>> bldttrea, moving forward, luon tbc news. >> hi there. getting answers on abc 7 news, we get answers for you in real time. most people are enjoying the holiday season. many high school seniors applying to college are miserable because those who applied in the early round have now received admissions and if things have knock on their way, they are dealing with disappointment and new deadlines. lauren cook, dean of college advising at the jewish community high school of the bay. thank you for your time. >> of course.

thanks for having me. >> the college admissions process has several rounds. the early decision round is over. what does that mean? >> a lot of students have found out if they are going to get into what is presumably the first choice college. if you choose to apply early, you are saying if you admit me, i will enroll. students have found out whether that school has chosen to take them. ideally this is for your first choice college but it is often a strategic choice for students and families, as many highly rejective schools use this to fill the classes early on. kristen: big congratulations to the kids who got into their dream school. they are done. what do you tell the many kids

who got rejected from their top school early and get crushed? >> you always have to remember, admissions decisions are not a referendum on you as a human being. they are about volume of applications, which have been increasing the past few years. they are about space available at those institutions, which are not necessarily growing at this time. i advise my kids, you need to feel your feelings. you put a lot of effort into this. give yourself 48 hours to cry with your friends, eat ice cream and wallow a little and then it is time to turn a corner and think what is plan b? kristen: what is plan b? regular decision? >> yes. at some schools there may be an option to do a second early decision choice. it often has a january 1 deadline.

if you had a clear second choice in process, another opportunity to be strategic and see whether that works better. otherwise, regular decision deadlines can vary early january, for some schools abroad up onto the late spring. several months. kristen: still with a lot of schools having january deadlines, it is not a lot of time. give us a game plan. >> application work has been done, many students have already submitted common application. often that is the one standard application a lot of early decision schools are on. what is left is putting together meaningful supplemental essays. a lot of colleges will ask additional questions about why you want to go to that college in particular or some other question.

pull together any supplemental questions you are thinking about into one document and look for trends across those questions. there can be themes that come up. if you are being strategic, you can potentially write one essay that might be about, you are stepping outside your comfort zone. kind of a common question. that can be useful across schools. kristen: i wonder if kids will think, if i didn't get in early, that means my main essays didn't work well. should i start from scratch? what do you think? >> generally no, it is never one thing the reason you didn't get into a school and presumably you spent a lot of time on that essay so it doesn't hurt to go back and tweak. also remember that writing is subjective. what one person may love, someone else may not.

one admission rep at one their take is not the take of every other admission rep. don't over think it on that one piece. i would work on what is new and additional for the next colleges on your list and focus on those. kristen: should they be applying two very different types of schools? >> as far as selectivity goes, absolutely. i'm assuming students might have a particular major or have thought about certain priorities in terms of location or the country that makes some of the other ways you can type schools common. thinking about selectivity, you have to have a school or two that has a more broad access in the bunch. 50% admit rate or above, mixed in with other selective institutions. you also might want to think about, if you have some story

you need to share that provides context to your curriculum, may a low-grade here or there, apply to places that don't allow you to tell a story, whether that is asking to recommendation letters or writing -- places that might collect more nuanced materials. i think of csu's as one example. you might not want to apply to some of those places because that context would be important and key for you to get a positive admission decision. kristen: a lot of kids apply only to cal state or uc's but they are by the numbers. if you have a compelling story, it might be good to look at other schools. a lot of people think because it is a crapshoot, i should increase my odds. apply to so many schools and see where you get lucky.

shotguning. >> i fight this every year. it is not a lottery. you are not increasing your chances. you can have an effective list. 8-10 schools, if you are burying things like selectivity. you're not a wildly different student every time you apply to a different institution. you need to see your stats clearly, look at places where they will be appreciated, where they may be a stretch on the profile and have a mix of those on your list. kristen: how do you know this is a safety school for me when you look at the numbers? >> a lot of places are going to print averages, whether it is around gpa bands or test scores. you can look at your stats and see how you might fit into that. you should also look at admission rates. i tend to tell my students any school that is admitting under

20% of applicants is considered a reach for everybody. it is a universal reach. you also want to look for admit rates higher for that. anything 50%, 60% applicants being admitted and up, that that is a good likely institution for you. kristen: what is the parent's role during this time? how can they help without helping too much? >> they can help keep an eye on the timeline and the big picture. sometimes with teenagers it is looking at the next few days. parents can be keeping an eye on the calendar and how we need to mark the big moments in the process. that is great. as much as you can, having honest conversations with children about affordability will also get ahead of what can sometimes be uncomfortable moments in april if worst case scenario the student gets into a school they are really excited about and then it turns out that the financial aid or whatever the case may be, the scholarship

money didn't come through that you were hoping for. to help your children understand if there are limits to what you are able to afford, there are limits and to be clear eyed about that. finally, in the holidays and family is around, to really be conscious of how much you are talking about college. whether you as a parent are feeling compelled to ask your child what is happening with that deadline or whether family members are sitting around the dinner table saying, where you going to go next year? what's happening? especially if there has been a disappointment to get ahead of it by talking with family members quietly, perhaps this is not the time to investigate that. we will have news in a few months and be happy to share it with you. kristen: try not to let it consume your life. thanks so much. don't go away. coming up, high school juniors. how you can prepare for the process next year. more tips

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kristen: we are back with lauren cook, here to offer advice in the middle of a stressful college application season. we talked about seniors. let's talk about juniors now preparing to go through it next year. should parents talk about college at all? does that raise their stress level? >> this is the developmentally appropriate time to start talking about college. it is a time to start learning the college knowledge, getting on campus for an introductory tour or to check out the college town around it and it is also a time to talk about the importance of grades in junior

year and extracurriculars. this is the last full year of academic work before students will apply. laying the groundwork for a solid application is important. it is important to not talk about college all the time. i suggest junior families think about a family meeting once or twice a month where the topic is college so that there is a container for that conversation and it is expected by the student. kristen: such a good idea! schedule time to talk about it but not all the time. what should juniors be doing right now? >> first and is the most important. being a high school student, going to class, getting the most out of it they can, achieving the highest grades possible for them and then investing their out of class time and either continuing extracurriculars they have been committed to, trying something new, but just really

working on that activities list. hopefully that is in theory helping to hone what they may want to do with their free time in college, things that might contribute to their future career. really just doing something beyond going home and sitting on the couch and turning on netflix. kristen: in terms of the time they spend on extracurriculars, how do you advise them find -- a lot of kids feel like they need to do everything to impress colleges. everything they do is one big audition to impress. how do you view that? >> the is less important than the why. one pitfall families fall into is thinking there is a silver bullet of an activity. whether that is being student body president or point guard on the team, getting the winning shot, or whether the student has to work and they are bummed, all

i have to do is a subway sandwich artist. all of those are valid choices. college is not judging those as better than another. they are judging why. why is it important? how you talk about it. why it is meant for you? why you have persisted with it over time or if you fit into other things, why those were more important? start with you. be the most you you can be in the process rather than trying to outsmart or think about what colleges are looking for. kristen: a lot of kids go, what i'm doing is not as impressive as what others are doing. our colleges starting to see through some of those just for show achievements? >> yeah. impressive is subjective. depends on the audience and what they place value on. colleges have seen it all.

signing up for a laundry list of things in junior year, looking to collect titles overdoing real commitment or work. it comes up in writing. you are often asked to write about extracurriculars. whether that writing feels flat, like you are regurgitating your resume or phoning it in as opposed to having real enthusiasm coming through. if you are excited about something and i have students right now who are completely obsessed with roller coasters or like making maps that are alternative histories of countries -- you can see their investment and excitement come through when they talk about it. that gets admission reps excited. it is about authenticity. kristen: what about sats? do students need to take them? do they need to prep? is now the time if they are juniors? >> if testing will be a part of your process and we are in a place where that is not a foregone conclusion.

you can take a little time to look at your learning profile, how have you done on standardized tests historically and thinking about the policies of schools you're looking at, you may decide testing is not for you. testing right now still keeps the widest number of doors open and you can change your mind about interest in institutions. i would suggest students think about at least taking one test this spring if not two if they are able and certainly that leaves room to potentially test again in the summer or early fall going into senior year without it becoming a burden with senior classes in college up occasions. -- college applications. kristen: money, >> the emphasis on testing has contracted. it started before the pandemic. covid accelerated it.

we are seeing some small number of schools reverting back to requiring testing. what is more common in this moment is folks maintaining their test optional policies, even if they had a smaller window, they said we will do it for the next two years -- i just got an email before logging into this program saying they are now extending their policy another few years. that is the trend we are seeing. kristen: what about courses? what courses would you advise juniors take in spring semester? >> continuing on with things that are of interest to you. certainly following what graduation requirements at your school or making sure you are checking out the uc eligibility list if you are interested in a california school, and you are getting those a-g requirements covered. this is the time to investigate rigor in areas you feel confident about and that may look different pending on your school curriculum. honors classes, local community

college courses, really pushing yourself in a couple areas, so you can show colleges you dabbled a little in college-level work and you are able to handle it. kristen: if it is the engineering of roller coaster design, so be it! don't go away. next, a new year means new things for higher education. lauren cook will help us look ahead to what is ahead. i'm jonathan lawson here to tell you about life insurance through the colonial penn program. if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance on a fixed budget, remember the three ps. the three what? the three ps? what are the three ps? the three ps of life insurance on a fixed budget are price, price, and price. a price you can afford, a price that can't increase, and a price that fits your budget. i'm 54 and was a smoker, but quit.

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to record your important information and give helpful direction to your loved ones with your final wishes. and it's yours free just for calling. so call now for free information. kristen: we are back with lauren cook. thanks for your time. i want to focus on the changes coming our way in higher ed. the supreme court is considering whether to uphold or strike down the use of race as a factor in admissions. the cases involve the university of north carolina and harvard. what are the potential outcomes? >> there are a lot of them.

we have decades of precedent currently upholding the educational benefits of diversity. this is policy the higher education world has worked within for decades now. students and society have benefited from looking at the educational benefits of diversity. overturning this would be a radical move at this point. we have seen radical decisions from this court already this year. i think potentially they could make individualized holistic review harder for colleges. they may talk about more race neutral strategies schools should use which is an important part of any enrollment policy plan for an institution. they don't address everything. we have seen that with the university of california back in

august. they have noted since california outlawed affirmative action in 1996, representation has dropped dramatically across campuses despite race neutral policies they have tried to institute. university of michigan is in a similar situation, also filed a similar brief with the same conclusions. kristen: if the high court decides you can consider race, does that mean cal state and you uc can change their policy? >> i am not a lawyer. because the federal law might circumvent the state law, so yes, we do have a state-by-state situation based on local voter initiatives whether race can be considered but yeah, the policy hasn't been updated. kristen: the flipside for

stanford or usc, if the court rules you cannot use race, they would have to change their policies to be more like uc? >> they would. currently private institutions in california can use whatever barometers they like to make admissions decisions. that would change if this precedent is overturned. kristen: remind me next time we need a lawyer to join this conversation. when people talk about who should get additional consideration in admissions, there is the issue of legacy admission, giving a bump to applicants whose parents attended a university. is that going away soon? >> great question. there are all sorts of what we call in college counseling priorities or hooks that students can have that give them advantage in the admission process. we focus in as a culture for whatever reason is race but there are lots of other categories. one of them is legacy admission.

that typically refers to if you have a family member also attend the institution and most often emphasis is placed on a parent or sibling and yes, this is a conversation that is coming up more. a handful of schools have announced an end to their preference policy in the last year. places like amherst, caltech, johns hopkins, m.i.t. some states are tackling the issue through that legislation again. colorado, last year was the first state to ban it statewide in '21. kristen: you touched on this earlier, what if you got into a great school but the financial aid they offer doesn't work for you? i always tell my kids whatever they give you go back in there and negotiate! i don't know if this is something you can do with financial aid? >> financial aid offices

sensitive around the word negotiate. it makes sense to appeal. [laughter] that is the word they often use. in this climate and as higher ed is and given the variety of offers students can receive, it never hurts to go back in and say at least can you help me understand the letter and the package i have gotten? and is there additional info i can potentially give you that might help change and improve this offer a little? i would go into those meetings, if you received a merit scholarship money from one institution and a similar institution did not make that offer to you, to just you know attach that offer to an email or fax it into the school so they are seeing the complete picture you have. if there has been any change in family income since the tax years the fafsa asks

that in as an addendum, it is always important to ask out-of-state schools, sometimes even in-state schools if they have taken into consideration the cost-of-living difference in california and the cost of home values. sometimes that is a choice schools can make to send out an offer to you that does not consider that and then factor that in and it may make the offer more palatable. kristen: lauren cook, great information. i know your final word of advice is you will be fine no matter where you end up! thank you so much. happy holidays. >> thank you kristen. kristen: you can get our live newscast, breaking and more with our abc 7 news tv app.

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kristen: tonight, we're tracking several developing stories as we cop on the air. news of former pope benedict and his declining health. and that mounting chaos for air travelers growing by the day. more cancellations tonight for southwest airlines. struggling to recover from that massive holiday storm. more than 13,000 flights canceled and counting. passengers sleeping in airports, scrambling to find a way home. luggage and bags piling up. the ceo apologizing for the travel nightmare, and vowing to make things right. tonight, the transportation secretary promising a full investigation. our alex perez in chicago. in storm-battered buffalo, the death toll still rising tonight. the national guard going door-to-door, checking on residents. officials fearful people living

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