being assume that faced with a rebate challenge of teenagers finding the time to sit down and discuss the questions i have about my future can be difficult most often help students decide the details that each individual's differences on the topic such as where to a ton what to study and all the questions in between i will be discussing these questions in hopes of finding some answers for students and parents so thank you for being here so you along with doing with college admissions and stuff you help students with a lot of other things like you organize the assemblies so if you want full job description and i'm here to really help with with all aspects of college and career readiness well it's to support the counseling department and the social emotional and academic pieces of of everyday life here at the high school so that may entail helping with assemblies that may entail scheduling college and career readiness activities so it truly varies so i mean i chose this topic because being a junior league i really i'm thinking about doing all the college and stuff how did you get involved with this cult being a college i think it's an exciting opportunity to just really look at once  and it can be a very overwhelming task to think about what we want to do and what our post secondary plans are but there's a lot of tools and there's a lot of people out there to help you on that journey and so it's really exciting to be able to assist with the goals assist with the journey and see students succeed with with what they want to do so where do you go to college so i've i went to through the sunni school system the state university of new york i went to potsdam for my undergrad i went to plattsburg for my graduate work and then i've also gone to high point university for graduate work so what options are available to for kids who don't want to go to college how do you help kids who they know college isn't right for them they may be trade school what else what other options are there it's all about the right fit for students whether it be college whether it be going into military  whether it's military first and then college after or trade school or going right into a career so it's really about exploring a student's interests and their abilities and looking at what it is that they want so talking to a student really trying to find out what it is what the right fit is for them and then working from there as to how we can get there so when do you recommend a good time to start preparing for the transition like junior senior ones too little too much too late i don't think you can ever prepare too early if you remember back to your elementary school years you were still doing interest surveys back at that time with your counselors and with your teachers you're looking exploring interest exploring abilities that's the beginning to really starting to plan for your post secondary plans when it comes to really preparing for what you plan to do after high school junior year is a big time to start looking at whether you're college bound to start exploring colleges whether you're career focused and what you need to do to get there junior year we do say time where it's too early to start thinking about and dreaming yeah i've noticed with a c p a fifty preparing for that has put a lot of stress on me like overwhelming and then finding myself disconnecting from my school what actually preparing for school how do you help students who feel overwhelmed with that i think that one of the best things to do is to sit down and organize yourself write down the tasks that you need to complete write down what it is that you need to do and prioritize those and really sit down with the calendar and try to set goals for yourself short term and long term to help with that it i think a lot of students try to do that but then other things get in the way you've got a exams coming up you've got finals coming up so it is hard but you really just have to sit down and try to prioritize so with do help students with application i'm available for any type of questions that may come  up students counselor is always available to them as students want to sit down and talk with me and be happy to do so as well so how do you make college applications war appealing i would say just exploring common  made college applications really accessible in pretty easy many colleges utilize the common app we just had some recent colleges or some colleges just recently out of the common like penn state so just exploring the ways to apply to college and also utilizing now beyond us it's a wonderful program and it really helps you to know how to apply what you need what's recommended for the different schools how many colleges would you say is a good amount to apply for because i noticed that when my parents want me to go to you they have me so i'll know you but what if i don't like you were showing like how many colleges do you recommend as a good amount to apply for  i believe every student is different and it certainly dependent upon conversations you've had with your family what's good for you but i would say that you want to apply to a couple safe schools that you really feel confident based on utilizing history possibly with your now vs of students who have gotten in in the past that are similar to you or acceptance rates utilizing that type of information so a couple safe peter go somewhere far away do you recommend that's a good idea or no because you're far away from home i think it depends on the individual there are some students that they really feel like they need to be a little bit closer to home and that's ok and then there are some students that feel like i'm ready to get out to explore to get to see a new place and that's great too and that the best way to start thinking about that is to really go and step on a campus whether it's near or far to see what the type of feel is and  to really think about how you would feel being an hour from home or how you'd feel about being a six hour drive or thinks hour plane ride yeah so on the opposite what about commuting cannot be a negative impact on students and call ledge i don't i don't believe that it can be a negative impact it's all about what your goals are commuting can help with saving a lot of money with room and board there are some aspects where with commuting you may have a more difficult time trying to connect so if you are commuting it's important to reach out to the different clubs and organizations on campus so that you still can  connect with others and and get a community feel so what about finding roommates i know that's been a big struggle for some of my friends who have gone off to college go on the you can find they can spare you with someone right like the colleges case of yes it depends on the college so that colleges tend to have their own ways of of pairing roommates in they utilize social media often to do so where they're trying to find the right fit for you as a as a roommate so what happens if you end up having negative bad things happen when you really just need to reach out to the college that you're at because they all have first year experiences to help freshman with the transition to college so back to going back to applying to multiple colleges what are good factors to consider when you're deciding you're trying to decide like listing out pros and cons absolutely so if you have an idea of what your major is that's certainly a factor so making sure that the college has your major considering whether or not you want to go to a small school lower or a larger school do you want to stay close do you want to go far away as far as larger schools things to consider who teaches your course of the classes that you're in is it is it a college professor is it a student assistant there's lots of things to consider if you're unsure of your major may be considering going to a bigger school that offers a lot more programs so you have opportunities to explore their financial  assistance is it a school that offers a lot of scholarships sometimes private schools can offer more scholarships than the public schools or state schools so just lots of things to think about when it comes to the social aspects of on campus clubs and organizations to the academic piece to the financial piece so how do you help students decide where to go to school if they don't know what they want to do they want to go in undecided i would say to consider the other factors then you know start with far away or close by try to narrow down based on some individual questions and again utilizing navea in comparing different colleges through their now vs can really help you to to see what's out there i would also encourage students starting with junior year when we have college visits in college representatives to come to  really take the time to come and talk with those college representatives to learn more about the individual colleges so can going in undecided be harmful to students like when you're taking all these on the side classes to try to figure out what you want that's taking away credit to being a major can it be adding on years it depends on the program that you end up settling more deciding on whether it can be hurtful or not typically with programs you have a lot of classes that you need to take that aren't necessarily related to your major so you can often utilize those as the electives within your major or that might go towards a minor that you may decide  going in and decide it isn't necessarily a negative and some colleges don't even want you to declare until your software year because they understand that you're still exploring you could you could change your mind later on absolutely and you certainly don't know what you don't know  like opposed to having a major said well i think it's important to have an idea of an endgame it doesn't have to be specific yeah so you know certainly whether you want a career and what type of career do you want or what do you want your life to to look like those are some general questions that can help you to narrow down so having that type of endgame in mind and to even more specific to the type of major that you want it just depends on the individual my grandfather served and read more to spending time with him with the best memories of my life i became a physician in v a because of my grandfather so i can help others like him i can't imagine working with better doctors or more dedicated staff fulfilling my life's mission with the help of my team and thanks to these veterans i'm proud to be a doctor and be i'm proud to honor my grandfather every day search v a careers to find out  work i welcome back my name shame to your birthday we're talking about college interns assuming and i'm here joined with mr so as you said earlier we you mentioned financial aid what exactly is that so financial aid is is essentially how you're going to pay for college the financial aspects of it the first place to start is typically to fill out a free application called the fafsa and that is done in the fall and it's a free application online utilize the the prior years tax information so it's helpful to sit down with your with your parents and fill out that free application online from there that will help to determine if you're eligible for  financial assistance and any grants may offer some parent loans different types of things or it may show that that you need to pay out a certain amount or  you may need to look at some private loans but it really helps the college that you want to plying to as well to to help with that financial package that they give you after you've been accepted so do you recommend taking your if you have if you have to pay for college yourself i would say it's dependent upon the individual if that's something that you feel like you would benefit from with taking that year off to to save and when you believe you can set those goals and keep with those then absolutely something to consider to start to sorry student loans do they kick in after you graduate or do you have to pay them through your college so typically with student loans through the government it  is something you start paying back so many months after you've graduated typically six months after you've graduated you can start paying those back and what do you recommend to students who feel like money is the only situation that's holding them back from going to school i would say that there is the right fit for everyone even if money is a factor we can look at different scholarships we can look at different schools that may offer more financial support in scholarships themselves we can look at community college as an option there's different programs out there even if finances is a concern so what scholarship opportunities are offered here peters township the best way to find out about scholarships is through we do have i will refer it's absolutely so there is a scholarship list out there that's sent out from the counseling department that's updated frequently in now isn't it in the spring time is a really important time especially for seniors to be working on looking at those lists yes especially for local scholarship opportunities to apply for does it also update to other schools not only through ones you can apply for for job but as a scholarship opportunities for the schools that are on there so it may may show it will show the local scholarship opportunities that we're aware of and it may have other national scholarship opportunities typically the the best thing to do for a specific college is to look at their financial page and their collar shit page if you know that you're going to penn state for example you know take a look at their website and they will provide the specific information for their school so about community  college do they look at your s a t s scores as well i know that's for some people financial aspect along with the g p a also stuff like that people go there because they are afraid they can't get into another college or do they go there because mostly because of financial i think it depends there's lots of reasons to go to a community college one could be to simply explore different options that are available to you you know to take some different classes that could transfer to a four year program another way another reason is simply if you know what you're doing it only requires an associate's degree then there's and there's no need to go to a four year and community college is what you need another reason maybe two to save money because those classes can be less expensive than some other options available so there's there's lots of reasons to go that can be beneficial if depending on what your what your end goal is so after that what do you recommend to students who obviously don't have you to talk to anymore is there a counselor that would be a community college that can help them transition into a four year college yes so every every school every college has a has support available to students that attend whether it be career counseling or exploring how to transfer there are different resources out there for them so what makes a college or university a good school when term spring from community college it absolutely varies and it simply just depends on the program that you're looking for at that point to him and it's much like a  similar transition from high school to college or from community college to a four year program or depending on what you're looking for if you have an idea in mind of what what your end game is certainly reaching out to those colleges looking at what would transfer and what would be needed to be successful with the game in mind so where sorry  so what happens if somebody goes they transfer from the community college or i mean really just going to school in general and they realize that colleges do you recommend dropping out or would you say to stick it out until the end of the year end of the semester just to get the lacrosse which w going on would you have someone like it's depending upon what the reasoning is behind it if it's something that you can make it through the semester then certainly that can be beneficial because at least you have some credits if they depending on if they would transfer or not so it's dependent upon if they'll transfer to the school that you want to end up going to a lot of times at that point you're committed financially so there's lots of factors that go into it but if you're planning on transferring trying to finish out this semester may be the best option for you because at least you have some credits and what do you recommend the students who want to drop out because they're home sick or some some reason like i think it depends on what it is that that you want to do in the end something where you can find support if you're homesick there's lots of different things to do your freshman year to get involved in and realize that you're not alone there are many students feeling that same way and there are counselors available on college campuses too to support in the social emotional piece in career planning in the transition for freshman year because college is what makes up to an end when you attend they want you to be just as successful so they're going to do everything they can to support you so reach out don't be afraid to reach out to the resources that you have on your campus and i know a lot of like thirty year olds twenty year olds are going back to college that probably go there but not good or better versus who don't think that the time is right for them to just take a gap year or so i would say that's a it's it's depending upon the right that there is a right fit for college there's a right fit for timing it all depends on what's happening in that person's life and it's really an individual's decision about about what it is that they want to do what are their goals and how can we get there so going back to applying the multiple colleges why is that a good idea the amount of applications that have increased with colleges so acceptance rates can vary and college acceptance rights are really based on that year what they're looking for in their freshman class and who are they except ng so even though you may have  the the leadership qualities in a community service and you've done a lot for your school and you've done well academically you it's possible you could be denied into to a college that year it's possible you could be accepted there really is no magic ticket to a specific college so certainly applying to more than one school just simply increases your chances into getting to a program that that you're interested in and what if i get denied a certain school to my dream school i didn't have the grades i didn't have the safety scores and i go back to colleges like the commitment to their school if you were to reapply so sometimes if you go to a different college and you decide that you know what i really still am interested in that that original dream school you always can apply and see if you can transfer and the decision may change and it may be helpful then to work really hard into the the colleges you're accepted in and if you can maintain grades your freshman year that may help you to be accepted the next year so i was doing some research interviews so they only ask a few people to come in for areas like how do the interviews work with meeting with the teams it depends on the college and it depends on the program there's different types of interviews for different purposes and sometimes it's in front of a panel sometimes it's in front of one person sometimes you may have many interviews so it's really dependent upon the school and the program so how can i prepare for my me if i were to ask a common i would say that we would look at what it is is it to get into a specific program is to get into a specific college so we would try to think about what the purpose of the interview would be is it going to be general questions is that going to be specific to things that you have done  opportunities that you've you've had when uncertain about what types of questions to ask we would really focus in on the opportunities that you've had a and think about what it has done for you as a person because a lot of times colleges want to know where the admissions officers or whoever may be doing the interview they want to know about you as a person how are you going to benefit their campus so they've seen what you can do on paper but now they want to be able to be absolutely see what your personalities like and and see how you can benefit them so last afore we run out of time i want to ask you just in general the transitioning aspect of going to college or going to a real job or going to trade school or what student what can you tell a student to feel really nervous about i would say as with anything in life in any transition you have most likely felt nervous before remember that just like that time it's temporary yes and everyone feels that way and so it's ok you know reach out to people that you trust to family to people that are going through the same thing that you are because chances are they're having the same exact feelings as you are and remember it's temporary i mean i've been a lot of me and my friends visit our junior year we've been feeling around i just learned a figured out so it's very good advice thank you so much thank you for watching today's episode of the  john called in terms of sinning totally messed up and i answered some important questions that each students may have been thinking about their future over sixty six percent of peers hunter pie school graduate school time college but it's important to the rest of the students to know what their other options are if you're a student who has questions as if they got into office and schedule