Thursday, November 3, 2011

And the next step is...

Money, it's a drag...
So, I enrolled my High School Senior (HSS) in an online course about college applications. It's through JHU's Center for Talented Youth and is given by Options for College. You can find more info and a course description here. Given the cost of a college education and how clueless I was about the process, $750 seemed like a good investment. Maybe I worry too much (yes, that is an intentionally sarcastic understatement).

Anyway, HSS has been "attending" these classes, getting feedback on her college choices and essays and generally both of us are a little less worried about these applications that are going in now.

Tonight is the last class, titled "Need-Based Financial Aid" and this one is for students and parents. I got a large binder in the mail already, but honestly, I haven't really looked at it too much. Money, financial bargaining and budgets make me uncomfortable and vaguely nauseous. I'm proud to say that I don't have MS Project on my PC.

Anyway, I purposely told HSS that I wanted her to pick colleges for application without regard of cost because I had no idea what sort of aid package we would get. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," I said. I guess we're just about there.

I'll keep you posted with my take from tonight's class. If nothing else, I should get a blog post out of my hour and a half on line tonight.

3 comments:

  1. Interesting. It never crossed my mind that there were courses for submitting college applications. When I applied to college I really didn't know much about the application process. I submitted an application to University of Maryland and somehow I got in, although I think admission requirements are more stringent now than they were when I applied.

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  2. It more than just how to fill out the application - it's picking the right schools to apply to (both for your goals and being realistic about getting in) and figuring out finances as well. I'm not sure if I'll do it for the next kid, but it seemed like a good use of money this time through.

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  3. Sounds helpful...I know a lot of students need help with direction. I started out pretty clueless and tried to major in computer science, then ended up changing my major. I ended up spending an extra year in college because I picked a major that I wasn't a good fit for.

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