Preparing for college...

[JesusIsAlive]

As the time to go to college is getting ever nearer, stuff has been on my mind. I was wondering what you all were thinking about college and things to come.

-So, how are you preparing for college?
-What are you looking for in a college?
-Know of any good scholarship websites?
-Have you entered for any scholarships? Or better yet, won any?
-Do you know what you want to major in? What about a minor?
-Are you taking any dual-credit classes?


Okay, so I know that some of you are already in college, but I'd appreciate your input, too! I'll add some input a little later on.

[Danielle Abigail Maxwell]

Even though I'm still a year away, I'm stressing about where and what. It keeps bouncing between two places (and that's only for pre-med) and how I'm going to get myself into Loma Linda University (Do something Pre-med... no clue really what yet) I'm deciding on Nursing for pre-med... other than that, I may do Biology... duh, Pre-med...

Things to think about are yeah, basically scholarships and where and what you want to do in college. How you'll get there, what might happen, signing up, getting in, classes that have to be accomplished in 2, or 4-5 years, and life after college (Hard to think about that, ay? )

Since I'm probably going to be going to a really inexpensive Community College, I don't really have much of a need for scholarships. Unless I can like, save them for Medical School, I'm basically just going to kinda not look at scholarships. $4000 a year for 4 years isn't much compared to $25,000 and then... *gulp* $51,000 (Loma Linda is VERY expensive, especially the Medical School there)

Even in a year, I'll have no idea how to prepare for college... I'll live with my Aunt and Uncle again (the CC I'd be going to is practically RIGHT next door, plus my Aunt works there) and.... Honestly, I've got no idea...

[The Top Crusader]

I'll probably fill out the FAFSA in the next few days, yay!

[Johnny]

I should be worried about it but strangely I'm not I've got enough on my plate regarding the school I'm going to next year so I'll worry about it then.

[Rodney Rathbone]

College is for GEEKS!!!

[KODY 105]

Would that be Campbell County Community for you then, Rodney?

[Taq]

-So, how are you preparing for college?

I was diligent in my studies and prayed.

-What are you looking for in a college?

The most important factor for me was location; I wanted to stay close to home. Of course, it helps to live near a few relatively inexpensive public universities with great programs.

-Know of any good scholarship websites?

I've been referred to fastweb.com, but I've never applied for anything listed there.

-Have you entered for any scholarships? Or better yet, won any?

Yes, I've applied for numerous scholarships over the years. I won a small sum of money from my local public school as an incoming freshman based on SAT/GPA, and I'm hoping to get something from my current school.

-Do you know what you want to major in? What about a minor?

I majored in biological sciences since I enjoyed and naturally did well in the subject.

-Are you taking any dual-credit classes?

I didn't, but I recommend them if you have the option. AP, IB, dual-credit, etc. - they'll challenge you academically and give you a head start when you get to college.

[KODY 105]

-Are you taking any dual-credit classes?

I didn't, but I recommend them if you have the option. AP, IB, dual-credit, etc. - they'll challenge you academically and give you a head start when you get to college.

And dual-credit classes also tick off the advisors when you didn't take the preferred or transferable class(es) (because dual-enrolled students get last pick for registration)!

But it was good experience even if it never makes it beyond the walls of that building.

[Eugene Meltsner]

As a young adolescent, I would often spend my weekends at the Campbell College library poring through the works of great scholars such as Aristotle and Plato.

[Robyn_Jacobs]

As far as scholarship websites go:
www.scholarships.com
www.zinch.com
www.fastweb.com

I'm going to a community college to be a Medical Assistant, maybe later I'll be a nurse.

[Irwin]

College is for GEEKS!!!

Why thank you

[Ingress Neverwhere]

College is for GEEKS!!!

Card carrying and proud of it!

Straying away from the academic for a bit, my advice is to find some place that you feel at home at, that you can see yourself in. I know that the small town environment of Monmouth played as much a part in my decision to apply there as its excellent English program and beautiful campus did.

And it may seem like jumping the gun a bit, but start stocking up on quarters now. You're gonna need them for laundry, trust me on this

-Kim

[LizzieG]

I'd always wanted to go "far away" for college, so that factored into my decision to attend the university I did. The school was also not much bigger than my rather-small high school, which made the 2000-mile transition a bit easier. What really brought me there, however, was that its English-writing program seemed perfect for me and my goals. Unfortunately, I ended up transferring to a different school, and then my first school died, but that's another story for another time.

I prepared for college by working hard in high school and trying to use my interests/skills there to help me figure out what my major in college should be. As far as preparing to actually up and move to school, I learned how to do laundry, then used the college packing list to decide what I needed to get. I was afraid I'd be terribly homesick based on experiences in summer camps when I was much younger, but thankfully I settled in rather easily.

I applied for a few scholarships, mostly ones where you just had to fill out a simple form, and I got the Robert C. Byrd scholarship. I actually forgot I'd applied for that one when I got the notification that I'd won (:anxious:), but it's provided $1,500 per year, which is cool. http://www.fastweb.com looks good too, and I've applied for a few of its scholarships here and there, but haven't won any. It seems like it'd be hard to win some of those writing contests, what with them being open to... everybody!

I've applied for this scholarship before, and though I never did win anything, it's a rather fun scholarship to enter because they ask totally uncharacteristic questions (like what you would put on a vanity license plate and why), and looks for simply the most interesting answers. I also have this link (and this one too) bookmarked under "Scholarships," so you could try those too.

I'm a history major, soon-to-be English Writing minor. History was my third major, though, so even though you may think you know exactly what major you want, be prepared for the possibility that you may change your mind somewhere along the way. It's a very normal thing to do.

Hope all this helps in some way, JIA! I'll be praying for you!

And it may seem like jumping the gun a bit, but start stocking up on quarters now. You're gonna need them for laundry, trust me on this

Not if you go to my school.

[Jugglah]

So, how are you preparing for college?

Well, of course, I'm done preparing, but that means I'm in a great position to offer (somewhat opinionated ) advice, because I've just been through it. The first thing to do is take lots of SATs and ACTs. I know you're very familiar with that already, but anyway, yeah, take those until you've got a score you're happy with. I only took the ACT, because it was a better fit for the way I think, and I was happy with my score the first time I took it, but I didn't take the writing section that time, so I had to do it again the next year. My score went down by two points the second time, but it was fine, because what got sent in was a composite of my first test, and the writing section from the second. That's the nice thing about the ACT - colleges only get the best, instead of everything, like they do with the SAT.

Also, visiting campuses is very important. Most colleges look awfully nice from their websites. And then you eat in the cafeteria. And see the dorms - the freshman dorms. Also, you get a feel for the atmosphere of the campus. Talking to students is a really good way to find out stuff, because college students are really honest about their schools.

Final thing is scholarships. In this economy, and in my family, I would not be going to college without one. There are a lot of scholarships that you can try for on the internet (more on that later), but the biggie (unless you're going to a state school) is the one you receive from the college where you're going. At my school, there are three tiers of academic scholarships, and the eligibility is determined by standardized test scores. I was eligible for the top academic scholarship, which sure was nice, but I had to go the the school for a weekend and interview with three professors to compete against 80 other people for the scholarship. So there's work involved as well. Also, they had scholarships for music majors and athletic scholarships. I'm not sure how that works, because I didn't try for those. The really cool thing that my school does is to automatically give a $1,000 scholarship to anyone who was homeschooled their senior year. That was really nice for me. And about a third of the students there were homeschooled, so I think a lot of other people appreciated that, as well.

Sorry, this is really long. Still with me? By the way, the number one thing about preparing for college is to do things on time. In fact, do everything way before it's due. I'm a procrastinator, and I'll admit it. But I didn't procrastinate about college stuff. I applied to my school in September of my senior year. I was accepted two weeks later. And then I watched a lot of my friends stressing about getting everything done and getting accepted until about last month. You don't want to be one of those people.

What are you looking for in a college?

I probably have different criteria than most anybody else, but maybe some of it will resonate with you, and even give you ideas you hadn't thought of before. So, in no particular order:

1. Christian (This is really important to me, and here's the thing - there are a lot of "Christian" colleges that really aren't. Like the one my parents went to: Southern Baptist affiliation, but with liberal professors and a bunch of students with drinking problems.)

2. Proximity to home (I didn't particularly want to go to a college that was across the country, so I decided to see if I could find a college that met my other criteria within my state, or adjacent states. Unfortunately, there were no colleges in my state that I liked, but the one I'm going to is in an adjacent state, about 5 hours from where I live. Of course, that's definitely not the case for a lot of people. I met a girl at my scholarship weekend who was from Arizona, and ended up deciding on a school in Arkansas.)

3. Size (Having been homeschooled all my life, I know for a fact that I do better in small classes. If that's important to you, look for the class size ratio. Mine is 13:1 on average.)

4. Structured, but not suffocatingly so (Ok, so I wanted to go to a Christian college, and that comes with rules based on Biblical values. I am definitely cool with that. But here's the thing - some Christian schools are wacky. They have a lot of rules that aren't based on the Bible, but on legalism. So, I think it's good to be modest, but I'm not going to give up my jeans for ankle-length skirts 24/7. I like my music, and while it's not offensive, it's definitely rock. So if you don't want to get slapped with a bunch of rules you don't agree with, ask for a community life handbook, or something of that nature. Read through the whole thing. Seriously.)

5. Academics (If I'm going to college, I want one with good teachers and good classes. And I don't want to go to school with a bunch of slackers. And I bet that you don't, either. So look for ways to find out the quality of the schools you're interested in. This is the most useful site, in my opinion: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/college
Just type in names of schools you're interested in, and it'll give you the tier, and the ranking (as long as it's in a high tier. Sometimes a school is too low in the tiers to be rated. I think they rate the top 100 or something.)

6. Food (It sounds silly, but it's not. If you have to eat in the same place for four years, you really want the food to be pretty good. Eat in the cafeteria of any college you're interested in. Is there variety? Does the food taste good? Seriously, it's important. At one of the colleges I visited, the food was nasty, and apparently we were getting the good stuff because it was a special weekend thing. I asked one of the students what the food was like normally, and he was like, "Yeah, I pretty much eat cereal for every meal." Don't be that guy.

Know of any good scholarship websites?

Fastweb. No doubt, it's the best. You do a survey thing so it knows what kind of person you are, what you're interested in, and for which scholarships you would be eligible. Then it gives you links to scholarships on your profile. And you can sort them by deadline, which is so incredibly useful.

Have you entered for any scholarships? Or better yet, won any?

The easy answer to that is yep, and nope. Here are the scholarships I've won. Presidential academic scholarship from my school, Homeschool scholarship from my school, scholarship from my state homeschool group.

Yeah, okay. The sad truth is that while I'm a good student and upstanding citizen, I'm four things that kill me in scholarship competitions. White, Christian, middle-class, and homeschooled. If you want to be perfectly honest, most scholarship committees really like minorities, people of any religion other than Christianity, people with major financial need, and public-schoolers. What can I say, it's a politically correct world. And the essay topics reflect that. Maybe you can make yourself write from that perspective - I'm not very good at doing that. My convictions are really strong, and it's hard to write the opposite of what I believe. But doing so can get you money, so if you can bring yourself to do it, go for it.

Do you know what you want to major in? What about a minor?

I'm going to major in English. I had to narrow it down from about four possibilities, but that's what I'm going for. I'm not considering minoring in anything at this point, because I think I'm going to be busy enough.

Are you taking any dual-credit classes?

I never did, but I can tell you that a lot of my friends did, and several of them started college as Sophomores. Do you have any idea how much time and money that saves? I don't really regret that I didn't do that, but I think I would recommend it.

Alrighty, well, I could say more, but I'll spare you. But if you have any more specific questions, I bet I'd have some answers, and you can always pm me. I hope it's been helpful, and good luck in your college search!

[Hannahjiejie]

As a young adolescent, I would often spend my weekends at the Campbell College library poring through the works of great scholars such as Aristotle and Plato.

Hehe, I've read both of them... not so much Aristotle, though.

Preparing for college? Who says you have to go to college after you graduate? Hmph. Forgive me for not being politically correct, and I'll apologize if I really have offended you. (apologize means to 'give a reason/answer for')

[jelly]

It's Hannah!

[Johnny]

As a young adolescent, I would often spend my weekends at the Campbell College library poring through the works of great scholars such as Aristotle and Plato.

Eugene spelled "pouring" wrong!

What has the world come to?

[Trent DeWhite]

Are you not familiar with the word pore?

I guess I should also add that I never really "prepared" for college since I took all my courses through correspondence. But there are a lot of helpful tips that have already been posted. I'll be sure to return to this thread when and if I decide to go for my masters.

[EK]

You did your college through correspondence? Nice! That seems like fun because you'd have alot more time to do whatever else.

[Anna><>]

-So, how are you preparing for college?
-What are you looking for in a college?
-Know of any good scholarship websites?
-Have you entered for any scholarships? Or better yet, won any?
-Do you know what you want to major in? What about a minor?
-Are you taking any dual-credit classes?

I'm making sure I get good grades so then I get a scholarship.
I'm looking for my university to be not too expensive, close to one of my dad's condos, and that it accepts credits for the courses I'm going to be taking at the college in my city.
My school gives you a big scholarship when you graduate if your grades are above 80% from grade 10-12. My grades are well above that.
I have no idea what I want to be when I'm older.
I'm going to take AP math in grade 12, so then I don't have to in university.