The CP Blog

Jun
27
The Politics of Student Loan Debt By Steve Burleigh


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The Politics of Student Loan Debt


By Steve Burleigh


Among the many issues that the Democratic presidential contenders debated last night in Miami was the increasing burden of student college debt in the U.S, which currently stands at about $1.6 trillion. The average debt for college graduates is about $29,000, but the average debt for African American graduates is more than $34,000. Compare this to American auto debt, $1.1 trillion, and lower total U.S. consumer credit card debt which is $1.04 trillion. Years ago, it would have been unthinkable that U.S. credit card debt would be surpassed by college indebtedness. Several of the candidates have suggested various methods for dealing with the p...


Mar
13
Desperate Housewives

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Desperate Housewives


By Steve Burleigh


Most of you know me as an award winning actor/writer/producer whose legacy is already emblazoned in the pantheon of entertainment narcissists and bloviators. But some of you may not know that I am also a well established college counselor, or as we refer to ourselves to sound more legit with rich white folks, independent educational consultant. Pretty hoity-toity stuff. And the last 24 hours has been a real whirlwind. Since the feds made Bill Singer do what Rod Rosenstein only “joked” about doing, i.e., wear a wire exposing the frailties of our most vulnerable population, I‘ve barely had time to cook the books over at my personal Side Do...


Mar
08
I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!

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I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!

By Steve Burleigh

He smirks, he struts, he spouts, he swaggers. He spurts inflammatory invective; the very definition of ejaculatory rhetoric. He doesn’t respond to events; he emits. He’s not America’s leader so much as a hood ornament for America’s alt-right/anti-literacy/anti-science/neo- racist/gun toting/nativist/anti-welfare horde. He’s a chrome plated anachronism that went out of fashion about the time men stopped reading Playboy for the “interviews”, and Jim Crow was outlawed. He cannot express compassion and sympathy without reading from a crib sheet written by a sycophant. If...


Aug
01
Are private high schools better than public high schools?

Are private high schools better than public high schools? In Los Angeles tuition and fees at the most exclusive non-residential private high schools ranges between $38,000 and $41,000 a year. Annual tuition at the top Los Angeles Catholic high schools is between $17,000 and $20,000. In other words, private high school tuition is comparable to many private colleges, and much higher than tuition and fees to a University of California campus. 2016/2017 tuition and fees for UCLA is about $15,000.

Is private high school worth the price of admission? Do college bound students at private high schools perform better in college? Do they have greater job satisfaction?

Palisades Charter High School...


Jul
26
Life Lessons: Swim Hard, Marry Well

Two recent events caught my attention and both resonated with the message we send to students regarding their writing, especially application essays. Both incidents exposed hypocrisy in how the written word is valued and evaluated, and both reek of class bias and institutional hypocrisy. One example was immediately exposed, and the other is obscured by a crime so heinous the writing example wasn’t even on the radar.

The Princess Gets a Pass
On the first night of the Republican National Convention Melania Trump read a heartfelt speech from the teleprompter praising her husband as a kind and caring person, a true American, and a hard worker. Then she went on to talk about her own values an...


Apr
14
The New SAT

In last month’s IECA Insights magazine, Jed Applerouth, founder of Applerouth Tutoring Services, wrote a straight forward assessment of the new SAT. He says it will be “the hardest SAT we’ve ever seen and significantly harder than the ACT.” The new SAT is designed to coordinate with the Common Core curriculum, and according to Applerouth, it “may intimidate certain students and drive them toward alternative assessments.” One thing is for sure; it will require educators and students to rethink the test prep timeline.

You can read Jed Applerouth’s article here:

Advising Your Students About the New SAT


Jun
08
Career & Assessment Expert Emily Pennington Joins College Pathways

I’m excited to announce the addition of career and assessment expert Emily Pennington to the College Pathways team. Emily holds an M.S. in College Counseling and Student Development from Azusa Pacific University. She has worked as a Career Counselor at Azusa Pacific University, the University of La Verne, and Loyola Marymount University and has years of experience helping high school and college students identify their passions and their paths. College Pathways will include Emily’s service as part of the all-inclusive college admission service package, or as a separate service for students who just need more insight into career planning or curriculum guidance. Emily will help ans...


Apr
24
SCOTUS KO’s Race Sensitivity In College Admissions. Quit yer Whinin’!

On April 22nd the Supreme Court decided that race could not be used as a factor in college admission if the majority of the voters in a state decided to prohibit it. In 1996 California voters passed Proposition 209 ending any considerations of race or ethnicity in public university admissions sending affirmative action to its grave. The recent Supreme Court case (Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action) affirmed a similar Michigan law passed in 2006. If voters in a state want to pass a law making affirmative action legal then the Supreme Court is presumably okay with it. Slavery, Jim Crow, Redlining, recent attacks on voting rights targeted at racial minorities – none of tha...


Mar
25
Financial Aid Expert Bill Smith Joins College Pathways

I’m thrilled to welcome top financial aid expert Bill Smith to the College Pathways team. With a unique background creating online financial aid calculators for colleges with large endowments, Bill brings one of a kind expertise to financial aid consulting. As he worked with more and more colleges he became an expert at calculating need: determining the EFC (Expected Family Contribution) using both the FAFSA and the CSS Profile methodologies. He also became an expert in “packaging,” the process colleges use to determine how much merit and need based aid to award, and the mix of gift aid, loans, and work-study. Bill’s early work made him the “go-to” resourc...


Feb
09
Mi FAFSA Es Su FAFSA: When Something is Nothing

The deadline for submitting the FASFA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) to the UC and Cal State systems is March 2nd. Many private universities have similar deadlines. For those of you who are new to the financial aid maze, the FAFSA is the financial aid application used by colleges to determine eligibility for need based federal financial aid, i.e., grants, low interest loans, and work study. In California the FAFSA must be submitted for the student to be eligible for a Cal Grant and the new California Middle Class Scholarship. The Middle Class Scholarship is for undergraduate students from families with incomes up to $150,000 who attend a University of California or Cal State camp...