Things I Wish I Knew When Choosing College

In the spirit of college application deadlines, I thought I'd share some wisdom I learned about researching colleges through four years of college.

1. If you plan on studying abroad, where you go matters. Some schools require it, and others strongly support it. Some may encourage it but do little to help you acheive it. If you go to the last kind, you will find it very difficult to raise the necesary funds or even graduating on time.
2. There is such a thing as "free college." An article on Fastweb has a list of schools where you can get the tuition waived. Of course, you still have to pay other fees, but it gets rid of one big cost. While all of the options are fairly competitive, I wished I had tried for one of these.
3. Travel can be a huge expense. Although I live and go to school within the same state, traveling can be difficult and expensive. Going to a closer school could have saved my family a lot of time and money.
4. Look for scholarships early. I did the majority of my scholarship search while I was in school, and as a result did not get as much of a chance to apply for scholarships with large prizes.
5. Start visiting schools early. I know that two years seems like a long time, but most of senior year will be spent applying. I did not want to go to any school that I hadn't visited, so I did not apply to several schools merely because I didn't have the time to visit.
6. You will have to take the SAT/ACT more than once. I only took the ACT once, and was not completely satisfied with my score, but I had not chance to take it again.

I hope this helps everyone who is planning to go to college. Do any of my readers have any tips to add?

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Choosing a Major

It's Time to Pick a Major!

Are you starting to freak out because you haven't selected a major? It's time to stop just thinking about it and actually take some action. Here are some useful tips to help you choose a major:

• College alumni network: Ask alumni what they majored in and what types of jobs their degrees qualified them for. Are they glad they selected their particular major? Was the degree program difficult? If they had to do it all over again, would they select the same major?
• Career counselor: Your college's career center has counselors who can help you with this important decision. They may suggest some books and offer some self-assessment tools. They'll set up meetings with faculty members who can answer questions and provide advice about specific majors.
• Preview classes: Sit in on a few classes in the majors that interest you.
• Changing colleges: If you can't find the right major at your current college, you may have to transfer to another school. Selecting a major is an important life decision, so don't choose an uninteresting major just so you can hang out with your college friends. There are plenty of websites on the Internet that provide lists of majors and the colleges that offer them.
• Hot jobs: Ask career counselors for a list of the hot jobs at your college's career fairs. Find out which college degrees are sought after by employers visiting the campus. You may find something that interests you.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS): Check out the Bureau of Labor Statistics website. Take a look at the employment projections web page, which provides projections for a wide variety of jobs. You can search by education, training, or occupation. The website offers employment growth projections, salaries, and other useful information for many jobs. The Subject Area tab lets you access the employment and the pay and benefits categories, and these include a lot of useful subcategories. The Publications tab includes the occupational outlook quarterly, the occupational outlook handbook and career guides.

Useful Websites

Here's a list of useful websites to help students choose a major:

College Board provides information about majors as well as career profiles.

My Majors provides information on an array of majors. It includes descriptions of different career fields and the possible areas of specialization within each field.

Occupational Information Network offers a skills search activity that lets students identify their skills and match them to potential occupations.

Career OneStop; Career Infonet includes occupation information and state-based information about growing fields, trends, and other useful information.

What Can I Do With This Major? is a website that helps students connect majors with careers.

Choosing the right major is important. If you haven't decided on one yet, take some action!

Brian Jenkins is an expert on education topics. He contributes content to BrainTrack's guide to choosing a college degree program.

Poverty and College

Many colleges claim to be blind to the economic background of applicants. This is true with scholarships as well. In other words, it doesn't matter if an applicant is rich or poor, they have the same chances as anyone else. In theory. The truth is, having money gives students all kinds of advantages. They did not have to work in school, so they could focus on their grades and extracurriculars. These are the things colleges look at. Also, if a student has to pay for college, he or she may have to put it off. This affects what scholarships they can apply for.

Even something as simple as having parents who went to college can make a big difference. Because your parents have a degree, they expect you to as well, and want to help you succeed at going to college. Parents who did not attend college still want their son or daughter to succeed, but they may not know how or do not think that college is a necessity.

Do you see a fair solution to this? Has your family's economic situation made a diffence in where you were accepted? Please reply in the comments.

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