''Crunch Time'' Hits High School Seniors and Parents As Colleges Mail Acceptances April 1st; School Decision Anxiety Spikes As Families Agonize Over Which Offer To Accept.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Most Schools Require Commitment Within 30 Days

The nation's 2,196 public and private four-year colleges will send acceptance and rejection notices to 2 million hopeful students across the USA starting Friday, April 1st, as high school seniors and their parents wait expectantly for "thick or thin" envelopes (or the email equivalent) confirming their hopes for acceptance or fears of rejection.

Many students will earn multiple acceptance letters, reversing roles with the colleges as the students now make the final acceptance decision. The quandary for students is no longer "which school will accept me?" but "which school will I accept?"

To meet this critical need, College Parents of America today released Crunch Time: Solving the College Acceptance Dilemma, the first-ever college acceptance decision guide for parents that provides a detailed five-step process for evaluating admissions offers. The 19-page guide is available to parents online at www.collegeparents.org, for a $4.00 processing fee.

"The news of multiple acceptances launches many students and their parents into a month of anxiety over which offer to accept, making what should be the most gratifying part of the process - achieving a successful admission - the most stressful," said James A. Boyle, president of the not-for-profit membership association, College Parents of America. "Often, many of the decision factors have changed since the applications were submitted and parents and their children have little information to guide them as they face this important decision."

"While the ultimate decision belongs to the students, parents can play a very significant and useful role in helping their children to logically compare and contrast schools based on their current interests and needs. Of course, affordability, the campus culture, location and many other variables must be weighed, as well," Boyle added.

Crunch Time is a practical and easy-to-use tool to help parents and students organize, rank and compare the critical criteria on which to select the school that promises to best address the student's particular needs. The guide features recommended strategies to address common questions most often raised by students, a five-step process for organizing critical college information, eight key criteria for consideration, a worksheet to compare each school's offerings (including the ability for families to rank each element to produce a personalized analysis), and a second worksheet to compare student aid offerings between schools.

Choosing the right college is a difficult and stressful process. According to the National Center for Education Statistics of the U.S. Department of Education, many students do not remain through graduation at the colleges where they start out, and many do not graduate at all:

--Only 50% of the beginning students completed a degree or certificate within five years

--13% were still enrolled after five years and had not completed a degree

--37% had not completed any degree and were no longer enrolled after five years

--58% of beginning students received financial aid; students who received aid were more likely to finish their degree programs in five years than those who did not receive aid

"While no one is promising that selecting the right school can be an easy decision, we've tried with Crunch Time to create a logical, personalized coaching process parents can follow to help students make the best choice," Boyle concluded.

Parents can obtain a copy of Crunch Time: Solving the College Acceptance Dilemma by visiting www.collegeparents.org and clicking on Crunch Time link on the home page. The guide is available for $4.00.

College Parents of America is the nation's only membership organization dedicated to advocating for and providing practical information to parents of current and college-bound students. College Parents of America, based in Arlington Virginia, also provides discounts on a broad variety of educational and consumer products to help members save money while their children prepare for, apply to and make the transition to college.

(NOTE TO REPORTERS: To obtain a copy of the guide please send your name and press affiliation to [e-mail])