Burlington, Wi, Employer: Fill & Download for Free

Here’s my “BIG 7” that I always discuss with my students:Major. Pick something you are interested in and what you can find a job doing after you graduate. Some of the more exotic majors are not offered everywhere. And no matter what you are interested in, there needs to be a J-O-B waiting for you at end of your journey.Size of school. Jumbo (20,000+ undergrads) Large (10–20,000) Medium (5–10,000) Small (2–5000) Tiny (fewer than 2000). It is also important in deciding this on looking at your HS experience. Consider if you are used to being in classes of 10–15 kids what it will be like in a lecture hall of 300. Is that ok with you? IDK! But you still should think about things like this.Distance from home. Anything more than 3–4 hours away and you will not likely be able to go home on weekends. Just too far…Travel time matters. Do you live in Kalispell, MT and want to attend Tulane in LA? Going to take you the better part of 24 hours to make that happen…Size of community. Big City (NYC…Boston…LA…Houston…Chicago) Small City (South Bend…Richmond…Albuquerque…Burlington, VT…Madison, WI) Suburban (Princeton, NJ…Boulder, CO…Stony Brook, NY…) Small Town (Potsdam, NY…Lewistown, PA…Williamstown, MA…Hanover, NH) Rural (Morrisville, NY…Paul Smith’s, NY…)Special Programs. Looking to compete in Division I athletics? Are you a gifted cellist? Do you paint like Michelangelo and love art museums? Are you going to want to do internships in Silicon Valley?What can you afford? Unfortunately college is expensive for most students. Depending on your family’s financial situation, state colleges/universities are often the only option for many students. Don’t bother getting your heart set on a college that you are going to have to take out $200,000 in loans to attend. It is just not worth it.Academic Fit. I have this last, but it really should be first I think. Quora has about 2 billion questions from kids who want to go to “a great college” or an “Ivy League school” or a “top school”. You need to find a place where you will be happy to live/learn but also where you can succeed. A student with a 3.4 GPA and a 1170 on their SAT is not going to get accepted at Stanford, Harvard, Yale or University of Chicago (well, maybe if you are a DI athlete…). There are just too many applicants who are stronger students than you are. This doesn’t mean that your life is a failure. It means that you need to recognize that everyone gets a fresh start in college and the “world rankings” of students are all reset. Employers will hire the best person for their job opening. It is rarely going to be “I am hiring Sally because she went to Princeton” but rather more likely “I am hiring Jill because she did awesome work at University of Pittsburgh and has spectacular recommendations from her professors she did research with and a personality that could melt the Winter Warlock” (yes, I am old ;-) So while you are talking to your guidance counselor or researching colleges online, look for where your academic abilities coming out of HS will make you a good fit. Don’t set your heart on someplace where even if you were admitted you would end up struggling and being all stressed out.Once you decide those 7 things then you start your search. I find that College Search, Financial Aid, College Application, College Scholarship, Student Loan, FAFSA, Common Application is very useful and you don’t have to pay for any of the added services if you don’t want to. Once you find 6–10 that fit what you are looking for then apply and you are on your way!Good luck :-)