College Survival Guide

Everyone, at some point in there existence, contemplates the choice to continue their education. This can be a daunting thought because it can change the course of your life. I’m writing this little guide to help you navigate through the rough waters and help you to make better informed choices about your future goals. College is a big chunk of time and money invested, but with the right moves, you can feel confident in the decisions that you choose for yourself.

Before you jump all in… Take Inventory of where you are in your personal story. Ask yourself these questions and write them down to get a clearer picture of your current reality.

1. How old are you?
2. Are you about to finish high school, or are you already working full time? Maybe you've already completed some college courses?
3. What kinds of things do you see yourself doing, or what do you want to be paid for?
4. What kinds of skills, interests, or hobbies do you already have?
5. Is there a market for what you want to do? How many people are already doing what you want, or how could you do it differently?
6. Why do you want to continue your education? Is it for more money, better job opportunities, do you love seeking knowledge, or do you think it would just be a fun experience?

Once you know your WHY it’s time to figure in your HOW //

If you know you want to go back to school but you have no clue what you want to do you can always start out in a general major and switch to something more concentrated later. Another great option is majoring in philosophy. Now, I may be a little biased because this is the major I chose, but I feel as though its a very well rounded major to be in. As a philosophy major you will learn HOW to think. You also learn better study habits. It connects you deeper to yourself as you start to think about the big questions in life: “Why am I here, What am I doing, How can my existence add value to the world around me?”

Here is a link from my school about the philosophy major if you’re interested in learning more about it:

https://www.sru.edu/academics/majors-and-minors/philosophy

***APPLY FOR FINANCIAL AID***

You can apply for the FAFSA which looks at your income and tells you how much money in grants you can be awarded. This is money you do NOT have to pay back. I repeat this is FREE MONEY for college. There are some stipulations to this, like you must have a GPA of 2.0 or higher to continue to qualify. You also need a specific amount of credits to be eligible per semester. It amazes me the amount of people that don’t know about this because Its such a useful tool and it can help take a lot of stress out of the financial aspect of college. One full semester alone at university can cost upwards of $10,000. FAFSA could cut that in half for you.

It is entirely free to sign up, if you go to a website that asks you to pay for applying this is NOT FAFSA. To avoid confusion I’ll leave the link here for you: https://studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa

You can shop around for different scholarships as well, your school may have a webpage that lists all current scholarships and their qualifications in one easy accessible place. Do some research or ask around. There might be something in there for you. This is also money you would NOT have to repay.

Finally, The dreaded student loans. You can apply for loans to pay for the remainder of your semester bill after the grants and scholarships have been added. Typically you wont have to pay these back until after you've graduated, so there's plenty of time. If you apply for the free money first your student loans will be cut in half.

Transfers

This is something I wish I knew about years ago because I had to put my schooling on halt because of financial issues I was having at the time. I had originally started at a community college right after high school and there was some miscommunication between my schools financial aid office and my FAFSA paperwork, because I did it in person at the time. (If you fill it out online in the right amount of time you shouldn't run into this issue). I was going to have to pay out of pocket for my classes because the office worker didn’t send in my paperwork. I didn’t participate in that semester but they had still marked me present in all of my classes even though I had completely moved states that year after finding out about not receiving financial aid. This completely wrecked my GPA and I no longer qualified for FAFSA. A couple years passed by and I started to do some digging because I really wanted to go back to school.

Here’s what I found out: if you apply for a transfer to another school it completely wipes your GPA so you can start fresh, but it will still keep all of your credits of any classes you did complete. That being said, If you’ve been going to school for awhile but your grades might not be the best and you want to keep at it anyway, you could transfer and get a fresh start, and help shave off some of those costs by reapplying for financial aid.

Things you can do while you’re in school //

So you’ve applied for your grants and scholarships. You have your class schedule and you're ready to learn! Where do we go from here? I have a few pointers to give you before I send you on your way.

1. Keep track of the classes that you’ve taken and the classes you still need to take to graduate. This one is kind of obvious but its very important. My school calls it an audit, but it shows all of the classes that I need to take in order to graduate and it marks off the ones that I have completed and shows ones that are in progress. This is helpful to keep an eye on to see what you still need to take to complete your diploma.
2. You will have spot for free electives and you might not know how to fill them. Use these to take intro classes for things you think you might be interested in. For example; I am majoring in philosophy, but I’m interested in learning more about computer science, so I make take an intro to programming course just to see what it’s all about. I could then take this, if I do enjoy it and create a minor from it. I’m telling you this because you don't need to have your major and minor all figured out from day one, you will probably change your major and minor the longer you go to school and realize different things that interest you. Your interests may change over time and that's okay too, that just means you're growing as an individual. I changed my major 3 times in the first week of my freshman year because I had no idea what I wanted to do and the amount of choices is overwhelming. It is possible to double major and double minor as well, but don't try to do it all at once, take your time with it, you have a minimum of 4 years to figure it all out!
3. Don’t overwork yourself! Get a head start on your assignments and take short breaks in between. Its been scientifically proven that taking lots of short breaks versus a couple longer breaks is actually better for helping you remember and improve whatever it is you're trying to accomplish.
4. Finally, Reward yourself for a job well done. If you get an A on an exam that you thought you were going to fail, take yourself out to dinner or buy a new outfit to make yourself feel even more accomplished for a job well done.

That’s all I have for you today, I hope you found this helpful and I hope it encourages you to go back to school. A final remark I want to make that you've probably heard before, Its never to late to go back to school. I am currently 26 and I’m only in my sophomore year. I tried to continue right after high school but it just wasn't realistic for me. I waited 5 years before taking the leap to try again. I probably won’t finish in the 4 year time frame either because my goals for school are a little different. I just love learning and I’m doing it for the fun of seeking knowledge. Knowing this about my why, I don’t feel pressure to finish school immediately and this is such a freeing feeling.