College Admission Help

College Counselor Advice: Roommates, Credit Cards, and a June Swoon to Avoid
By Dr. Patrick O’Connor
Now that you’re all set with college—or at least extremely close to it—there are a few other things to think about. In no particular order, here they are for your consideration, along with some links of some great articles to help you with a few of these ideas:

Roommates — Sometime soon, your college will most likely send you some information about housing and roommates- sometimes they send all of this in one package, and sometimes it’s separate. Unlike the good old days when your first contact with your roommate was the day you moved in, most colleges have a nice system put together where you can contact each other over the summer, Facebook each other, and talk about who’s bringing the fridge for the room.

My brief advice: Make the most of this. Some students don’t pay a lot of attention to the roommate questionnaire most colleges provide, and if you answer it with an attitude of “I can live with anyone,” don’t be surprised if the college takes you up on that offer. You might not feel like filling out one more silly form, or contacting a complete stranger—but in two months, you’ll be glad you did, since by then both will be neither. Find the time between prom and senior skip day to get this done.

College and money — If you thought the mail from colleges was relentless, sit tight. Now that you’ve actually decided on a college, you will get deluged with requests for credit cards—in fact, some companies will send you credit cards or things that look like checks, and the minute you use it, you commit to a lifetime of “easy” payments that make a four-minute mile achievable by a garden slug.

These mailings will continue once you’re at college—yes, they will know where you are—so the best thing to do is make sure you or your roommate (whom you are contacting this summer, remember?) will also sort out who is bringing the compact paper shredder to campus to deal with these. Why not just throw them out? Because someone may (gasp!) fish these out of campus garbage, forge your name, and stick you with the bill. Sad to say, but not everyone was raised the way you were—so buy the shredder, rent it out to everyone else on the floor for their use, and you make your book money AND the confetti for the homecoming float all at the same time.

There’s more to this money thing that’s beyond me. Happily, I’m not the only one who cares about your economic well being, and some very nice folks have put together a great piece on money and college. This takes about 3 minutes to read once—and about 4 years to really understand. Take a look, and understand why a $4 cup of coffee has never really been a good idea:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/03/pf/college/boom_years.moneymag/index.htm

Grades this semester —This is my last attempt to beg you to take the next four weeks seriously. With the many strange turns in college admissions this year, it seems many colleges are poised to look at final senior grades with greater scrutiny—and they have very, VERY long wait lists filled with students who will be happy to take your place, just because you thought the real name of this month was maybe I won’t turn that work in. Read on, and don’t worry- just stay focused.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-05-06-senioritis-college_N.htm

There’s more to discuss, but that’s enough for now—and seriously, look into the shredder (it’s a great way to meet people!)


College Counselor Advice: Roommates, Credit Cards, and a June Swoon to Avoid