...how do? No really, my questions are pretty much that generic at this point. College looks to be my best shot at Escape Plan pt1: GTFO, but I was kind of majorly depressed through high school and if we ever got any guidance on how to do things like "acquire financial aid" or "figure out what a good school is" I didn't retain any of it. Clearly the answer is to ask the internet. So, current questions: How does one go about figuring out what a "good" school for any given major is? I at least have a baby idea of what I want to study, but how to get there... How do financial aid in the US??? I know there's at least one federal thing, but do schools offer individual scholarships or is it by state/county/whatever jurisdiction or...? Is applying not directly out of high school any different than doing things on the societally-expected track, paperwork- or financials-wise? Am I gonna have to bother the high school for any paperwork (transcript??? SAT scores??? Those things are both stuck in my head as Important but fuck if I know why) or do schools not care about them or will they contact the HS on their own or...?
You will have to get your transcript sent from the high school, and your SAT scores from College Board, the people who do the SAT. Application season for most places is fall/winter, but there are some schools that let you start in spring or things and have their own schedules. A lot of schools use the Common Application and then also have supplements where they have you write things about why you want to go to their school. As far as financial aid goes, you will fill out the federal form, the FAFSA, and that will result in both the federal government and your school deciding how much help they are going to offer you. There may also be school-specific financial aid forms, but the FAFSA is definitely the place to start. There are also scholarships available through things that aren't schools; you may be interested in ones aimed at "non-traditional students." Being not directly out of high school puts you in this category, and different schools are going to have different attitudes and approaches to that. You will probably be expected to give some kind of explanation of what you've been doing since high school. How important is it to you to attend a school that's "good" for your intended major? It's fairly unlikely to significantly impact your life after college, imo.
This is a good thing to know! I'm not talking like, Art School For Artists, I'm just looking to avoid something like what happened to my sister-- aiming for a fine art degree, got shunted into a branch school that technically offered an art degree (and looked, on paper, like it would be possible to achieve) but was primarily business-focused and ended up blowing several thousand dollars on two years that earned her practically nothing towards the degree she wanted. (ETA: art school for artists is an example, not what I'm aiming for. Art is fun but Not what I want to do with my life)
https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/search?_sort=school-name&_sort-direction=asc&int=myfitABtest this lets you search by major and location. Something that's at least listed as having the major you want is going to avoid putting you in the same position as your sister. And I think Vierran covered everything else - though universities frequently have their own scholarships, that you can look at once you're in. Good luck!
Also! Depending on what you're interested in, some groups offer scholarships for really specific people/majors/etc. It never hurts to look into what's available in the wider world for your study!
College board also allows for highly refined searches - major, location, size, acceptance rate, different extracurriculars... Like Vierran was saying, you need to get your SATs from College Board anyway so it behooves you to make an account there I don't know how tenable it is for you to visit places, but if you've got anything close, it might be good to get a tour in - not because you want to go there but just to see what it's like, and give you an idea of what you do and don't want in a school. There's a lot of colleges out there, so anything that helps you thin the field, even if it seems silly (like, I didn't want to go to a school with a ton of really old buildings) is helpful. A lot of schools also have virtual tours on their websites.
Yes, if you can visit a school first, that's a big plus. The feel of a school can be important, at least in my experience. My application process basically went "Can I see myself living in [X place]? No? Then I'm not going to apply there." I wouldn't really worry too much about prestige or anything like that for undergrad. Just an example: I went to two tiny, middle-of-the-road universities for undergrad and got in to half of the grad schools I applied to. A college's website will usually have a financial aid page you can go to, which can help direct you to the right places/inform you of resources. They might have more state/location-specific financial stuff there.
Ah, did you have any ACT or AP tests? Those might—crap, I don't totally remember, but that's something you might wanna take into account too,
I did not take any AP tests, and I don't thiiiiink I took the ACT? Maybe? (Memory holes are {great}.) Thing to look for, I guess.
One less thing to check off the list though!! and best of luck Honestly, I've gotten Extra Careful about this kind of shit after one of my advisors insisted it was academic misconduct for me not to have the full accounting of my transcript...despite the fact that I already did, and the only extra shit would be two classes from one semester and was already listed on the main one #totallyisn'tbitter
From what I remember the ACT is easier than the SAT and thus easier to get a better score in. Like my act was better than my sat, so I just didn't give them my sat lol. You might have to retake the SAT anyway? I'm not sure, but I think you need a recent one. I recommend looking at the orgs on campus! The club I was in saved my sanity while at college. Also in general in state will be cheaper than out of state, but that might not help with gtfo plan.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/ this was a good message board i used when i was applying, there are lots of helpful people and a lot of searchable information.
also to note, sometimes colleges will be part of a regional thing, where anyone from states in a specific region (ex: US west coast) is considered in-state wrt tuition.
Is it wrong of me to stop considering a school just because the UI of their website is fucking hideous and unintuitive edit: also should I be concerned about lack of RAs in dorms if I decide to go that route for housing?
Haha nah, I literally removed a school from my list because they kept sending me stupid junk mail. You're gonna be there for 4 years, you wanna go to a place that you can respect and not go in already annoyed. My school has RAs, and they can be really helpful, especially if you've never been on your own before. I would think it would be best to have RAs in the freshman/first-year dorms at the very least.
In general, a public school will be much cheaper than a private school if you're in state. Public schools, however, usually have honors programs. I got into two separate honors programs, one at UDel, and the other at UMD College Park. Both offered in-state tuition even though I was out of state. Unfortunately, I had to turn them both down because I got in early decision elsewhere.
^ on that note, early descision is a binding contract that you can only get ot of in extraordinary circumstances (ex: you get a major life threatening illness requiring you to stay home); early admission is just applying to the school early (resulting in you getting your results early). you can apply to multiple schools early admission, applying to multiple schools early descision is a very bad idea. and i think you could get by without an RA, but RAs are really helpful and i'd recomend schools that have them.
I also mean "unfortunately" in the money sense. The school I applied ED to I had been dreaming about going to for a very long time, so I was ecstatic to get to go. I'm still very grateful that I'm here. It just sucks that it's so expensive.
You're more likely to get in with both early decision and early admission (early admission is also sometimes called early action) because there's a smaller applicant pool. I'd say go for early action if it's available and you're ready, cause you do get your results earlier (I got in to my school in January; most of my classmates didn't hear from their schools until March or April) and it's a huge load off your mind to know you've got somewhere to go, even if your early action schools aren't your top choices also if you do early decision and try to get out of it the school will send lawyers after your ass. every year, some asshat applied early decision to a bunch of places to benefit from the smaller pool, and then gets sued for everything they've got. (I don't think you'll do this, but...yeah. Don't apply early decision unless you're committed.)
