Students, at all grade levels, should have a game plan for success – knowing what they are going to do, and when they are going to do it, in order to reach their goals.
Young students should try to identify their areas of academic interest and pursue experiences that will help them excel in later years. For example, students who are passionate about science should join science-themed clubs at school and attend outside programs, year-round, at places throughout New Jersey like The Environmental Education Center, Franklin Mineral Museum, Trailside Nature & Science Center, InfoAge – Science History Learning Center and Museum, and, of course, The Liberty Science Center.
A college investment is one of the largest expenses that most families will face in their lifetime. Yet many students and parents find themselves choosing an institute of higher learning without doing any serious homework that could help identify best-fit colleges where students could prepare for the career of their dreams, at an affordable cost, with the likelihood of earning an impressive salary over the course of their career.
A good place for families to start their research is at www.CollegeBoard.org There they will find a College Search database that contains information on more than 2,000 four-year colleges in the United States. By selecting specific criteria regarding school size, location, availability of on-campus housing, choice of major, and other aspects of college life, students can easily identify colleges that might be a great match.
The best scenario is for students to avoid, or at least minimize, their college debt. There are several things that students should, and should not, do to make this a reality.
While in high school, students should seek part-time jobs with companies that they could likely continue to work for in college and that offer tuition reimbursement programs. Chipotle, for example, will pay back up to $5,250 a year in tuition costs for eligible employees. McDonald’s offers up to $2,500 a year in tuition assistance to hourly workers. Starbucks will actually cover the full tuition cost for employees enrolled in Arizona State University’s online program.
While most high school students maintain an active online presence, they often have no idea that colleges are monitoring their actions and “scoring” them accordingly.
The Washington Post recently reported that admissions officers at the University of Wisconsin installed tracking software on their school website that indicated when a student visited their site, which pages were viewed, and how long the student spent on each page. Additional information profiling the student was provided, and the student was assigned an “affinity index” estimating his/her likelihood of attending the school, if accepted.
What greater holiday gift is there for a college bound student than to receive a fat acceptance letter, or a congratulatory email, from a college of choice? But in order to have a chance of getting such good news by the holidays, students typically need to submit their college applications by the “early” deadline of November 1st or, in some cases, November 15th.
Students can apply to as many colleges “early action” as they like and, if accepted, they are not required to attend. This differs from an “early decision” application which can only be submitted to one college and binds the student to attend, if accepted.
The 2020 issue of U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Colleges” – often viewed as the bible to the college industry – is about to hit the newsstands. New Jersey’s Princeton University is still in first place (for the 9th consecutive year) as the “Best National University.” It’s followed by Harvard, in second place, and a three-way tie for third place among Columbia, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), and Yale. Other universities in the top 10 include University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, University of Chicago, Northwestern, and Duke and Johns Hopkins, which tied for 10th place.
This issue marks the 35th annual edition of the guidebook which rates colleges on a wide range of criteria. For example, each school is rated on its average freshmen retention rate. This is the percent of freshmen that return to the college for their sophomore year, indicating a level of happiness or satisfaction with their college. The top 25 national universities typically enjoy first-year student retention rates of 97% to 99%.
Students planning their college years are in a unique position to make their dreams come true. By identifying what is most important to them, they can easily narrow down their college search and then live the dream – at least for their college years!
If the passion is for golf, colleges and universities with highly rated courses include Yale, Ohio State, University of Georgia and Notre Dame. If the dream is all about skiing, opportunities are plentiful for students at Dartmouth, University of Vermont, and University of Colorado at Boulder.
