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college

Getting Through College Sooner

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As a mom, you’re always looking towards the future, thinking about the timetable of the next twenty years. Traditionally, kids are expected to be done with high school at 18, done with college at 22, finished with the master’s degree at 23, done with the doctorate at 26. We all know that the perfect timetable is just a general guideline, not a hard-and-fast rule that can be applied to everyone. Some children take more time to complete certain grades or phases of school. For others, education can be accelerated. Have you thought about encouraging your child to finish with college in just three years? Discover some ways that you can help your young adult move through those years of higher learning more swiftly.

Advanced Placement 

With Advanced Placement (AP), a high school student can take a course and receive college credit. After the course is complete, your teen takes a standardized AP exam, administered by the College Board organization, to verify that he has done college-level work. Check the AP website for more information about exams in areas such as science, math, English language and literature, foreign languages, social studies, and fine arts. Under each of those categories, you’ll find exams for specific subjects, like biology or computer science.

College-Level Examination Program 

The College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) is similar to AP, except that your teen doesn’t have to take a course. This type of standardized exam gauges proficiency. Basically, if your student already excels in a particular subject, he or she doesn’t need to study that same material again at the college level. CLEP exams are available in all the subjects for which AP is available, plus several others such as accounting, marketing, and management. Visit the College Board website for more information.

Summer School

Summer school is a popular way of shortening a student’s time in college. Students stay around on campus after the school year ends to continue their education over the summer. Since the cost for summer courses is usually lower than those taken during the school year, this is a great way to save money on tuition, room, and board.

Online Courses

Many colleges and universities offer distance-learning courses. Not all courses are available in this form, of course, but your student may be able to check off several classes by completing them remotely from home. Plus, taking courses online typically allows schedule flexibility so that your student can keep working on his education while still earning money from a summer job.

Considerations of Maturity and Responsibility

Before you encourage your teenager or young adult to pursue summer school, online courses, CLEP exams, or AP classes, consider a few important factors. Maybe your son or daughter has the intellectual prowess to churn through college at a faster rate, but does she have the emotional maturity to handle the extra pressure? Does he have the mental maturity to really take in what he is learning and benefit from it, or is he becoming burned out? Sometimes, a teenager may simply be too young to handle the rigors of an accelerated schedule, and that’s okay. Young adults develop at different rates. In fact, older college students tend to take learning much more seriously than the younger ones. They often apply themselves more diligently and spend less time on other pursuits.

Colleges and universities are about learning, but there are also extracurricular activities involved. Students who accelerate through high school and arrive at college at age 15 or 16 may have limited opportunities for certain sports or other team activities because they’re simply too young, too inexperienced, or not as strong and tall as the older students. This issue is not an insurmountable roadblock to the idea of accelerated education, but it is something to consider.

Young people in America today have lots of options, and accelerating college is just one of many. For some teens or young adults, it may be wiser to take life more slowly and to mature gradually, both intellectually and emotionally. For others, moving quickly through college may be ideal—the right way to begin a life of glory to God and service to others.

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Rebecca is a work-at-home freelance writer, novelist, wife, and the mom of two bright-eyed little ones. She credits her success in writing and her love of books to her own mom, who homeschooled three kids from pre-K through high school.

Taking Responsibility for Your College Finances (Part 2)

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This is the third post in our college-planning series. Check out the previous posts—about choosing a major and saving for your college expenses—if you haven’t read them already. And come back next week for the last post in this series.

Got your resources all lined up? The next step for getting your college financial plan laid out is to tally up the total for the program you choose. It goes without saying that majors differ, and you want to move forward without surprises midstream.

Tuition and Fees

A list of tuition and fees per semester or per year appears on most college websites. Record the total tuition and fees for one year, anticipating a slight increase each year following initial enrollment. Take particular note of fees attached to specific programs. This could involve anything from art supplies to music studio rental, the cost of jet fuel (if you’re an aviation major), tutoring, and so on. And don’t forget charges for processing your reservation or taking exams.

Living Quarters—On Campus or Off?

The room-and-board cost listed on the college’s website should cover your living quarters and on-campus meals. Some colleges require freshmen to live on campus their first year. Though convenient, this will definitely impact your total. Estimate the cost of off-campus housing with rental fees, utilities, food, furnishings, housekeeping necessities, and possibly renter’s insurance to see if it will really save you money in the end.

The online option: Many schools offer a wide variety of online courses. This can mean big savings in terms of living expenses. While not possible for all majors and possibly not desirable for every semester of your college experience, distance learning could be a money-saving option for some courses.

Books and Supplies

You will probably want to include an average of at least $350 per semester for textbooks in your cost tally and possibly another $100 for supplies. Once you register for classes and have your book list, you can begin bargain-hunting. With minimal networking effort, you can sniff out used textbooks and sell books you’ve already used. Or check out places like Half.com (an eBay site). If you enter the ISBN of a textbook on DealOz.com, for example, it will search the main competing websites for the lowest prices on that specific book. Renting books is also a great option for books you don’t want to keep.

You’ll find almost anything you study is going to require at least a few specialized tools—anything from tech devices to art supplies and from poster board to special presentation binders—depending on the major, class, and teacher. It all adds up. So you will want to allow for these in your general expenses.

All That Other Stuff

Perhaps the most dangerous budget-buster is the “catch-all” category that expands to accommodate what doesn’t quite fit in other categories. This could include your cell phone bill, campus vehicle registration, auto insurance, gas, car repairs, school-related trips (e.g., debate club, sports teams, orchestra tour), laundry, recreation, greeting cards and gifts, organizing tools and other dorm room furnishings, coffee and snacks, clothes, shoes, and the list goes on! While you may not want to allot this category a huge amount, make sure to list all anticipated costs that aren’t included in your housing category—like cell phone and vehicle registration. Also, don’t forget big-ticket items such as travel expenses for Christmas break.

The Sum Total

Now comes the reckoning! Add up all the figures in each list, and find the difference between your resources (what you added up in the previous post) and your costs. You should now have a good idea of how much one year in college will cost. You can even multiply your cost (before subtracting your resources) by four and have the approximate total for your bachelor’s degree.

Are you surprised? View this information as a catalyst to seek the Lord for His provision. Don’t be discouraged! God provides where He leads. In His will, you will see His gracious hand working out the details you have put on paper.

How have you planned for college expenses?

Taking Responsibility for Your College Finances (Part 1)

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Last week, we focused on how to choose a major. Today’s post is the first of two posts that focus on the financial aspect of a college education. We hope that you enjoy it and that you come back next week for the second part!

As you near high school graduation, hopefully you’re seeking God’s will for your life and are establishing goals for the future. Selecting a college that will help you reach those goals and develop your God-given talents is a big step. Once you make those decisions, you need to lay out a financial plan to get through.

The best place to start? Your sources of income or funding. Most students have four funding options—savings, work, scholarships or grants, and loans.

Savings

It’s never too late to start putting money into a (mostly off-limits) savings account. Saving doesn’t have to be huge chunks from every paycheck—you can start off by saving just 5 percent of every paycheck. However you decide to save, be sure that you are making good choices in how, when, and where you save or spend your resources.

Work

Find out if the college you’re planning to attend has on-campus jobs available. Besides saving on travel expenses, on-campus work provides an environment compatible with academic demands and schedules. To avoid overcommitting and possibly losing out academically, start out with just a few work hours per week. Then add more if you find you can handle it. Any job, on-campus or off, will be a testing ground for your communication skills, ability to work with others, integrity, and work ethic—traits that will certainly impact your future career.

Scholarships and Grants

Scholarships are a gift without any payback requirement, but they take effort to secure. Selection criteria can range from having a certain GPA to planning to pursue a particular field of study or being able to write a good essay. The usual success rate for scholarships is getting only 10 percent of what you apply for. If, for instance, you’re hoping for $25,000 in scholarships, you may have to apply for $250,000 worth.

Grants, like scholarships, do not have to be paid back. They’re normally awarded on the basis of “demonstrable financial need.” Most grants come through the state or national government or possibly the college you choose. As soon as possible, you should fill out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSASM). Plan on spending as much time finding and filling out applications as you would in a part-time job—with a higher return for your trouble. You might even cover your entire college education this way.

Information about financial assistance should be available on the college website and from their financial aid office. Also, the reference section of your local library should stock a reliable scholarship guide. Be careful to avoid websites that request personal information or charge a fee to get into their database.

Loans

You’re likely aware that a loan is borrowed money that the borrower has to repay over time with interest. Borrowing can result in an ongoing burden after your college days are long past. It should be considered as a last resort and only after you’re thoroughly informed concerning every aspect of the transaction.

A loan consists of two elements—principal and interest. The principal is the total you receive from the lender, and interest is the additional cost you accrue until the loan is paid off. The type of loan determines whether interest is due from the beginning or is deferred. Of course, the longer you take to repay it, the more interest you will end up paying.

Education loans can come from either the government or private sources. Federal loans normally offer the lowest interest rates and the most flexible payment options. Besides that, if you have an adequate FAFSA score, you may be eligible for a subsidy—which means the federal government will pay the interest on your loan until you finish school. Subsidized or unsubsidized, loans are limited to a certain amount per school year. You should avoid borrowing more than you plan to make during the first year in your career. (Warning! A common pitfall for students is losing track of how much they borrow. It will help if you keep your documents and notifications in one file.)

College is a big step toward independent adulthood. How you steward your time and money will determine how well that journey begins. And ultimately . . . how well it ends.

How have you planned for college expenses?

Where to Start When Choosing a Major

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This month we’re focusing on college planning. We will be posting some helpful information and links that you can share with high school seniors. They have a busy school year ahead, and we want to help as much as possible. Check out today’s tips on how to choose a college major and then check back each week in September for more college planning posts!

Choosing a major. For some students, it’s one of the hardest decisions they’ll ever make. So many options are available, and they all sound interesting. (How do you pick just one?) It was hard for me—I switched majors twice before my sophomore year of college.

Some college students aren’t like that. They know what they want and stick with it. But there are others who, like me, aren’t sure what to do with the gifts the Lord has given them. If you are struggling with making this big decision, here are a few questions to help you think through and narrow down the options.

What do you like?

It seems like a no-brainer, but sometimes it’s hard to figure out how what you like to do could be a career. For now, focus on your interests; you can consider related careers later. Also, it might help you to write down your different hobbies so that you can refer to them later. And don’t worry if something sounds silly or weird. This is strictly a brainstorming exercise, so don’t edit your list before you create it.

A few brainstorming prompts

  • Favorite activities/hobbies (including jobs/volunteering)
  • Favorite thing to study/do in school
  • A desire that God has placed on your heart
  • Times when you feel like you’ve accomplished something that you’re proud of

What do you see?

Is there something that you could see yourself doing? It might be something that you daydream about. Or when asked what you’d like to do, this certain image pops into your head. What is it?

What do others see?

It’s helpful to ask others for their advice. They see us in a different light . . . from a different angle, so to speak. Ask people that you respect or look up to. Find out what they see as your strengths and weaknesses. Some of the responses may confirm an ability or interest that you already knew about; others may be surprising revelations.

Don’t be discouraged. It can be hard for some of us to speak our dreams aloud. We may feel that something sounds silly or impossible to accomplish, so we don’t voice that dream. But we should. God made each of us for a purpose, and that dream of yours may be exactly what He wants you to do. Talk with people you trust because you know they will listen and give you good advice. Tell them your impossible dream. Even if you’re not ready for that, then at least write it down and share it with God—He’ll give you the best advice.

What advice would you give to a young person who is deciding on a major?