COLLEGE 101

Well, do you want me to say college is easy? Or easy to prepare for, that Seniors just sail right through it? Nope.
Actually preparing for college is worse than college.

What do you need?
Good Grades
An Idea of What You Want
Take the ACT or SAT Test
Do Community Service
FASFA (We’ll get to that)
Scholarships (That too)
Possibly Teacher recommendations and college essays.

Now if you have all of this, you are alright, just keep a good time frame and you’ll be okay. Just know what you want, have back-up plans and don’t aim too high.
Now let’s break this all down.

Good Grades
Alright I’m not talking straight A’s. If you can do that, do so, it will help with scholarships in the future. But from Freshman year up, you don’t have to get honor roll all 4 years just try your hardest and don’t fail courses. Aim for a 2.5 or higher. Set goals and try to be organized. Do your best and don’t let stress to be perfect cloud your goals.
Now let me tell you about my school life. My Freshman year I had a 3.4 GPA, it showed my potential, I’m a gifted student and I know my stuff, I didn’t do my homework and slacked off because I could, then that momentum continued my Sophomore year and I got a 2.2 GPA, I passed and I was over worked so I didn’t care to change. Junior year knocked me down under a 2.0 GPA…Oops! I still got in my choice college, because I didn’t aim for Carnegie Mellon or Harvard, but I had my goals in order and picked a school that would be good for me. But that doesn’t justify screwing around. Now I have to pay for college and those grade exempt me from 75% of available scholarships. It can still be done, but because I chose to take the easy road then, I’m taking the hard way back to the right side.
Most scholarships ask for a 2.5 or 3.0 minimum, if they require a GPA at all. So don’t sell yourself short and think you can fix it later…Later doesn’t come.

An Idea of What You Want
If you know what you want to do after college, I applaud you…but you’ll change your mind, or at least second guess yourself at least once. If you have an idea or you want to explore your options go to www.bls.gov/OCO/ and there you can learn about all kinds of jobs. You can learn what they do, what a normal day is like on the job, what education it takes and how much money you can make, plus a lot more.
When you look at colleges and majors, don’t just jump into a major because it says marketing and you like selling, look at the classes you’ll take, see if it appeals to you.

Take the ACT or SAT Test
To get in to 95% of colleges require one of these two tests. Relax. It’s not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Start taking this test as soon as you can, and take it as many times as you can. The more test scores you have the better your overall score. Look at the schools you are interested in for ACT/SAT score requirements or an ideal score range.
When it comes to studying, take it a little at a time, take some free practice tests, and learn some relaxing techniques to use to prep you for it.
For the ACT you can use the ACTStudent.org website for registration, tips, and practice test questions. You can also use TestPrepReview.com for both the ACT and SAT practice.
For the SAT you can go to www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/sat/reg.html and learn everything you need to know for the SAT. The college board website is also good for college searches and financial aid FAQ.

Community Service
You would not believe the amount of scholarships that are out there for well-rounded community service participants. Not much more to say about that one, American Red Cross is the best, and easiest way to get in your community work on record. You can work one day a month and meet requirements to remain an active volunteer.

FASFA and Scholarships
WATCH YOUR DEADLINES!!! Colleges require the FASFA usually in January or February.
Confusing mess of nothing. Don’t panic, everyone makes a big deal about the confusion behind the Free Application for Student Financial Aid. Let’s break this down. You go to www.fafsa.ed.gov/ and go to step one, here you will learn about your dependency status, most of you are dependents unless you have a child of your own, then it gets a little more technical. You can also apply for your PIN number, all this is a four-digit verification number for your social security number.
Step two is actually filling it out, make no mistake, this is no big deal, just get your facts together and read. The website gives you easy to read instructions that should make this all a breeze.
Why fill out the FASFA? Because the FASFA application allows the Government to look at the money your family brings in and determines your EFC or Expected Family Contribution. Your EFC is the amount the Government expects your family to pay each year for your college education. Now just because your EFC is a low number does not mean the Government will pay the difference between that and your College tuition. What it does is determines what kinds of grants and loans you qualify for from the Government. Again another snag, just because you qualify doesn’t mean you get it, or get a lot of it.
After you fill out the FASFA it’s sent to your school, or schools, of choice. Then they take over. The school compares you with other students and puts together a financial package this package is all the money the school and government will give you to go there, all school-based scholarships, and state and federal grants are awarded to you in this package and each package is different for everyone at every school. Now, schools don’t call you and say, “hey, Karleigh, you get this amount of money for your Fall term,” no actually, you should call them, pester if necessary, check your school account and keep in touch. They will let you know if there is additional paperwork and give you expecting due dates for your package to be ready.
While they are doing that, and beforehand you should be checking www.scholarships.com/, www.collegeboard.com/, and www.fastweb.com for public scholarships, you should also check your school guidance office for PTA scholarships and others offered to your school district.

Good Luck!
Now, if you have any other questions comment or email me and I’ll address all general questions Wednesday in an article response.

Next Week, teen pregnancy. I’m going to talk about Mommies and Daddies to be who just got through puberty. Why is it American teenage sexdrive is the same as British and other European teens, but our pregnancy rate is almost double. What are the realistic precautions. Are you pregnant? What are your options as a new expecting mom and more.

I hope to hear from you all this week, I’m listening so start talking!
Karleigh Rae