5. SO YOU’RE GOING TO COLLEGE

––––––––

IF YOU ARE PLANNING to attend college, start preparing as early as you can. In high school, enroll in college prep or Advanced Placement courses and take as much math and writing as you can. This will keep your options open, no matter what you decide later. And start saving. Everyone talks about tuition costs, but books and living expenses can add up too. The following checklist starts in the first year of high school, but you don’t have to start planning for college at age 14. Read over the suggestions and use whatever makes sense for you.

Freshman Year

◻	Ask your guidance counselor or teachers what Advanced Placement courses are available, whether you are eligible, and how to enroll in them.
◻	Start your resume. Use it to keep a list of your awards, honors, paid and volunteer work, and extracurricular activities.
◻	Update your resume throughout high school. When you need to apply for jobs and scholarships, you don’t need to hunt around for your information. You already have it in one file.

Sophomore year

◻	Meet with your school counselor or mentor to discuss colleges and their requirements.
◻	The two main qualifying tests for getting into college are the SAT and the ACT. Practice for the SAT by taking a practice Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) at collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/psat-nmsqt-psat-10. If you don’t have internet access or a printer, try the public library. Tell the librarian that you want to take a practice test.
◻	For ACT practice, the Prepscholar site has a list of interactive and printable practice tests: blog.prepscholar.com/complete-official-act-practice-tests-free-links
◻	Make the best use of your summers: Work, volunteer, or take a summer course. You can enroll in noncredit courses, and sometimes even credit courses, at a nearby college or university.
◻	Plan to attend career and college fairs to talk to recruiters and get a more in-depth look at your options.
◻	Research majors that might be a good fit with your interests and goals based on your results from the U.S. Department of Labor’s career search at bls.gov/careeroutlook/. But bear in mind that most people have no idea what they want to do when they’re fifteen. Even those that do find themselves changing careers every few years once they’re in the workplace.
◻	Keep taking math classes, and try to sequence your classes to complete calculus while you’re in high school. Successful completion of calculus is associated with success in college in general, and in science and technology specifically [87, 88].

Junior year

◻	Take the PSAT/NMSQT in the fall. You must take the test in 11th grade to qualify for scholarships and programs associated with the National Merit Scholarship Program. Check with your high school for the schedule.
◻	Register for and take the SAT and ACT for college admission. Your high school counselor should be able to tell you when and how to register. If your family is low income, or if you are an orphan, in foster care, or a ward of the state, you may qualify for a waiver.
◻	It’s not too early to start looking for scholarship money! Use the Department of Labor’s scholarship search at careeronestop.org/toolkit/training/find-scholarships.aspx. Some deadlines fall as early as the summer between 11th and 12th grades, so prepare now to submit applications soon.

Summer between junior and senior Year: THE INFAMOUS FAFSA

You must fill out the FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, even if you don’t think you qualify for federal student aid. Having filled it out is a prerequisite for scholarships, even those not based on financial need. Fill it out at fafsa.ed.gov. Note the .gov suffix, meaning that it’s a website run by the Federal government.

On the FAFSA site you will create a username and password called the FSA ID. You’ll use your FSA ID to confirm your identity when accessing your financial aid information later. You must create your own FSA ID. If your parent creates it for you, that will cause confusion later and will slow down the financial aid application process.

Need help? Go to the Federal Student Aid Information Center at studentaidhelp.ed.gov/app/home/site/studentaid

Senior year

Some institutions offer Early Admission or Early Decision. If you have competitive grades and test scores and you are sure that you would accept an offer from a specific institution without comparing offers, Early Decision is a good choice for you. If you want to compare different offers before you decide, Early Decision and Early Admission are probably not what you want to do.

Find out more at professionals.collegeboard.org/guidance/applications/early

Financial Aid: Grants, work-study, or loans?

Federal student aid comes in three flavors: Grants, work-study, and loans.

Grants are free money. Take them whenever they’re offered.

Work-study is where the Federal government subsidizes your employment on campus. This is a pretty good deal, as students with on-campus jobs usually have an easier time coordinating their work and school schedules and do better in school as a result.

Also, depending on what your work-study job is, you might have an opportunity to get to know your professors and/or staff members better and to make a positive impression on them. This can come in handy for building your network. You can draw on your contacts if you need career help or letters of recommendation later.

Student loans should be approached with caution. The Seattle Times reports that around 44 million Americans have student loan debt totaling $1.3 trillion. Unlike other loans, student loans are nearly impossible to discharge in bankruptcy [89]. While you may read about students graduating with hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loan debt, this is unusual. Most students who default have a relatively small balance. It’s not necessarily bad to have a moderate amount of loan debt that you can afford to repay. What you want to avoid is defaulting on your loan. Students who attend for-profit institutions are about twice as likely to default [90]. Unsurprisingly, those with family wealth borrow less to begin with [91].

If you do take out a loan, plan to start paying off your loan the minute you graduate. Even a single missed deadline can get you into trouble. You can read more about types of student aid at studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types.

The Western Undergraduate Exchange

If you are a resident of one of the Western states, the Western Undergraduate Exchange program gives you discounted tuition in participating schools in the other WUE regions. See wiche.edu/wue for details.

WESTERN UNDERGRADUATE EXCHANGE
Alaska	Guam	Nevada	Utah
Arizona	Hawai'i	New Mexico	Washington
California	Idaho	North Dakota	Wyoming
Colorado	Montana	Oregon	Pacific Territories

The SAT and the ACT

The SAT and the ACT are two standardized tests commonly used in college admissions. Schools will generally accept either one. If you don’t test well or wish to avoid standardized tests for other reasons, consider a “test optional” school. You can find a list of them here:

fairtest.org/university/optional

Ask your high school counselor whether your school provides free ACT and/or SAT testing.

If not, you can still take standardized tests for free if you are from a low-income household. You need to work with your high school counselor to arrange fee waivers.

Instructions for SAT fee waivers are here: collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/register/fees/fee-waivers

Instructions for ACT fee waivers are here: act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/FeeWaiver.pdf

Applying

Ask your counselor whether your high school provides financial aid for application fees. If not, many universities will waive application fees for financial need or good academic performance. You need to inquire with the schools individually to see what their policy is. Be persistent; many are reluctant to give up that $50 or $70 unless they must. Most universities will let you apply online.

The Common Application

The Common Application is a single application that lets you apply to over 700 institutions. It can save you a lot of time and effort, and it’s free, although individual schools may still require their own application fee. You can find it at commonapp.org.

To apply, you’ll need:

◻	A copy of your high school transcript
◻	A list of extracurricular activities, both school-related and non-school-related
◻	Test scores and dates from your college entrance exams (SATs, ACTs, SAT Subject Tests)
◻	PARENT / LEGAL GUARDIAN INFORMATION including educational background, occupational information, employer information, etc.

The Universal College Application, available at universalcollegeapp.com, is a smaller and shrinking competitor to the Common App. At one time it had close to 80 institutions, but now covers nine schools. The Coalition for College has 130 member schools and is available at coalitionforcollegeaccess.org.

Some schools are not in any common application consortium, so you will have to fill out separate applications for them.

Don’t be afraid to apply to schools you think you can’t afford. If you have documentable financial need, you may be able to get your application fee waived. Wealthy schools with large endowments can afford generous financial aid and may be more affordable than your state school. Examine aid offers carefully to ensure they’re offering you grants, not loans.

Schools that meet your financial need

These highly competitive schools will meet your entire financial need, without loans. See blog.prepscholar.com/colleges-that-offer-complete-financial-aid for updates.

SCHOOLS THAT MEET FINANCIAL NEED WITHOUT LOANS
Amherst	MIT	U. of Pennsylvania
Bowdoin	Northwestern	US Air Force Academy
Brown	Pomona College	US Naval Academy
Colby College	Princeton U.	Vanderbilt University
Columbia	Stanford U.	Washington and Lee
Davidson	Swarthmore	West Point
Harvard	U. of Chicago	Yale

Spring Semester of your senior year

◻	Visit colleges that have invited you to enroll, if you can afford the travel.
◻	Review your college acceptances and compare the colleges’ financial aid offers.
◻	Contact a school’s financial aid office if you have questions about the aid that school has offered you. In fact, getting to know your financial aid staff early is a good idea no matter what—they can tell you about deadlines, other aid for which you might wish to apply, and important paperwork you might need to submit.
◻	When you decide which school you want to attend, notify that school of your commitment and submit any required financial deposit. Many schools require this notification and deposit by May 1.

Do you need to go to a “top” school? It depends. If your goal is to work for an elite investment bank, consultant, or law firm, then you should plan to attend Harvard or Yale [92]. Otherwise, your alma mater is less important than your personal qualities and your major [93]. In fact, institution attended  explains only a small amount of the variation in college graduates’ earnings [94]. Life satisfaction after graduation is associated with the following experiences, no matter what kind of college you attended [95]:

◻	Engaging in meaningful jobs or internships
◻	Choosing courses requiring long-term work.
◻	Getting all the financial aid possible and available
◻	Working an on-campus job
◻	Keeping paid employment to under 20 hours a week.
◻	Keeping debt under $25K

If you’ve been out of school for a while

◻	Consider a General Educational Development (GED) certificate if you don’t have a high school diploma. Search online for “GED certificate” and your state’s name.
◻	Research career possibilities using the Occupational Outlook Handbook at bls.gov/ooh and the career search tools at mynextmove.org and careeronestop.org. Your local community college may have career counselors willing to work with you.
◻	Use College Navigator at nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator to find the right school for you.
◻	Ask employers to recommend schools that provide training in the skills you will need for the career you choose.
◻	Ask your employer if assistance is available to help you pay for school.
◻	Use the U.S. Department of Labor’s scholarship search at careeronestop.org/toolkit/training/find-scholarships.aspx to find scholarships.
◻	Apply for federal student aid by filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Find out more at studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa/filling-out.
◻	Get to know the financial aid staff at the school you plan to attend; they can help you with aid applications and explain the types of aid available.

Choosing a major

Your own human capital—skills, work habits, ability to read others’ emotions and control your own—will make a huge impact on your life and career. But when it comes to starting salary, major matters. Engineering, computer science, and finance majors make a lot of money; art, education and social work majors don’t. You can see earnings by major from the National Center for Education Statistics at nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_sbc.asp. It’s clear that if you want to make a good salary right out of college, pick something with “Engineering” in the title. But consider the unemployment rate as well, and decide what is most important to you. For example, early childhood education majors have only 2.1% unemployment, but the average salary is low. You can find unemployment and underemployment by major at newyorkfed.org/research/college-labor-market/college-labor-market_compare-majors.html. Above all, you should work in a job that you don’t hate.