I cannot stress enough to my clients how important it is to disclose everything they can to an admissions committee. Why? Because sometimes, what you don't say may actually be the difference between an acceptance letter and a rejection.

One client in particular – let's call him Jon – was in such a position. His SAT scores sat in the low 400s, but he had outstanding grades. At a glance, there seemed to be a huge disconnect there, but no other information was present on the application to suggest what that was.

According to a letter sent Monday by the Education Department, the agency will be ready to process emergency advances for student loans by June 1.

The Education Department also announced last month that it would speed up contingency planning for the last-resort loan program, designed to get money to students who cannot obtain federally guaranteed loans from private lenders through the normal process.

By law, 35 state-level guaranty agencies around the country are charged with lining up emergency lenders or making loans themselves, either with their own funds or with advances from the department. The loans would be guaranteed by the federal government, at an interest rate a few percentage points higher than loans made under the government's regular Federal Family Education Loan, or FFEL, program. The last-resort system has never been tried or tested on a broad scale.

More than 50 lenders have said they will stop participating in the FFEL program. They say making such loans is no longer profitable because of cuts in federal subsidies and the recent credit crunch, which has made it difficult for them to market securities backed by student loans. Some guaranty agencies have said they are having trouble lining up lenders willing to make emergency loans.

Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said she hopes the new legislation will pump enough liquidity into the system so she doesn't have to turn to the last-resort program. Most families have only just started receiving their finanical-aid offers from colleges for the fall and don't typically begin borrowing for the fall until the summer.

Kettering University now offers students the opportunity to prepare for medical school with a new Premedical Course of Study program.

Students who complete this course of study will receive a bachelor of science in their respective degree program along with a minor in Biochemistry, preparing them for medical school, a job in the growing bio-technical industry or graduate school.

Supporting the pre-med course of study are the newly formed Biochemistry Department and the donation of the Dane and Mary Louise Miller Life Sciences and Bio-Engineering Laboratory facilities that include surgery simulation suites, a cold room, storage area and a prep room to support laboratory functions.

For more information about the Kettering Premedical Education Course of Study, visit their web page.

Due to budgetary constraints, USA Today is suspending indefinitely its All-USA College Academic Team and All-USA Community College Academic Team programs. The two programs provided annual cash awards of $2,500 to 20 undergraduate "all-stars" at four-year schools and 20 to community colleges who excelled above and beyond the classroom. The winners and 40 honorable-mention students were featured in the newspaper as well.

Many college officials expressed concern that the paper's move is part of a broader trend of news outlets cutting back coverage of higher education, only focusing attention when there is a problem.

USA Today is also discontinuing similar programs recognizing teachers and high-school students. Its all-USA athletic teams will continue, but those do not include a scholarship component.

Once upon a time, there was a clear geographic distinction between the SAT and the ACT.

The ACT was what Midwestern high school students took and what Midwestern colleges required. Everyone else used the SAT. Top universities and colleges that drew applicants from across the country accepted both.

Today, that distinction has vanished. The SAT and ACT are given and accepted practically everywhere.