(written by Rising STAR, Meryssa)

Hello readers, Meryssa here. I hope everyone had a great winter vacation. Today I am writing a blog about the SAT’s and ACT’s. Both the SAT’s and ACT’s are tests that most colleges require for admission. Fortunately, you will only have to take one of these. Typically New England colleges prefer the SAT’s but most other parts of the country prefer the ACT instead of the SAT. But check with the schools you want to apply to, most will accept either one.

Here’s what you need to know about the two tests:

• The SAT is graded on a scale from 200-800 for three sections (verbal, math & writing) making a score of 2400 a perfect score. Whereas, the ACT has an extra science component and a score of 36 is considered perfect.

• There are fees for both of these tests. The SAT is $45 for students. The ACT without the writing portion is $32, with the writing portion it is $47 (I recommend taking the extra writing piece because many schools require it). (More about fees in a minute!)

• Both tests take about four hours to complete.

Before winter vacation, I went to my guidance counselor to get information about these tests. My guidance counselor gave me a practice booklet that also has the dates of the SAT and when I have to register to take the test. My guidance counselor also gave me a “Fee Waiver Form” from the state of NH that helps waive my fee for the test. The youth that qualify are students who have free or reduced lunch, are a ward of the state (foster care, kids in placement, etc.), or children that come from low income families. If you think you would qualify for getting your fee waived for the ACT or SAT I suggest you talk with your guidance counselor as all high schools have access to these forms.  After I went to my guidance counselor, I went to my school’s library to see if they had anything that would help me study for my SAT, and they did. They had a ton of books for both the SAT and the ACT.

So if you are planning to take either of these tests I suggest that you first go to your guidance counselor to find out more information about test dates and registration dates. Ask about “Fee Waivers”, especially if you are a foster kid. Then, you want to head to a library to see if they have materials to help you study.  (And the Center for College Planning also has lots of SAT preparation books they can lend you.  Call (800)525-2577, ext. 119 to see what books they have available.

Happy Studying,
Meryssa

        

(written by Val, College Counselor at the Center for College Planning)

Good morning bloggers,

In my online travels I came across an interesting article on biometrics.  I had never heard of the term before, but after reading the article, realized that I have been surrounded by discussions related around the topic for years.

For those of you like me who did not know the meaning of the word, basically biometrics is the “measurement of physical characteristics, such as fingerprints, for use in verifying the identity of individuals (provided by dictionary.com)”.  I’ve seen this technology used firsthand in some college cafeterias  (like Keene State College)  to scan student’s hands as they enter to ensure that someone else did not use their meal plan card.  It was pretty cool to see. 

Regardless of your belief in this field, it is growing and more colleges are offering courses in biometrics.  For more information about the field, the types of career positions companies will be hiring for and the level of degrees required, read the full article here.

Best,
Val

        

(written by Krystal, Rising STAR)

Hey Everyone!

This past month has been super exciting for me! I’ve gotten accepted to TWO colleges!!!  I can’t describe the feelings I had when I found out I got accepted. It was like nothing about this process was real until I got that letter, then it all became real. It’s an incredible feeling!!!  I was accepted to two great 4-year public schools and now I had the task of choosing which one to go to.

Even when I was applying to these colleges I was finding it hard to choose between them. I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to attend. I have made my choice though, and the school I chose stood out for a couple of reasons. One reason is its location, it is closer to home. It is only about an hour and 15 minutes away from my house. The other school is more than three hours away. Another factor that played a huge part in my decision is that the other school no longer has the major I want to study. So ultimately, I’m very excited with my choice and I’m ready to continue with the next part of the college process… Scholarships!  I will post more about it next week.

:o) Krystal

        

(written by Val, College Counselor for the Center for College Planning)

Hello bloggers,

In recent years, social media sites have exploded.  In a time where  Facebook is a term spoken by many, there are people out there that think of social media sites solely for the purpose of connecting with people from their past, or keeping in touch with those close to them.  But in actuality, reputable social media sites can offer so much more.

I found an article outlining 15 different social media sites that you may find helpful as a student soon heading to college or about to enter the workforce.  They are separated into categories including: sites for organization, saving or making money, socializing professionally, training, internships and jobs, and finally travel.

To view the full article outlining the social media sites recommended in this article as well as a brief description, click here.

Happy networking,

Val

        

Thought I’d share a question that was posed to me recently, along with my reply, in the hopes that it might support you in determining if a job is a good fit.
 
Dear Coach Sue,

I've been stressing a lot with this job, and I'm not sure to what extent this stress is normal. I know stress/frustration is normal with a new job, but I'm having a very difficult time with the work, and feel like I'm struggling and taking way too long to complete projects I'm being assigned.  I guess I'm just used to succeeding easily, and this is a major challenge.  Could you give me some insight on the major signs that a job isn't right for me?

Signed,
Stressed and Recently Employed College Grad

Dear Stressed and Recently Employed College Grad…
 
When it comes to assessing whether a new job is right for you, a few things come to mind.  First, I’d suggest paying attention to the times you feel most stressed as well as the parts of the work that you do enjoy (assuming there’s something you enjoy about it).  What are you doing when you feel stressed?  What are you doing when you don’t feel so stressed and when you’re enjoying the work and/or work setting.  It could be that parts of this job go against the grain of your personality or that the job has you using skill sets that you don’t particularly enjoy using.  Personality Type plays a major role in work satisfaction.  For example, Extraverts tend to like a lot of variety and people contact while Introverts need time for reflection and prefer to handle one project at a time.  Sensors prefer concrete tasks while Intuitives prefer to play with ‘outside the box’ possibilities.  These are just a few examples that relate to Type and work preferences.  You can use the book, Do What You Are and the website: personalitypage.com to identify your personality type and explore this job relative to your Type.  Skills are another piece of the puzzle.  Think back to the other jobs you had pending prior to taking this one and the ones that excited you most.  What were the job descriptions for these positions…what were you going to be ‘doing’ (work activities) in these jobs?  What excited you about them?  How do those jobs that were exciting differ from this one?  Think about the jobs that turned you off…but you went through the application motions anyway.  What turned you off about them?  What work activities were involved in the jobs that turned you off? 

Another thing to consider is that there’s always a learning curve with a new job and some of the stress you’re experiencing could be related to new job overload.  So, another question to ponder is whether or not you think you’d enjoy the work if it came easier to you.  It is true that the ‘work world’ is very different from school (so you’re still adjusting) but work environments, industries, work functions, etc. vary significantly from one employer to another.  It could just be that while you were excited about having a job search potentially finalized, this position just may not be the right fit for you.
 
Above all, don’t take it as a personal failure if you’re not able to adjust to this job.  You don’t want to force yourself to go through the motions and continue to develop knowledge and skills in areas that turn you off.  It’s not always easy to do so, but try to think of this as a laboratory experiment where you’re ‘performing’ but you’re also a ‘detached observer’ curiously noticing what’s working and what’s not working for you.  Use that knowledge and insight to guide you as you move forward.
 
Sincerely,
Coach Sue

Until next time…
Sue Posluszny
www.careeroptions4me.com

For more information about me and my qualifications, please click here.

 

        

(written by Rising STAR, Meryssa)

Hey readers it’s Meryssa!

So last week I was at the trade school that I go to during the school day and they were having a college fair. As my class was walking to the college fair I started to really think about my future. Don’t get me wrong I think about my future a lot but never in this much detail. As we entered the college fair I made it my goal to ask a bunch of detailed questions of the college representatives working for schools that offered classes for nursing because that is what I want to do as a career.

I asked questions about the price of everything from room and board to how the food tasted. The questions you ask should be what you want to know about and are interested in. The main questions I think everyone should ask are: how much does it cost for all the things you are going to need in class such as books, tools, anything of that nature, how much room and board is (NOTE: If you are not going to live on campus you do not have to ask this question), how hard is it to get into the classes you need to take to fulfill graduation requirments, as well asI if financial aid is available if you need it.

Another great way to find out about colleges is to go on the college’s website. There is also an amazingly helpful website called www.campusexplorer.com  On this website you can type in where you want to go to school and what you want to study or you can also just type in a name of a college you are looking at and it gives you a list of schools that meet those requirements. Then you can click on the name of the college and it gives you information including a list of expenses, size of the school, facts about the campus, and pictures!

There are even websites that grade colleges. www.collegegrader.com is a great one. Keep in mind that the information on there is completely subjective and many schools only have a very small percentage of their students providing reviews.  It is interesting to look at, but I would not recommend basing your college decision on the content. There is also other information on scholarships and loans on there as well.

Finally, another search site that I recommend is www.bridges.com  On here you can search for schools based on location, major, size, cost and more.  Call the Center for College Planning at 888.7.GRADUATE x.119 and ask for the username and password to begin searching for FREE today!

Hope this blog helps make college browsing a little bit fun and easy for you.

Happy surfing,
Meryssa

        

(written by Val, College Outreach Specialist at the Center for College Planning)

With high school juniors beginning to research college choices and seniors starting to receive their financial aid award letters, we here at the Center for College Planning have been receiving many questions about colleges that may offer full-need to their students.   For those of you who may not be familiar with this term, full-need basically means that the college is agreeing to meet the difference between what they think the family can afford for one year of college and what the actual cost of the college is.  While there is no one way that all colleges review or meet need, I did find an article that explains full-need a little more and lists colleges that claim to meet it.  Keep in mind, that while colleges would love to meet each of their student’s financial need,  meaning the student might not have to take any loans/come up with their own funds to help pay, many are not able to do so.  Some colleges may be able to offer you more financial assistance than other ones.  Colleges give prospective students their best offers of aid up front, and based on those numbers, students and families should discuss which the best option for them is based on the numbers as well as the academics.

What is important to understand as you look at colleges or review your award letters is that every college may view financial need very differently.   It's true every student needs to file their FAFSA form every year.  That form provides the student with his or her EFC or Expected Family Contribution for the upcoming academic year.  Full-need schools usually require additional financial information by completing the CSS Profile application administered by CollegeBoard or another supplemental financial aid form that the college provides.  In order to be eligible for the maximum amount of aid, students need to complete all financial forms required by the college.  This additional information can change the EFC when determining institutional aid– meaning money that the school can provide out of their own resources, not federal aid– money that the government may be able to offer to help pay for college.  Oftentimes the student’s institutional EFC is higher than the federal EFC.

To view the full article, click here.

If you have any questions about a specific college’s full-need policy, please contact their Financial Aid Office.  And as always, if you have any questions about your award letters, ways to meet the cost of college, or any other questions that you may have, please do not hesitate to contact us at 888.7.GRADUATE ext. 119.

Until next time,
Val

        

(written by rising STAR, Krystal)

This week I’m talking about the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Aid). Wow, what a long process!

First, you need to be aware of your financial aid filing deadlines so that you don't miss anything. Different colleges have different deadlines and they are usually different from their admission deadlines. So keep a list of each school you are applying to and BOTH their admission deadline and their financial aid deadline. This is really important!

Next, remember, most everyone is scared of filling out the FAFSA the first time and that’s okay! If it’s your first time filling out FAFSA it can seem very confusing. My advice would be to seek help. I was fortunate to have had help. The staff from NHHEAF came to my high school to help students and their families fill out the form. All I needed to do is bring my social security number, and any tax information (like W-2’s from work). If you have not completed your taxes at the time of your appointment you'll need to bring your previous year’s taxes.

Having the help made it so much easier and less stressful! It was a wonderful opportunity. I would tell everyone to use this FREE resource. I know they specifically came to the schools in North Country since it is hard for us to get to Concord, but they offer this same FREE service everyday in their Concord office. For more information about how NHHEAF can help you with your FAFSA, visit their website at www.NHHEAF.org.

Until next time,

Krystal

        

Since the last time I wrote, I have narrowed my decision down to two schools. One is a private school, which offered me a presidential scholarship, the other is a public school that I am just waiting to hear back from with an offer of financial aid. Both schools, even including the scholarship, would cost about the same (not including financial aid packages). However I still need to wait and see what I am offered before making my final decision.

Just recently I went to the public school (my top choice) and participated in their women’s lacrosse clinic (I plan to play lacrosse if I decide to go there). I was able to meet many of the players on the team as well as the coaches. Visiting the school again solidified my interest in it and gave me a real feel of what it would be like to go there.

This week I also attended a Presidential Scholars dinner at the private school I was accepted to. I was able to listen to information about the programs the school offers, as well as meet many current and prospective students. Let’s just say the school did a great job with the event, making every part of the night feel personal. From name cards to certificates, to them sharing some "fun facts" about next year’s class, they did a great job. One thing that I was really interested in was their 3 year honors program. If accepted, I could get my Bachelors degree in 3 years and then, get my masters in the 4th year. I’m not sure if it is something I will definitely pursue, but it is a great option to consider.

Both schools have great programs to offer, and I know the school that I would love to go to, however, it is going to come down to what each have to offer for me for financial aid. It will be a tough decision, but I am confident that I will make the one that is best for me after factoring in finances, academics and my desire to play college athletics.

The counselors at the Center for College Planning have been very helpful, answering my questions and providing the resources that I need to feel educated and prepared to make my decision. If you would like some guidance, please call them at 888.7.GRADUATE ext. 119 to schedule an appointment with one of their counselors today!

Best,

Lauryn

        

In this February podcast, the CCP counselors discuss the differences between the FAFSA and CSS Profile, where NH kids are going to college and why, and tips for controlling student debt. Enjoy!

Download | Duration: 00:35:19