Ten Things You Need to Know About College: Before You Begin the Four Most Important Years of Your Life

By David House

Searching for a selecting a college or university is one of the most important activities you'll undertake in your life. It determines much of your future as much as or even more than buying your first house, finding a soul-mate and getting married, applying for and accepting a new job and other major moments in your life. Paying for college is also the biggest purchase you'll likely make in your life other than a house. Searching for a college to attend can be confusing, complicated, and time-consuming. The Ten Things You Need To Know About College provides you with information about colleges and universities that will help make your college search informed and successful.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781543986556

Book preview

Copyright 2019

All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ISBN 978-1-54398-654-9 (print)

ISBN 978-1-54398-655-6 (eBook)

Contents

Introduction

College Is a Product You Are Buying

It’s All About Education

There’s Nothing Like American Higher Education

General Education is More Important Than You Think

Your Major Isn’t as Important as You Think

How College Admission Works

How Financial Aid Works

Study Abroad is Your Passport to a Great Education

Colleges Are Success Factories

There’s More than One Way to Get a College Education

What is a Good Education?

A Glossary of College Terms

Additional Resources

About the Author

Introduction

This book is addressed to future college students—and it’s also for their parents. Whether you are a student or a parent, there’s one question you need to ask yourself:

Do you know enough about college?

Students—You likely know a lot about colleges through friends, relatives, and perhaps brothers and sisters who’ve attended or are attending college. Maybe you’ve visited some colleges or attended an event at one. That’s given you some ideas about college—but far from all you need to know.

Parents—If you attended a four-year college (and beyond), you probably know a lot more than your future college student. That’s going to be of great help, but keep in mind that your experiences were likely 20 years ago—maybe more. Things have changed! Today there’s on-line education, increasing competition, more college applications than ever before, larger student loans, and soaring college costs. This book not only updates your knowledge, but it also gives you some insight into some aspects of college you may not have considered.

Most of the questions students and parents both have about college focus on the mechanics of the college search—completing the applications, writing admission essays, and taking the SAT or ACT. You’ll learn a lot about these from counselors, teachers, friends, and of course, the colleges themselves. Knowing about these mechanics is essential to your search—but they’re only part of the story.

That’s why this book is unique. It answers questions you may not have thought of.

For example, do you know…

The history of American higher education (and why it’s worth knowing)?

That there are two price tags for college, the sticker price and what you actually pay?

What a General Education program is and why it’s so important?

That a college major isn’t likely going to determine your future career?

These questions seldom get addressed during the search process. In some cases, college don’t want you to ask some of these questions, yet students and parents need to know the answers before the college admission letter arrives in the mail.

Ten Things You Need to Know About College offers a fresh perspective about the aspects of a college education that challenge your thinking and will be of immense help in your search for the right college.

Finally, if you’re wondering why there are ten things to know about college, but eleven chapters…

The purpose of college is ultimately for students to get a good education. So, I’ve addressed the question "What is a Good Education in the final chapter. It’s something that’s often assumed but seldom explored in the college search. As a consumer—whether student or parent—the expensive product" you’re buying is an education, so it’s worth thinking about what it means to become well educated.

1

College Is a Product You Are Buying

Imagine a college campus on an afternoon in early autumn. It’s easy to do, because you’ve seen this in movies, television commercials, websites, and college brochures. The ivy-covered walls of the neo-classical or Georgian brick buildings surround a quad of manicured green lawn with a fountain in the middle and edged with majestic old trees—perfect to sit under reading a book on an autumn afternoon. Smiling students walk to or from classes. Others are on their way to the Commons, known for its dependable comfort food, strong coffee, and over-sized leather chairs, ideal for a short nap. In the background, the inspiring sounds of the college choir practicing in the music building mingle with the rehearsal of the marching band in the distance.

What a comforting view of a college campus! It evokes feelings of tranquility, beauty, order, and something above and beyond the hassles of everyday life. It’s a campus scene that colleges want you to see.

These are idealized images, yet they’re not far from the truth. Most college campuses really are park-like places with gorgeous buildings that impress people as they convey images of tradition and permanence, but sometimes these images cause us to forget that colleges and universities are much more than beautiful scenery and buildings.

Behind the ivy-covered halls, there’s a lot of business being conducted.

Colleges and universities are a lot like businesses—strategic-minded and competitive businesses. Strategic-minded means that they have plans for where they’re headed as institutions and how they’ll get there. They strive to get the best students, the best faculty, and the best administrators. They work hard to make their campuses and facilities the best in the nation and in the world.

Of course, some universities have much more money than others. Some turn away thousands of applicants every year, while others struggle to make their enrollment targets each year. Regardless of size, prestige, stature, or academic quality, competition is a major factor for everyone—large or small, well-endowed or entirely dependent on tuition and fees.

You’ll see the competition in all the advertising you receive, both in print and online. Depending on your grades and SAT/ACT scores, you might even be admitted to a university that you haven’t applied to (Yes, this really happens!). Colleges have become increasingly adept at using sophisticated marketing strategies that mimic those of big businesses. There’s nothing wrong with this. It’s simply good business and indicates the level of competition.

Keep in mind, however, that college’s sophisticated marketing techniques are designed to get you interested and have you apply. It’s a product they are selling, and you’re the consumer.

College websites, for example, always show the happiest of students, the most beautiful campus photos, the most interesting professors, and the most enticing recreational facilities, from Lazy Rivers to climbing walls and fitness centers that rival any gym you’ve ever seen. The image of a college or university that you see on a website isn’t inaccurate, but it’s likely the best image of that school you’ll ever see.

When you apply to colleges and universities, you’re faced with some major competition, and that means you need to market yourself too. You’ll list all your accomplishments in addition to grades and test scores. You’ll highlight everything that you think is of interest to the college. When you write college essays and answer the many questions they ask—like "What’s your favorite snack food?"—you’ll give it some thought based on how you want the college to see and understand you in the best possible way.

How does all of this relate to your college search? Easy! Since colleges are as strategic…as a consumer, you need to be strategic and competitive as well!

Becoming Strategic in Your Search

Being strategic means taking charge as the leader of your college search. A strategy is a master plan to reach your goal. It plots out what you need to do, when you’ll do it, and how you’ll do it.

You don’t need a complicated plan. Successful plans are usually simple. They consist of four parts:

A Mission – a brief description of who you are and what you do.

A Vision—how you want your mission to unfold. It’s not a fantasy, but a real description of what you want to happen and when. (Think of it as your dream come true.)

A Strategy—theway you’ll make this happen. (Think of it as your main, all-encompassing goal.)

Tactics—the many actions that you’ll take to reach your goal and make your vision a reality.

Let’s look at how your college search strategy must have these four parts as well:

Mission

To be successful in life, you need to have an overarching mission. This depends on how you define successful. What are your goals in life? Do you want to have a family, a fulfilling career, the opportunity to help others? Most students think of their Mission as getting admitted to a good college. But, as we’ll see, that’s a strategy and not your Mission.

Example: I’m a high school student who strives to learn and grow. I want to get a great education.

Vision

To become so well educated and well trained that you can turn your passions into a long, perhaps lucrative, and most of all fulfilling career for the rest of your life is a good start to creating a vision for your future. (This is a general description, and you can be more specific.) A vision isn’t a dream or something you might want to become, but don’t expect to. It must be real and therefore a real future you see for yourself.

Example: I will become well educated so that I understand the world I live in, select a career in which I will excel and be of value to those who depend on me and upon whom I depend, and to the society in which I live.

Strategy

A strategy is how you plan to accomplish your vision.

Example: I will attend a great college, get a good education, and graduate in four years. (As you’ll see, graduating from college doesn’t automatically get you a good education.)

Tactics

Tactics are the specific things you need to do to carry out your strategy. There can be many tactics, and some might be more important than others. But all your tactics should be activities that bring you closer to fulfilling your vision for the future.

You can probably think of some tactics that will get you where you want to go, such as getting good grades in high school or learning more about colleges and universities. Completing a college application is itself a tactic that will help you achieve your vision.

Here are some specific key tactics that you may not have thought of, but they can be powerful tools that bring you closer to fulfilling your mission and vision.

Learn as much as you can about higher education

This is one of the most important tactics, and it’s what helps put you in the driver’s seat as you search for a college. You can’t do an adequate job of meeting your major goal—graduating in four years