2023 to jumpstart your college search journey!
What am I Really Going to Learn?
Here’s our bootcamp schedule.
Session One: How Financial Aid & Scholarships Work & How to Maximize Each
This session will be led by financial aid directors from MIT (Josh DeMaio) and Harvard Medical School (Ryan Callahan).
Josh DeMaio is a 20-year veteran in the higher education financial aid industry. He has worked in a number of different roles helping students and parents understand their options when it comes to financing a college education. He is currently working as the Director of Student Funding at the MIT Sloan School of Management focusing on graduate students, after many years of direct work with undergraduate students and their families.
Ryan Callahan is a need analysis expert with more than fifteen years of financial aid experience. Currently he serves as the Director of Financial Aid at Harvard Medical School. He began his career as an Assistant Director of Financial Aid at Boston College. While at BC, he received his Master’s Degree in Higher Education which brought him to MIT where he served as the Associate Director of Financial Aid. Since dedicating most of his career to working in elite educational institutions, he understands financial aid’s importance in affording families with the opportunities of a private education.
These two experts know the ins and outs of college financial aid. They will teach you about financial aid, scholarships, and how to use them to benefit your student and pay less out of pocket for a quality education.
Session Two: Standardized Testing and APs in College Admissions
This session will be led by Rob Franek, the Editor-in-Chief of The Princeton Review.
Rob is a national expert on colleges and higher education. He is a publisher, editor, lecturer, media contributor and author of four books as well as a former college admissions administrator. Prior to joining The Princeton Review in 1999, Rob was a college admissions administrator at Wagner College (NY) for six years. It is his interactions with students, parents, and counselors that Rob cites as his most inspiring professional experiences. Over his 32-year career that began as a teacher/tutor, Rob has visited more than 1,200 high schools and more than 1,000 colleges and graduate schools.
The SAT is going Digital. The importance of AP exams is shifting. Join Rob as he discusses how these changes are impacting college admissions and how standardized tests continue to play a role in a student’s application.
Session Three: Top 6 Private Scholarship Tips
This session will be led by Jocelyn Pearson, founder of The Scholarship System.
Jocelyn started The Scholarship System to share her own experience of graduating college with zero student loans. Not only was she able to get her entire college experience paid for including 6 months living abroad (in Spain), but she received a cash check each semester for any additional expenses. Her goal is to share her strategies with as many high school and college students as possible so that they, too, can get their college experience paid for, minimizing their student loans. She does this by teaming up with parents who are also passionate about their children avoiding the student loan debt crisis while still being able to pursue their dreams.
Don’t miss out as Jocelyn shows you how your child can get paid to go to college, how to avoid missing out on funding dollars for your child’s college education, and more as she teaches us her top 6 private scholarship tips.
Session Four: Building Your College List… Where Do We Begin?
This session will be led by Brian Ford (Dean of College Advisement at Archbishop Williams High School and Application Reader for Boston University and University of California), Dan Bisig (College Aid Pro Expert and Founder of College and Beyond), and our very own Matt Carpenter (Co-Founder and CRO of College Aid Pro)
Brian is an expert college admissions professional with experience on both sides of the admissions cycle. As a member of admissions offices at schools including Bryant University and Boston University, Brian oversaw the recruitment, review and retention of prospective undergraduate students for close to 20 states over a seven year period. During his time, he read well over 60,000 college applications in some capacity. Brian then spent four years as the Director of College Counseling at Austin Preparatory School in Reading,Massachusetts, where he led the complete overhaul of the college office that now boasts a half year prep program, a full parent curriculum, and unique college representative involvement.
Dan has helped hundreds of students and parents across the United States and Internationally navigate their way through every aspect of the college process for over 17 years. In his spare time, Dan co-authored a book: College Entrance Game Plan: Your Comprehensive Guide To Collecting, Organizing, and Funding College. Dan joined the College Aid Pro team to help promote what he believes is the best college funding software on the market. He continues to teach students, families, and counselors how to approach the college process with confidence and knowledge.
In 2005, after realizing both he and his parents had made some major mistakes in navigating the college admissions and financial aid processes, Matt made it his mission to help other families avoid a similar fate. Matt has successfully guided tens of thousands of families through the college financial aid maze, and has no plans of slowing down until his mission is fulfilled. He is recognized as one of the nation’s leading authorities within the College Funding niche and has been featured in such publications as the New York Times, US News, Forbes, ABC, FOX News, NBC, CBS & More!
Join Brian, Dan, and Matt as they teach you how to find the right college at the right price by searching for your financial, academic, and cultural fit schools.
Sounds Like I Should Come; Now What?
Now you need to make sure you’ve registered. If you haven’t registered, you can do that right now.
Next, make sure you put it on your calendar. Remember, if you can’t join us live, we’ll send you the recordings, just make sure you check your inbox and spam folder (just in case).
Anything Else I Need to Know?
We’ve put together a stellar line up of amazing professionals who are passionate about teaching families and students the BEST way to approach the college search and preparation process. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn. We’ve done the legwork for you and pulled all the resources into 4 days of learning. You’ll walk away with tools, knowledge, resources, some exclusive discounts; and it’s all FREE! We look forward to spending several hours with you later on this month. Get ready to jumpstart your college search experience with our College Winter Bootcamp. See you there!
