Diving In

I think I heard the most amazing thing ever on the radio driving home yesterday. Talking with a panel about community organizations in a small, northern MN iron range town a local woman came up and said "If you're going to complain about apathy, start with yourself." This one hit home.

I moved back to a small town a little over a year ago from living in a mid-sized city as well as two large metro areas for almost 10 years- in which time I became accustomed to the variety of resources and opportunities that were available for any interest that a person could have.

Upon moving up to this area I knew that there wouldn't be as many organizations and whatnot, however I was not expecting the attitude that surrounded them. I kept hearing over and over "This town needs a ______" (there would be a variety of things to fill that gap). But when I would ask "Then why don't you start one?" I would get a look of complete and utter astonishment, followed by a myriad of excuses from I don't have time to I don't know how to nothing at all....

So, after my experiences in Student Services of trying to get student organizations up and running on campus, which often came up with the same excuses (and that students wanted to be involved but didn't want to start something) I got myself in order and started three organizations in the city. Two are still growing but one took off like a rocket, and it's brought together over 500 people in the community. Was it a risk? Sure! Was it time consuming? Sure! But I have gotten to meet a lot of really fun, neat people that I would not have otherwise met.

So, the moral of this story is: if you get to campus this fall and realize that there isn't a group for whatever activity it is that you like to do: start one! Don't complain that your college doesn't have a group for people like you- chances are there are others on campus complaining about the same thing! Start with your own apathy, get rid of it and dive in head first!

PS- it's a resume builder too!

Your College Advisor

Without a doubt, this is one of the most important, influential people in your college career. He/she will help you figure out your classes, help you figure out some direction for your overall education or other general academic matters.

I've gone through a few of these over the years and have seen what good and bad ones can do for your academics- and have a few thoughts on working with them.

Advisor #1 was a very well respected professor in her field (she liked very much to talk about the various people she had trained with and trained herself). This was cool, except for the fact that she had her favorites in the department and I was not one of them. This meant my advising meetings were about half the time of some of the other students- I would ask quite a few questions (after reading this blog I'm sure you can imagine how many questions I will ask in an actual conversation) because I was very interested in doing much of the same kind of work that she had done. But I hardly got the time of day with her. To be honest, while I was thrilled to have her as an advisor I was very happy when I switched to...

Advisor #2 who is still to this day my favorite advisor. After one conversation with me he suggested a completely different track within the field that I was studying, and immediately figured out where my actual interests were. While he was not as well known in the field, he taught some of the most interesting classes I've ever taken and always had advice on whatever I wanted to ask him about- from extracurricular activities to other classes he didn't teach. He kept in touch with me as well as many other students after we left the college for some years and was still even then a great person to approach for questions.

Advisor #3 was at a different college and we simply did not see eye to eye. Ever. He wanted me to follow the track that he taught (never mind that it was a complete 180 from my interests and prior education that advisor #2 laid the foundation for). It's frustrating as a student to have the person who is supposed to be helping you never really listen to where you're trying to go with your education and career. However, there was another professor who taught the classes that I really liked who was much more helpful in assisting me at this time.

Advisor #4 was at yet another university, this one of over 50,000 students. I met him only once in the course of two or so years. He signed the papers needed for graduation, asked how my last class was going and flipped out when I said "Fine...". He kept asking "Just, fine?" Well... yes! I was fairly indifferent to it at that point and I didn't see the use of getting all excited over the last week of classes. I told him I was passing it with a good grade and there was nothing to worry about. I really couldn't get out of the office fast enough.

Advisor #5 in grad school was pretty good. He really had some good suggestions for my classes and helped me get an independent study so I could live 200 miles from the campus and finish the last class. Again, it made a big difference that he listened to what I wanted to do and based on my employment history (in higher education) and prior education (in fine arts) he was able to really help me get my thoughts in order for after my graduation.

Advisor #6 is my current advisor, for my final thesis/capstone project that will finish my graduate degree. Granted I am living about 200 miles from campus so in person meetings are more than a little hard, but the beauty of email is I can instantly send her everything that I'm working on, and typically she gets it back quickly. That is, when she's not busy. It's been a little frustrating trying to finish the degree and having to wait and wait and wait for her schedule to allow her the time to take a look at my work when I'm trying to wrap everything up quite quickly at this point. Granted yes, I know she's busy at the school, but it's frustrating being in the position of having to wait for your adviser's approval and spin your wheels in place until that happens.

So I've run the spectrum from very involved to barely knowing my advisor. I recommend highly trying to get to know him/her and open yourself up to that person enough that you can get good advice from him/her. You won't always get along. That's frustrating, but it happens. When it does I would recommend either trying to switch to someone else once you've gotten to know a few professors or just do what I did and have an informal advisor. Either way, having someone at the school who knows you as more than just a name on a paper or a seat in class will be beneficial when you run into the inevitable roadblocks that will come up.

Program size at college...

Lately I've been working on a project outside of Anycollege that is involving several high school students who are going to be seniors next year and are starting to narrow down their search for colleges. While talking to them (as many of them are considering going to college for the same undergraduate degree I have) an interesting topic has come up: the size of the department that you're going to.

Most college search and fit characteristics tend to revolve around location of the campus (city/rural), overall size of the campus, extracurricular opportunities, class size etc.... but very rarely do I ever hear come up "how big is the department?"

This might seem like it directly relates to class size but I don't believe this is the case.

Reason being, you can have a tiny department, but this could mean they only offer some classes every other year, thus forcing two years worth of classes to take it all at once and doubling the amount of people in the class.

Also, there is access to opportunity. Again, the key is to find the happy medium. If it's super small you may be guaranteed the chance to get involved in everything your academic department or school does, thus giving you a lot of opportunity but not much competition. On the other hand, you can have a larger department where students have to compete to get a shot to be involved, but can't always be in everything thus decreasing involvement. (Or, the department can be huge and competition can be crazy and you can only be involved occasionally... ) So what's the best route?

I think it depends on your personality, what you are comfortable with, what your career goals are and how you feel about the campus. Again, a small department you'll get to know everyone very well (some will say too well) but a larger department you'll have more opportunity to meet more people but maybe not get to know everyone quite as well.

However, I do think you should also seriously consider the size of your academic department when looking for a college, in addition to all of those other things. Sure it's one more thing to look at, but if you make the right choice the first time you'll be much more successful and happier down the road. [Insert my theme of transferring is a pain here].

What do you think? Is department size something to consider?

I don't 100% understand.

I just read an article this morning on Forbes about parents getting into the "risky business" of co-signing for a student loan with their child. Here it is: http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/14/student-loans-retirement-moneybuilder-personal-finance-loans.html

But here's what I don't understand. Why are they encouraging parents and students to tap a 401k retirement fund or take out a second mortgage on the home when if the parent is willing to co-sign, there are plenty of much safer alternatives that are set up for education to take?

For instance, first the student has the option of Stafford Loans. These have many, many years to repay and are primarily in the student's name. (And while I understand many parent's don't want their child to leave college with debt, I think a little isn't a bad idea because it helped me get my credit established which eventually let me buy my first home and a nice car... and it also helped me take school a little more seriously when I realized it was coming out of my own pocket!) They also have low, low interest rates as well as some have subsidized interest while you're in school so you don't accrue any interest during that time.

Then there is, at least in Minnesota, the PLUS loan which requires a co-signer and again is similar to the Stafford loan. Then there are Perkin's loans and a whole bunch of other loans that are set up for education- specifically in that there are no payments while the child is in school, interest is low and there isn't a risk of the parent losing a home or a retirement fund.

Articles like that, in my opinion, cause the unnecessary panic about attending college due to the financial situation that is completely unwarranted. I think they also prevent some students from going to college because the parents put it in the child's head (and I have seen this happen) that it's completely impossible because it's too expensive.

Dear Publication Companies: before you cause an uproar in the educational community by showing how risky financially it is for a child to attend college PLEASE show the whole story and not make it appear that the parent has to remortgage their home (an example used in the article) to send their child to school.

Thank you,
Nikki

Now, that being said: do some students not understand that their loans are loans that have to be repaid? Yes. But there is REQUIRED financial aid entrance counseling when a student starts school and REQUIRED financial aid counseling when a student leaves school. If a parent co-signs on the loan should the student have a clear understanding that the student is the primary beneficiary of the loan and therefore responsible for repayment? Yes! However, these issues which seemed insurmountable in the article are ones that a little communication between the parent and student will clear up..

As far as the student not getting a job right out of college? Again, as long as the student doesn't have the unrealistic expectation (or the parent!) of the student walking off the graduation stage into the $500,000 a year job (not saying that doesn't happen, but let's face it, it's not common) and will have an entry level salary for a while and may have to (gasp) make some sacrifices to start some of the repayment on student loans repayment is not impossible.

I have a fair amount of student loans myself from my undergraduate and graduate studies. (And by "fair amount" I mean significantly more than I see people freaking out about in these articles.) And you know what? Once repayment starts my payments for all of them are less than $300 a month. I have made payments on them in the past between colleges, and you know what? I was able to make the payments on my student loans, my car payment on a new car, my rent payment and still have money left over for food on about $12.00 an hour.

So please, please please please when you read articles like this please don't fall prey to the panic that I think they induce. Talk to your financial aid counselors before you say college is impossible. I'll get off of my soap box now. Please go to college.

Oh, and have a great weekend!

Couldn't Have Said It Better Myself

I'm going to cop out on the blog today, because I just read a fabulous post that I think you should read instead of reading this one.

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/confessions_of_a_community_college_dean/dear_graduates

It's an open letter to the current graduating class, and I highly recommend taking a little time to read through it.

Prepping for College

It's that time of year...
High school seniors are starting to figure out what in the world they're going to take with them to college. Why figure it out so early? Why graduation gifts, of course!

But from what I have seen happen from my own experiences and from working with freshmen I see a few major things to remember when trying to figure out what to bring for college:

#1- Anything and everything, except the essentials. While I didn't do this myself I did see quite a few students who packed the proper clothing, their electronics, decorations and mementos from home... but no toothbrush. The big chain stores like Target, Walmart and Costco have to do amazing business in college towns selling things like toothbrushes and shampoo that weekend for students who forgot them.

#2 - No Climate Consideration. Beyond knowing what the climate is if you're moving a long way from home, it's important to really understand what hot or cold means in that climate. If you asked me, I would tell you Minnesota gets a little chilly in the winter. If you asked someone from Arizona I don't think you would get the same answer about a Minnesota winter from them, as you wouldn't hear me say the same thing about heat as that person would. This goes both ways. I saw students come to Minnesota sadly under-prepared for our winters, trying to use the winter jacket that got them by in Indiana or wherever they were from. But, when I moved to Texas I had no idea what the heat would be like. The first week I was down there I went out with some friends (in August...) and brought along a sweatshirt. Apparently I didn't realize that the temperature there does not drop 30+ degrees at night like it does in Minnesota.

#3- Too many reminders of high school. This may sound crass, but when you go to school after you've been there a month you're not really going to want all kinds of things that say your high school or hometown all over your dorm room.

And finally #4- Towels: Ten years later I still have towels I was given at my high school graduation party that I have barely ever used that I don't have the heart to retire into cleaning towels. I really got that many... I think EVERYONE decided that I really needed towels going to college so they ALL gave me one. Be aware of that, and maybe put out a few more suggestions for gifts so you're not furnishing your bathroom with towels received at high school graduation for the next ten years of your life.

So, start thinking about what you're bringing, and be aware that you probably don't need 15 full size bath towels when you go to school.

Have a great weekend!

How Much Say Do Parents Have?

I just read an interesting blog regarding a student unhappy that his parents want him to go to school to be an MD (well whose parents wouldn't?) but he would rather go to be an English major. The blogger asserts that if the parents are paying then they have 100% say over where the student goes and what is studied.

Yikes. I happen to completely disagree. I posted a response to the blog which you can read, but I would like to share it here as well in more detail. Also, my perspective on college is that I paid for a large majority of my undergraduate studies and all of my graduate studies on my own. (Which again, unlike the blogger, I do not regret.) My parental help consisted of helping with housing the first year, little help for the rent payment after that and I believe there was one semester where the college I was at lost my FAFSA application (hurray for online applications now!) where my dad helped out. But the rest... well, let's just say I've got a fair amount of student loan debt now.

A close friend of mine had the option of going to the ONE college that her parents would pay for entirely, or financing the whole thing on her own which she didn't know how to do at age 18. (I told her it was do-able, but frankly at that age it's a little scary.) Her parents would not listen to any argument of not wanting to go there, not fitting in, etc. That is where they went and it is a well respected school in the area, therefore, that is where she would go too. They chose her major too which again was not what she was happy doing.

And...

She hated every minute of it. Hated the classes, hated her classmates, hated her roommates, and the eventual outcome of this was one semester in she dropped out entirely and had a massive falling out with her parents that lasted close to five years. Now, ten years later her husband has supported her return to college in a field she is interested in and where she was able to have a more choice (though was somewhat confined to staying in the town they are settled in) AND is much, much happier.

So I do think parents should have input into the college choice, definitely talk and have a conversation with them as a student about what you would like to do and where to go because they will have good feedback... but I believe if they are choosing to support you in college they are also choosing to support your decisions as to where to go and what major fits you best. Otherwise both parents and children are risking major relationship consequences and major life changers if things go wrong. And sometimes things change in college. You grow up a lot as you attend college and maybe what you wanted when you were 17 and made your college choice is not what suits you anymore at age 20. I can certainly vouch for this happening.

Put yourself in that situation. What happens when you are forced into something you don't really like? Most people I know do a pretty crappy job of it. While I have enjoyed about 99% of my college classes (maybe that's why I just kept going and going...) I couldn't imagine having a computer science major. Sure I could probably do it, but for me it would be miserable! And while sometimes parents can know best in situations, something as intensely personal as a college decision and major can't be made by anyone other than the student.

The other thing that can happen is a lot of deception. The FERPA rules and regulations limit the parents from having access to grades, schedules, etc. of their student regardless of if they are paying for it unless the student chooses to sign something allowing their parents or guardians to see it. (They are adults after all, and this is personal information.) I've spoken with more than a few angry parents who wanted academic and attendance information that I couldn't release at the college. Given that, a student could switch from the pre-med major to the English major and the parents would never know it. Just think what kind of ugliness in the family THAT would set up when mom and dad find out...

Finally, what I think some of this might come down to is a personal definition of success. What the parents might consider successful is not what the student might consider as success. It's kind of one of those moments (only on a much grander scale) when you make something you're really proud of and you go to show it to someone else and they say "Why on earth are you proud of that piece of junk?"

My goodness this blog got much longer than I intended, and again wasn't about the chosen topic of the day. Well, you'll just have to wait on the fascinating and exciting blog about "data use and privacy policies" tomorrow.

Finals!!!

It's almost that time of year again... finals are looming up for many students, both college and high school.

For high school seniors I have seen an interesting phenomenon in that sometimes these last finals can get blown off if the student is already accepted at the college of his/her choice. Yikes! I know "senioritis" may have kicked in full time at this point but it will be worth it in the long run to hang on for these last few exams.

Why? First, keeping or increasing your GPA may make you eligible for additional scholarships whereas tanking on your last semester/trimester/quarter could take away some money that your school was going to give you. Also, you need to consider if you ever transfer down the road (I know it seems like it will never happen right now but who knows three years later what will be going on!) you very well may have to send in your high school transcripts again, and you don't want to show that your last stretch at the high school did not go so well.

College students, you hang in there too for many of the same reasons!

How to get through it? That varies of course from person to person, but here is what I recommend:
1. Keep the goal in sight.
2. Keep it in sight but don't freak out about it. I've seen many students spend more time freaking out about the test than preparing for it. I'm pretty sure the test won't bite you (unless you're working with animals, then all bets are off) so you'll be fine.
3. Go outside for a little bit. While I don't recommend studying outside due to the distractions go outside for a walk, bike ride, etc. and do something active for a bit. I'm very adamant about the "outside" factor in this.
4. But try to stay away from the computer and video games when you're trying to concentrate for a test. Wondering what your girlfriend's Facebook status means during the exam or while you're prepping for one isn't going to do either of you any good.
5. Remember that in a few weeks this will be all over with!

Then, go do something fun!

Humourous side note: Spell check just tried to change "senioritis" to "senoritas". And people wonder why I don't trust spell check! Have a great weekend everyone!

Grammatical Notes

Forgive me, I have to air this out because it is driving me crazy. I have two major pet peeves with grammar: unnecessary capitalization and homonyms. Take note for scholarship essays!

There is no Reason to capitalize random Nouns that are not proper nouns while writing a Sentence. (See?) Please refer to the capitalization rules at: http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/capital.asp

Then there are homonyms. They sound alike but are not spelled alike. There, they're, their... you're, your... those are the biggest ones that I see being confused and none of them have remotely the same meaning so they are not interchangeable.

Here are four pages of these words, their definition and rules as to when to use each one if it is confusing (i.e. except and accept) http://www.grammarbook.com/homonyms/confusing-words-1.asp

Why does this come about, you ask? I see them quite frequently on Facebook status updates. Yes, it's "just" a social network, but I believe when many people can see you using grammar incorrectly it kind of looks bad for you. Sure everyone might be doing it, but wouldn't you want to look a little more educated? I also get them quite a bit in requests for scholarship applications, and it makes me worry a little bit that the reliance on computers has taken away the understanding of some of these grammatical rules.

I recall once a letter a friend sent to me to ask why it got such a negative response when she was coaching a youth cheerleading league. It was a letter to the parents of the children asking them to bring the children on time and prepared, and to be at practice every week. It had a fairly angry tone as she was quite exasperated when writing the letter. However, there were so many grammatical and spelling errors in the letter I had to send it back to her and tell her that I would have pulled my child out of a league in which a coach sends out a letter like that- not for the content or what it said but for the gross errors in the writing of the letter itself which reflected terribly on her.

So again, while not everything is of the magnitude of that letter or scholarship applications I think it is good to get in the good practice of knowing these grammatical rules and using them consistently... after all, you never know who is reading your Facebook status or Tweets!

PS- Are you following us on Twitter yet? www.twitter.com/anycollege

Saving (Earning?) Money in College

First- thank you all so much for reading! I couldn't believe how many hits this blog has had lately! So a HUGE thank you, I hope you're finding it interesting. If you read it frequently will you follow it if you can? It lets me know who I'm writing to! Again, THANK YOU!

OK- I tossed this blog idea around for quite some time before I decided on actually writing it. I wasn't sure if there was too much of a "well, duh" element to it, and when I laid these plans out for students in the past it was met with some... well, ok... a lot of resistance.

Back story: when I was in student services students frequently came to me complaining that they had no money. They would frequently ask if there were any types of county assistance programs or aid for people in their situation. First off my answer was: unless you have several children and are in pretty dire straits then no... because you are already receiving aid from the government in the form of your student loans. And typically those places that give out aid figure that if you can afford to attend college, you can afford to feed yourself.

That being said, I would ask students about a few lifestyle changes that they could consider making. This is where the resistance comes in, because it does require something of a lifestyle change. But then again, I figure you're attending college and life doesn't always go on as normal... and hey, if you learn some good financial habits while you're in college then you're going to set yourself up pretty well for life. (OK, I will step off the soap box now.)

Here is what I suggested to the students:

#1- Lay out a budget. Exactly (don't round) how much is coming in.
Then lay out what you spend money on. The key here is being truthful with yourself. Do you eat at McDonalds 3 times a week at $5.13 each time? That's then $15.39 per week you're spending there. The idea here is not to do any cutting yet, but simply to know exactly where your money is going. If you have online banking it's helpful to print out your last month's transactions.

#2- Prioritize. Do you have a rent payment? That should be up in the top 3. Do you have school bills? Them too. Discretionary spending (restaurants, music, entertainment, and yes, beer) go towards the bottom.

#3- Figure out where you can save. What would that $15.39 get you at the grocery store? I bet it would cover a loaf of bread, some sandwich meat and some kind of dressing... and enough for the entire week, not just 3 days. Reaction: "I don't have tiiiiiime to make a sandwich in the morning" or " I don't liiiiiike sandwiches". I timed myself making a packed lunch one day. I did it (and put everything away) in less than 2 minutes. It's just a matter of making yourself do it.
Eating out, for the record, is defined in my book as anywhere you did not make the food.

#4- This goes with #3. At the grocery store, can you buy unprepared foods? Because the frozen lasagna dinner is going to be quite a bit more expensive and you'll get less leftovers from it (i.e. dinner for 4 nights rather than 2) than simply making the whole thing yourself. Yep- learn to cook. Reaction: "I can't cook". Well, this is a great time to learn. BONUS: it will impress a future significant other. Trust me. Another tip? Go in with friends. Get 5 people, each contribute $2 and you can make a pretty fantastic dinner for all of you! (Spaghetti: $1.00, Sauce: $2.50, Ground beef: $4.00, bread sticks $2.50= dinner for 5 for $10)

#5- Can you walk (or bike) anywhere rather than busing or taking the car? This one is from my experience: my first undergrad school I walked EVERYWHERE. I was about as broke as they come and didn't have money for bus fare, so I hoofed it. And you know what? I got in pretty dang good shape doing it. Reaction: "I don't have tiiiiime" or "I can't walk that far!" (That was from a student lived less than a mile from campus) It might take you a little time, but figure out what you spend on gas, and if you can get around that by getting up 15 minutes earlier and walking you're going to save a bunch of money. I know it's not possible in every situation but it's something to really consider if it's possible. Oh, a second hand bike works pretty good for this too.

Part two to the car: Beyond gas, cars have expenses. You need to change the oil sometimes (Yes, you really do...). They break. They need new tires. The less wear and tear you put on your car the less you have to do these extra added expenses!!

#6- Just say no. Your friends won't hate you if you have to say no to going out one night because you simply can't afford it. They might even have a little more respect for you! Is it crappy that you can't always afford to hit the bar/club/dinner with your pals? Yep, but if it's a night at the club or your rent payment, well... I'd rather have a roof over my head all the time than one night.

#7- CDs/MP3s/Video Games are not a necessity. Reaction: "Yes they are!" No... they're not. I almost fell off my chair and refused to help a student figure this out once when he told me the week before he bought an $80 video game and this week he couldn't figure out how to find money for groceries. No sympathy whatsoever.

#8- Share the rent. I learned the hard way in college that having roommates is much cheaper than living alone. I lived alone, which admittedly was nice but expensive, for a while then simply couldn't afford it and had to suck it up and live with someone. I didn't always like it but it really opened my eyes to different lifestyles and forced me to grow some new social skills. Reaction: "I don't know anyone here!" Honestly, that's OK. If you're generally compatible on the first meeting you will be OK. Remember this doesn't have to be your best friend (and I don't recommend living with that person either), just someone to share the rent with.

Reflection: I did have one student take my advice on the grocery store and walking bit. Within a month he came into my office, said he was actually SAVING money now, had lost 10lbs and felt better than he had in a long time which was also reflecting in his grades. Funny how that works!

OK, enough saving money, let's MAKE some money now. This often entails trying to find a job... which adds one more thing to your plate while you're in school. The unfortunate thing about growing up is having to juggle more than one thing at a time, such as being at classes and then being at work.

#1- Try for a job on campus. This will eliminate driving/bus and the gas it takes to get there. Also, campus jobs are more likely to let you do homework during slow times. (Depending on your boss, of course.)

#2- If you can't get one on campus see if you can get one within walking distance of your house or the school.

#3- Donate plasma. Hey, $20 is $20, right?

#4- Did the Freshman 15 put you out of a few pairs of jeans? Bring them to a second hand store and see if you can get some cash for them. (Just make sure you still have something to wear!:))

#5- Try to find a job where you can work full time in the summer or over breaks. I know that's not fun but if you can squirrel away some money over that time you can work less hard during the other times.

Lastly:
Overage on student loans is tempting. I know it is. It can allow you to not work during college or get a little nicer apartment... but if you can get away with holding a part time job to pay the rent instead of taking the overage do it. You will thank yourself down the road. I did that and now I'm looking at an extra almost $5,000 to pay back, which translates into a few more years (YEARS!) of loan payments.

First Generation College Students

I just read a fantastic blog post about First Generation college students.

This is one of my near-and-dear subjects with college students. I absolutely loved working with First Generation students- one of the easiest ways to get me to tear up would be watching them graduate and the proud/astonished looks on their parents faces as they crossed the stage with their diploma. Usually because these folks do not have an easy road into college.

This was a HUGE wake up call for me. I grew up in a mostly college educated family where it was simply assumed from Day One that I would attend college. There simply was no other alternative, period. But when I started working with students where this was not the expectation it was a rather large slap in the face.

Many of the parents I met who did not attend college were more fearful than their child about attending college. Many did not think their child would succeed, or that their child needed a college education- after all, they did not have one and seemed to be OK. Again- I could not imagine my parents thinking I would not be successful or that I did not need higher education... but that was the reality for some of these students.

The first step for many of these students was simply to get onto the college campus. I don't care if you are on the Harvard campus or your local community college's campus- there is an atmosphere of excitement, hope and overall activity when you step onto a college campus. When you're physically visiting some place it is far easier to see yourself (or your child) fitting in as a member of that community rather than simply hearing about it. There is the feeling of "Yes, I want to be here!"

It also takes away any pre-conceived notions about college when you are physically on the campus. The image of the sweater-vest wearing elitist goes away pretty quickly when you see the student walk by toting a backpack that is more than 50% of his body weight wearing a tattered hoodie and jeans that look like they were dug out from under the bed. So while in general you should always visit a college campus, I think it's especially important for a first generation student to visit the college campus and spend a little time there.

Pre-conceived notions or stereotypes are going to be somewhat of a theme in this blog, since it seemed like the first-gen students I worked with along with their parents had much stronger (and more inaccurate) ones than many students who came from college educated families.

Another was that not only was college far too expensive for that student but financial aid was far too difficult to untangle that you pretty much need a PhD to get through it. Maybe I was blessed with getting to work with a great set of financial aid people , but they were all super nice, very patient and willing to explain all of the mysteries of collegiate financial aid. But the key here again is to take a little time to sit down with the FA crew(and yep, these folks work evenings and weekends for this reason) and talk it through with them. Their job is to make financial aid easy to understand- not sell it to you!

Finally the last important part of starting a good college experience for first generation students is to meet classmates. These folks are your support network in school, when at 2 AM you realize there is a paper due tomorrow, you have lost the syllabus for the class, your significant other is being a $%@# and you realize there is no food in the fridge. (It happened to me more than once.) You can call them up for the assignment details and they'll talk you off the ledge and into coming to class in the morning. (Note: you will be expected to do the same for them.) This is where having a non-collegiate support group is hard; not having ever been in the situation they don't always understand and often the encouragement to quit school is given. I truly, truly wish I could say I was hypothesizing here and that I have never seen this happen. Unfortunately it happened with first generation students more than most.

Disclaimer: I am not trying to paint parents as the "bad guy" here. They just often seemed to be so afraid for their student that they would present a major roadblock in the student's success! My advice to them: It's OK! Your student will be just fine- maybe a few bumps along the way but everyone in college gets those! It's part of the growing/learning curve.

So, to sum it up: visit campus, talk to financial aid and make friends. Recipe for anyone's success, but especially important for the first-generation crowd. This may be why there are so many first generation college student organizations and programs.

Oh did I mention organizations? If your campus is big/lucky enough to have a First Generation College student group/club... JOIN IT!

Any experiences from students on being the first one in the family to go to college?

FERPA- Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act

As you are going off to college this is something that you and your parents should be aware of.

FERPA is a law that is put in place to protect student information. However, when the student reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level these rights transfer completely to the student. Students must sign a waiver to allow anyone other than themselves access to their administrative, academic or financial aid records after the rights have been transferred to them.

This means that if a parent calls the college and requests information about financial aid, grades or attendance this information cannot be disclosed to the parent unless the student has signed the waiver agreement specifically allowing that parent to access the requested information. I spoke with quite a few very irate parents who were not happy that I could not disclose this information to them despite the fact that the parent was paying for the student's education.

If you have any type of agreement with your child/parent when starting college it is best to have a plan for this in place. If there is an agreement about grades that are to be maintained to remain eligible for private scholarships, familial contributions, etc. where a parent needs to independently view the academic information the student must sign a waiver allowing the parent to do so.

So, before heading off to college I encourage you (and your parents or child) to be aware of the FERPA laws that will be in place at the college: http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html

My best advice to anyone in college.

Keep things from classes. Especially the syllabus and any major papers you write for the class.

Why?

Let me back up and talk about what prompted this. Standing in line waiting to get my sandwich at lunch today I was behind two local college students. There are about three major colleges and a community college in the town we're located in so I'm not sure which schools this guy was talking about. He was quite upset that he was trying to transfer between two of the schools here and the school that he wanted to go to was not going to take 35 of his credits. Understandably he was fairly upset about it and in the end decided not to do the transfer. (Or at least that is what I got out of my eavesdropping.)

What I really, really wanted to tell this guy was that the initial credit evaluation when transferring usually works out that way. Upon first glance you lose a bunch of credits. However, when this happened to me at my third school I was able to get about half of those lost credits put back onto my transcript because I was able to bring in syllabi and papers from the classes that they were not going to allow to transfer.

Typically the reason that a school disallows transfer credits is that they cannot see from the first glance what the course is about. You may know that English Language in America was a writing intensive class that counted for the writing requirement at School A, but School B can't tell that when looking at your transcript so it doesn't count. However, when you bring your syllabus from the class in that shows the ten papers you wrote for the class as well as a copy of your fifteen page term paper and give them either to your advisor or to the transfer office your chances are much better. (HINT: give them a copy because you may not get the original back!)

This process is expedited if you have the syllabi from the various classes you have taken, but in the case where you don't have it still you can try to email the professor and get a copy. This will be much for feasible if the class was in the past year; beyond that gets iffy. I realized that when I was missing the syllabus for one class (arg!) that I had taken five years previously and the professor had a new computer by then that didn't have any of the old syllabi, etc from his old computer and old classes. With no proof that the class was more than the transcript said it was I ended up having to re-take it at College #3. (This should also be another reason not to take eight years and 180 undergraduate credits across three colleges.)

Moral of the story: Make a folder for all your old syllabi. Keep it until you graduate from college... maybe longer. You may thank yourself someday.