The College Application Specialist

10/13/2026

The full College of Charleston tour is out now on my YouTube channel: https://app.sayyestocollege.com/sp/0c03b40b254

It's a public liberal arts university that's been teaching since 1770, the 13th oldest educational institution in the United States, in the city of Fort Sumter and Sullivan's Island.

I walk through the School of Business, AACSB-accredited in business and in accounting, and the pre-health pathways with MUSC, including up to five guaranteed first-year seats in MUSC's College of Pharmacy. It ranks first among master's-level institutions for short-term study abroad participation. Some students live in restored historic houses. And there's Charleston itself, from Gullah Geechee culture to the International African American Museum.

Which part does your student want to see in person first?

The Discovery Session link's is below.

Hi! I'm Tamara Baptiste, Founder and Principal Counselor at The Col...

10/11/2026

"I make too much money to get financial aid. What do I do now?"

If that's the question at your house, this hour is for you.

Need-based aid isn't the only kind of aid. Colleges award merit aid on achievement, regardless of need. And what you can afford and what colleges say you can afford are always different, so you need to know how colleges get to their number.

"We'll figure it out" is not a strategy. Learning how the money works is where you start.

I'm teaching Show Me the Money on October 19 at 6 PM Eastern. It's one hour, live on Zoom, and free. Bring your student. I highly encourage it. Everyone who registers gets the replay.

The registration link is in the first comment.

10/09/2026

The College of Charleston calls its Historic Preservation and Community Planning program the largest undergraduate program of its kind in the U.S., and the only one combining historic preservation with community planning and urban design.

Historic Charleston is the lab. Students research historic properties in the archives, create preservation plans and choose from more than 200 internships locally, nationally and internationally. Some study traditional crafts with The King's Foundation at Dumfries House in Scotland.

And don't forget the brick under your feet. The campus has red brick herringbone sidewalks, the only ones like them in Charleston.

In 2024, ten of the eighteen staff at the Preservation Society of Charleston were College of Charleston alumni. This means that your student learns preservation from the people doing it.

New this week: the full College of Charleston tour on my YouTube, from the preservation program to the business school and the pre-health pathways with MUSC.

Does your student light up around old buildings? Book a complimentary Discovery Session. The links to both are below.

10/08/2026

"We'll figure it out" is not a strategy.

It's one thing to get in. It's another thing to be able to afford it. And filling out the FAFSA doesn't give you money for college. The FAFSA is a form.

On the money side, parents have a heavy lift in the early years of high school, and it starts with understanding how financial aid works.

So I'm teaching it. Show Me the Money is a free one-hour session on Zoom on Monday, October 19 at 6 PM Eastern. I'll walk you through the Student Aid Index, what the FAFSA and CSS Profile do and don't do, the kinds of aid, and where scholarship money really comes from.

It's for families with students in 9th through 12th grade. 8th grade parents, you're welcome too. Bring your student. I highly encourage it.

If Monday night doesn't work, register anyway. Everyone who registers gets the replay.

What grade is your student in this year? Tell me below.

The registration link is below.

10/07/2026

Ask the admissions officer which scholarships at this school require state residency.

Most families don't ask, and the answer changes the math on the whole school. At UNC Greensboro
the largest named awards go to North Carolina residents. One of them adds that it's
for women and excludes nursing and education majors. Another names residency as a priority
rather than a hard requirement. None of that is in the headline dollar figure. It's in the
criteria.

Three more worth asking on any campus:

Is admission to this program competitive, or does meeting the minimum get me in? At UNC
Greensboro, the nursing seat is competitive, and the school says so in bold on its own page.

What's your merit scholarship deadline? Ask for it out loud, and write down who said it.

If my student studies abroad, does the aid package travel? At UNC Greensboro it does.

Write the answers down before you leave the parking lot.

UNC Greensboro's next open house is Saturday, November 14. Every open house and fly-in deadline
we track, by month: https://sayyestocollege.com/resources/fall-info?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=evergreen&utm_content=uncg-fall-info

Thirty minutes, no charge. Booking link's in the first comment.

10/01/2026

UNC Greensboro throws a homecoming with a bonfire and food trucks, and it doesn't even have a football team.

Basketball is the main event. Before the home opener students paint their faces and walk to the coliseum together, and they call it Storm the Streets. Students get in free with an ID, and our guide told us family gets in free too.

A bronze Minerva stands on campus, and students throw apples up to her for luck before exams. The ones you see at her feet are the ones that missed. Somebody landed one in her hand once. She is on the name tags and on the diploma.

And the campus police have a comfort dog named Odin, a Belgian Tervuren, for the days you miss home. Our guide knew him by name.

Full recap in the video. Link in my first comment.

09/30/2026

UNC Greensboro puts a subject in almost every residence hall, and our student guide said it's so you can find your people.

The residential colleges pair a subject with a building: arts and design, environmental sustainability, community health and medicine, law and justice, health and human sciences. And honors housing is not one building. Gray Hall is the honors residential community, and honors admission carries priority housing, so honors students live in the subject halls too.

It is a diverse campus, racially, economically and socially. By UNC Greensboro's own figures, 71% of first-year students are students of color and 52% are the first in their family to go to college.

The Bryan School of Business and Economics holds its accreditation in both business and accounting. Three out of four of its graduates are working within six months.

Full recap in the video. Link in my first comment.

09/24/2026

UNC Greensboro's Early Action deadline is November 1, and it decides two things.

It's the Early Action deadline for every applicant, and it's also the deadline for a nursing seat
the school decides at the point of application. UNC Greensboro was the first school in the UNC
System to decide it that way.

Qualifying takes a 3.5 high school GPA and a spot in the top half of the class, in by November 1.
The seat is competitive. UNC Greensboro says so in bold on its own page, and that's the honest
version a family should plan against.

If you're the parent of a senior, there is still enough time to move a school on or off the
list and get the pieces lined up. Late October is not.

So go look at it before you decide.

Where's your senior's list right now?

Thirty minutes, no charge. Open house dates and the booking link are in the first comment.

09/23/2026

UNC Greensboro runs two programs I hadn't seen anywhere else, and one of them doesn't exist at any other public university in the country.

Inside its IDEAS degree, the Advocacy and Services for the Deaf concentration is the only public four-year program of its kind in the nation. Interpreter Preparation is the only public four-year program of its kind in North Carolina. Students train to interpret, to teach in deaf education, or to work in advocacy.

It was also the first school in the UNC System to decide nursing seats at the point of admission, so a student is admitted straight in instead of applying again later. That seat is competitive and UNC Greensboro says so on its own nursing page. A 3.5 GPA and the top half of the class earn consideration, not a guarantee. Deadline November 1.

Full recap in the video. Link in my first comment.

09/19/2026

A job counts. Caring for a younger sibling counts. An unpaid internship counts. Helping support your family counts.

Colleges are getting better at recognizing that not every student has access to a summer enrichment program, and they are reading real responsibility as real evidence of character.

None of that replaces grades. Grades still matter more than any single activity. But if your student feels like they have nothing to put on an application, that is rarely true. It just does not look like a club.