Charting Your Own Course(s)

There is a fairly recent trend that is gaining traction - the Gap Year.  Unlike what you may hope, it is not a year that you spend shopping at the GAP on an unlimited gift card.  It is, "a period of time between completing high school and beginning college when a student steps outside the traditional classroom experience".  I personally knew a very wealthy man who insisted each of his four children spend a year after high school in gainful employment/exploration before he would finance their college degrees, if they decided to pursue them.  This was decades before the idea had a name or plethora of websites from which to get information and guidance.

Andrew Kelly, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute speaks about three alternatives to college in a short informative video which can be found at:
http://townhall.com/video/aei-three-alternatives-to-attending-college-n1817964  
There are many programs out there that can help a student pursue these alternatives or narrow the field as to possible career avenues.  Juniata College in Huntington, Pennsylvania has offered a more individually tailored program for years.  It is called the "Program of Emphasis" where "students are afforded the option to create their own major" and can  "explore many possibilities that would otherwise be restricted by a designated major".  While an interesting concept, it may be more beneficial to someone who already has a course of study in mind.  Plus, the annual tuition, room and board at Juniata runs upward of 40K!  There are many Gap Year Fairs much like the traditional College Fairs.  A schedule  of these events, along with links to helpful sites that give more information and insight into this growing trend, can be found at:
http://www.usagapyearfairs.org

I found a very interesting program run by UnCollege, founded by Dale Stephens, about which I've written before.  ("Just Say, 'No' "? - Wednesday, March 13, 2013).  There is a fee but also an admissions process and it appears pretty selective.  They advertise the program as follows:
   
     It's a year-long program where fellows will be learning,
     living abroad, and pursuing work that matters.  Most Gap
     Year Programs are loose conduits from high school to
     college.  Here, we teach you everything you need to know,
     from traveling to building work you care about.  We
     provide the skills, the resources, and the access.  All you
     need to do is show up, and bring your best.  We'll do the rest.

If I met the age requirement (18-28), I might apply myself!
http://www.uncollege.org/gapyear

Chloe and Joey Are Juniors

Welcome back to what will, hopefully, be a very rewarding school year.  I want to begin with a post that focuses on juniors who are planning to attend college after graduation.  Two great kids whom I'm lucky to have as neighbors, Chloe and Joey, are juniors this year and in June I gave them this timeline to help them navigate all that the college bound student needs to accomplish junior year.

Recommended Junior Year Timeline

June - September 

- If you haven't taken an interest inventory through your school, I suggest you visit 

http://www.college.gov and use it to get information on careers by scrolling down and clicking "Explore Careers".  This will help you find careers that relate to different areas of interest.  This site also has a lot of financial aid information or you can go directly to http://www.careeronestop.org.

- Once you get some career ideas, you can go to http://www.bls.gov.  Scroll down the "Publications" tab to "Career Guides" and click onto the Occupational Outlook Handbook.  Another good site to use to investigate careers, especially in the math and science areas, is www.careercornerstone.org.

- Go to collegeboard.org and do a college match which will give you an idea of which specific colleges/programs you may want to consider.

-Download a college visit checklist to use when you visit colleges.  A good one is available at bigfuture.collegeboard.org.  

October - November

- Take the PSAT.

- Investigate summer programs open to juniors such as the Prudential Prestigious Awards.  Recipients receive scholarship money and attend a week long conference in Washington, D.C. in the early spring.  More info can be found at spirit.prudential.com.

- Zinch.com also has a scholarship finder.

- Notify your counselor that you are interested in summer programs such as Governor's School - www.nj.gov/govschool and New Jersey Boys State/New Jersey Girls State www.boysandgirlsstate.org.

December

- You will receive your PSAT results and should use them to continue with your SAT prep.  I say "continue" because your schoolwork, study and even general reading is all "SAT prep".  Use them to see where your strengths and weaknesses are.  There are many SAT prep books you can use and even online test prep at sites like www.grockit.com and unigo.com.

January - June

- Schedule your SAT in the spring along with Subject Tests, if necessary.

- Continue investigating/visiting colleges and programs and applying to summer programs of interest.  Virtual tours can be found on many college websites and also at www.campustour.com.

- Go to www.neighborhoodscout.com to check out the safety of the areas in which your schools of interest are located.

- Also go to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education website, theFIRE.org, to see your chosen schools' current policies "restricting individual rights, as well as that campus' advertised commitments to freedom of expression."

- Download a copy of the Common Application at www.commonapp.org. Even if your colleges of interest don't use or require it (over 400 do!), it will give you a good idea of what information will be included on most college applications.  You can begin the activity sheet portion now, if you haven't begun one already.  You can also see what the general application essay topics look like.  If you begin one now, you can most likely edit it to use senior year.  Go to www.englishclub.com to get some great tips on writing the college application essay.

There are numerous college ratings lists and guides.  A recent one I particularly like can be found in the August 12, 2013 edition of Forbes magazine.  They take the Top 300 Colleges, "rankings compiled exclusively for Forbes by the Center for College Affordability and Productivity" and give them grades based on their fiscal soundness.  They created the Forbes College Financial Grades and analyzed the balance sheets and operational strength of more than 900 four-year, private, not for profit schools with more than 500 students.  Public schools are included in the rankings but not graded.  "Combining Forbes'  Top College rating with its new Financial Grades can help you home in on not just the best schools for the buck but also those that are likely to be around for many years to come."

"Lucie Laponsky, former V.P. of finance at Baltimore's Goucher College and a higher-ed financial consultant, cautions against ignoring the financial health of the colleges you choose: 'Visible signs of financial stress can include fewer classes offered less frequently, more classes taught by adjunct professors, less money for clubs and cutbacks in the upkeep of campus facilities.'"

The next post will appear on October 23 and will include a discussion of a recently published book, 

300 Best Jobs Without a Four Year Degree in addition to a summary of a July Daily Caller post, "As College Costs Increase, Alternatives Arise".  I will also comment on another article about alternatives to college entitled, "Thinking Outside the Education Box".

Just Say "No"?

Three years ago when I first started this blog, I wrote about a site run by the Federal Department of Education, www.college.gov.  I commented at the time that, while there were many good features on the site, I wasn't on board with the heavy emphasis on college-almost to the exclusion of other post secondary training choices.  I followed that post in September 2010 with one entitled, "The Scarecrow Syndrome", which is still one of my favorites.  If you haven't done so already, I suggest it's worth a read. In it I propose that  students examine their career choices and inclinations and investigate the best educational pathways to prepare for that field.  Four year college may not be required.

Well, it seems that, perhaps due to this stubborn economic downturn, other people are re-examining the "necessity" of a baccalaureate.  On November 30, 2012, The New York Times published an article by Alex Williams entitled, "Saying No to College".  In it he mentions that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Michael Dell and Mark Zuckerberg all dropped out of college.  He does note that
     Even the staunchest critics of college concede
     that a diploma is still necessary for many
     professions - law and medicine, clearly, and in
     many cases, for a Fortune 500 executive, too.
     But that's the point:  how many more lawyers 
     and middle managers do we need?  'College is
     training for managerial work, and the economy
     doesn't need that many managers,' said Michael
     Ellsberg, the author of The Education of 
     Millionaires:  Everything You Won't Learn in
     College About How to be Successful
        ...Last year, an anonymous academic who
     called himself Professor X, published,  In the
     Basement of the Ivory Tower,
      which argued that future police officers and 
     nurses need not be force-fed Shakespeare.

Some other groups that espouse this idea are:
- Enstitute which offers two-year apprenticeships with entrepreneurs in lieu of college - enstitute.com
- Zero Tuition College, an online support network for students looking for alternatives - www.ztcollege.com
-  Thiel Fellowship Program, begun by Peter A. Thiel co-founder of PayPal, pays students under 20 years old 100K to pursue their ventures - www.thielfellowship.org

Dale J. Stephens is the founder of UnCollege, www.uncollege.org, which "...champions 'more meaningful' alternatives to college".
He told Alex Williams, "I think kids with a five-year head start (many students do not graduate in four years) on equally ambitious peers will be ahead in both education and income...They could go to a library, read a book a day, take courses online." Mr. Williams mentions massive open online courses - MOOCS - "which stream classes from elite universities like Princeton".

Many economists are reporting that overwhelming student loan debt will be the next subprime crisis.  The statistics are staggering. As he reports
     There is now $ 1 trillion ($1,000,000,000,000 - my addition - 
     some visual!) in outstanding student debt, with $117
     billion tacked  on last year alone, according to calculations
     by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.  
     Tuition levels have quadrupled since the early 80's,
     according to the Student Body Scholarship
     Association.

Consider those numbers when you review your financial aid package!!!

Some other books mentioned in this article which you may find interesting - 
Academically Adrift:  Limited Learning on College Campuses by Richard Arum
40 Alternatives to College by James Altucher