Wondering about college...

A lot of school assign you your schedule based on your major your first semester/quarter to avoid confusion. Others let you pick it during orientation so you have help.

I’m not aware of any aid so that you can visit the schools.

There are literally tons of websites for aid for school. Here’s one.

FAFSA is one tool you will need to utilize to get most if not all your college financing needs and questions addessed…one form gets your info out to the schools and financial institutions, scholarship & grant giving entities.

@njnyjobs Duh, the FAFSA. It was on the tip of my tounge.

Yes, do the FAFSA. But I think you need to do it when you’re a senior.

No, there is no free money to fly you around the country to look at schools – unless you have a particular gift (music, sports, famous name…) and a school is recruiting you. You’d do better by making phone calls to the faculty and asking them pointed questions about whether their allegiance lies with their research or in teaching you.

You’re paying for college, so yes of course you get to choose all those things. You shouldn’t expect less.

Fastweb.com was a popular one when I was looking. You’d do best by camping out in your high school’s counselor’s office – that’s where the list of local ones will be.

@lilikoi Some schools actually do reimburse lodging expenses if you enroll at that school, but you’re right that they won’t pay to bring a prospective student out to see the place.

Scheduling will probably be the first reality check for you when you go to college—you’re on your own. There’s no pre-crafted schedule or sequential block of classes you need to take. You figure out which classes you need, with the help of an advisor, and pick from several offerings. Often times different classes can satisfy the same requirement, e.g. “3 credit hours from a 100-level Composition class”, which you can use to your advantage to balance your schedule. Get rid of the notion of going to school from 8am to 3pm, because that’s gone. Your classes are whenever you can get them, and as a freshman you’re getting last pick. My freshman year I had a class at 7am and 6pm on the same day, and those were the only two classes I had that day. I found this frame of thought was one of the most important. You’re responsible for your education when you put your first foot in the door.

When you get accepted by a college, they will send you an acceptance letter in the mail. Colleges accept far more students than they can enroll, because there is reliably a significant portion of admits who will not enroll at the school for various reasons, so you will also receive a form to actually enroll at the school, and there’s usually an enrollment fee (mine was $50). Enroll as soon as you know which school you’re going to go to.

Most schools offer tuition reimbursement through the school itself. Once you fill out the FASFA your school will determine your student aid package. If it’s a private school, you will rarely actually owe the sticker price tuition—they will determine your need based aid and tell you what you actually owe them, which must be paid for directly or with scholarships and loans. Public schools generally offer grants and scholarships too, although not quite as generously as private schools have deeper pockets. Mine had an application that submitted me to several different grants from the University itself. I actually received more aid from my University than I did from private scholarships and grants.

Your travel will be at your own expense, unless the school is highly recruiting you. That’s pretty rare. You can research the programs offered by universities on the internet.

You can find a lot of resources at you own high school in the administrative/counselor office. They usually know where you can find the best information.

WOw!! thanks guys!! Alright, I was a bit worried for a bit, but seems like theres a lot of stuff out there!! Fafsa seems to be well known…

@smile1 FASFA is universal. It’s a form for the federal government that virtually all universities use.