This is too much. I haven’t even attended college yet. I haven’t moved in yet. I haven’t eaten cafeteria food yet. I haven’t been to the college gym yet. I haven’t gone to any classes yet
There’s no way I have 10,000 to blow on just one semester. I don’t think many 18 year olds do.
I knew college was going to be expensive, but I was not expecting these numbers to appear so suddenly!
It will not be hesitant when it comes to collect lots of money.
For all high school seniors getting ready for college I would like to point out a few things you might want to know when applying.
First of all the Common App is a wonderful website to help you apply for college online. If your school doesn’t teach you how to use it – many colleges will want their online applications through this website anyway.
Write your college essays clearly. Google tips on good college essay writing. Check and double check your grammar!
Don’t spend hours on one college essay. Take a few minutes of each day to add, fix, or change the essay over several days. Don’t procrastinate either.
Take the SATs or ACTs 3 to 4 times max. (Colleges might say scores are not a big factor but they very much are – even after admittance my college continued to reference SAT/ACT scores for placement in classes as a freshman)
Scholarship application deadlines go quick! Get them fast! Google scholarships for everything because there is one for everything (look out for fake junk scholarships online). Ask your guidance counselor for ideas on where to find scholarships.
For example, there was a scholarship for people who live in my county, or have a membership to my local amusement park. Big companies like Wal-Mart have scholarships. There are also military dependents scholarships, gender, or race scholarships.
Apply early action (not early decision unless you are sure because it’s binding). This way you have more than one chance to be admitted.
Visit the schools and if you cant see yourself living there, save the money for that application fee and apply to a different one.
Applying for college is a lot of work, but if you’re ready for college then you are ready for college applications.
Never stress out too much over one process.
If you have any questions about college applications please leave a comment!
Everyone knows college isn’t cheap. The books, tuition, room and board, and everything in between all adds up to some ridiculous amount.
The worst college bills are the ones you don’t expect.
For example, one of the reasons I’m going to my college was because freshman are allowed to bring their car. When purchasing my parking pass the price tag stood out as something of a shock to me.
$300 for every 5 months (semester) of parking in the parking deck.
Colleges can do this. They own a profitable location and can drive prices as high as they want in cases like these.
I’m not saying all of these price tags are avoidable, but for fair warning expect these small but influential additions to your college expenses. I will continue to post more hidden price tags as they come throughout my experience.
The next big price tag to come will be food. For all freshman staying in dorms a meal plan is required. The cheapest one comes at $1,700.
Spending money is never cheap.
The thing I worry about most when entering into my freshman year of college is going into school blind and, metaphorically, in the dark. There is a lot about college that is different and scary.
Mostly I feel that the pressure is really on now that I am paying for it. Any fall backs or mess ups could mean I’d sink further into debt than necessary.
This is why communication with my college must be crystal clear.
This has not been the case for me so far. Communication with student services and emails with department workers has been an endless circling of information and redirection on who it is I really need to speak with.
For example, I had a scholarship award I needed to turn in so that I could receive those funds towards my tuition. Originally, I was told to go to the student services center, they told me to go to the accounting office, and the accounting office told me “no” I had to got to another office.
This round about confusion led me to a woman’s desk 45 minutes later. I handed her a piece of paper and she told me I was all set.
Simple as that.
Then I asked a question like…
“How will I know when my money has been taken into account for tuition?”
or
“Will I be notified by the office when the scholarship transaction has gone through?”
Her response was vague and unclear. She started by telling me that she wasn’t sure and that I might be able to see if the transaction went through by asking student services (the office where I started this whole adventure).
An event like this occurred again but worse when I tried to change my major.
This is why communication errors are my biggest fear when entering college.
Make sure communication is as clear as possible.
Ask questions.
For many rising college students their summer orientation is when everything is set up for the upcoming school year. Important things like deciding your freshman classes are done at orientation.
In my experience orientation was the worst place to make my freshman class schedule.
Ultimately, the main goal at orientation at a big university is to push a large load of students through a process, and do so quickly. Well this method doesn’t work for someone like me who can be slow to act when carefully considering the pros and cons to each course before committing to them.
During my session to schedule my classes with the other rising freshman we first gathered in a large computer lab where we were informed on how to sign up for new courses.
There were several college assistants/students and some college advisors to help with this confusing process.
Some of these individuals (the students) I felt were not entirely qualified to be giving advice about the types of classes I should enroll in. Towards the end of the session many were done and submitted their schedule without question, yet ,I remained pondering why mine did not turn out the way I had expected.
Still I was content with my schedule enough that I was about to send it in as well.
Then I was approached by a graduate student who sat down and attempted to aggressively rearranged the list of my college classes to gave me some absurd courses that were beyond my known capabilities. This lady did not know me or my learning strengths or weaknesses. She was not an advisor and she barely listened to what I was had to say. To me this schedule looked like a horribly written list that would cause me to utterly suffer and hate my first semester of college. To appease her aggression I submitted these courses.
She left satisfied while I was about to break down in tears.
However, I was not about to sit and let this slide. I felt like I had been shoved aside in order for the orientation process to be completed.
So I set up an appointment with a real advisor to privately sit down with me, away from the rush of orientation, to construct a real schedule that I knew would suite me better. After looking at my past high school courses and listening to what my personal goals were she gave me more reasonable suggestions on how I might go about achieving my goals. By the end I was able to come away with a better understanding of how my freshman year will go (instead of blindly working in classes I had no business taking). I was even able to opt out of more general education classes than I was originally told I could.
Huge programs, like college orientation, might want to overlook your interests, goals, or thoughts and choose to ignore them in order to complete the activity within a selected time slot.
When making big decisions don’t let issues slide.
Don’t be overlooked.
Lily 