How to Graduate with a Job You Love and Less Debt

QW: What does it mean to be "in the driver's seat of your life"?

Activity:
Watch the video by Julien Gorden on How to Graduate with a Job You Love and Less Debt:

Then complete the questions on this worksheet. If you make a copy of it, you will be able to type on the worksheet.  Then share it with your EF. You can also print it out to complete it and/or answer the questions on a separate paper, and turn that in to your EF.

What's important in a college/career training program

QW: What's important to you in life?  What factors are important to your future?

As we've discussed in previous blog posts, there are a lot of things to consider when choosing a college: majors offered, of course, but also location, campus climate, activities, cost, and many others.

Read the Blog Post "Finding Balance in Your College Choices" from the Counselor's Corner Blog.  Then reflect on what is important to you in your college or career training experience.  Think about the following factors:

• location
• climate
• community - who you will be interacting with
• size - large campus or small community
• academic or professional support services available
• cost
• cultural or entertainment options
• distance from home
• etc.

Next, fill out this college inventory.  After you have completed the inventory, revisit the four colleges you chose in last week's assignment.  Do you feel they fit your needs (both academic and non-academic)? Identify at least 2 colleges or training programs that you feel are a good fit (these may or may not be the same programs you chose last week).  Spend at least 15 minutes on the website of each college or training program, and write 1-2 paragraphs for each in the ways they do and do not fit the preferences you identified last week and in the college inventory.

Turn the inventory and the reflection in to your EF.

College Research

QW: When you imagine your experience at college, what do you picture?  Write a description of a day in your life in college.

There are many factors to consider when choosing a college to attend.  With over 4,000 colleges and universities in the US, how do you even begin to search?

Some things to consider, obviously, are the majors offered at the school and the quality of the professors.  You can also get a sense of the quality of the school through details like graduation rate, and what percentage of students return for a second year. In addition to the academic considerations, you should also consider the living environment.  After all, you are probably going to spend at least 4 years of your life here, and you're more likely to be successful academically if you are not miserable in your personal life.

Two large pieces of the college search puzzle are match and fit.  Match refers to academics - how does your academic ability match up to what is expected at the college, and how likely are you to be admitted?  This depends largely on grades and test scores.  College fit refers to just about everything else - does the environment suit you?  Is there a good social environment?  Do the academic support services offered meet your needs? What kinds of clubs, entertainment, and athletic opportunities are there? Will you be able to make friends and develop a support network? Does the college offer the major you are interested in?  If you're not 100% positive of your major, are there other interesting major choices if you change your mind?

For this activity, set up an account on raise.me, and print this worksheet.

Watch the slideshow on College Discovery here.  )There's a small white arrow on the right to click through the slides.) After watching the slideshow and researching colleges on raise.me, complete the worksheet.

While you're at it, enter some information into your profile at raise.me (good grades, any advanced classes you've taken, if you've taken the PSAT or SAT, extracurricular activities, etc) and see if you qualify for any microscholarships offered by the raise.me partner schools.  Microscholarships are awards you can get for extracurricular activities, community service, good grades, etc.  They are awarded by different college partners, and if you end up enrolling in one of the colleges where you have earned microscholarships, the money will be added to your financial aid when you enroll.

Turn in the worksheet to your EF.

Goals

QW: What is something you want to accomplish in 2018? Write down at least one goal you have for this year.

The new year is often about goals - New Year's Resolutions, a new start, changing old habits. However, statistics suggest that less than 10% of people are actually successful in completing their resolutions.

Why do people fail to stick to their New Year's Resolutions?  There are many reasons, including:

• It's hard to break old habits
• The goal is too vague; it's hard to really pin down what you need to do to achieve the goal
• After the initial excitement, you aren't willing to put in the effort needed to reach the goal
• It's not that important; you don't have the personal motivation to reach the goal
• There is a lack of support, you don't have the resources or emotional/social support
• You feel you can always get to it later, and right now you have other things to do

All of these reasons come back around to the same thing; either the goal was not the right goal for you, or it was poorly defined.  Many efficiency experts recommend using a strategy to set clear, meaningful goals.  These are known as SMART goals.

SMART stands for:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-Bound

Read the following article on SMART goals: SMART Goals - How to Make Your Goals Achievable

Now look at the goal you identified in the quick write.  Go through the steps in the article:

1. Specific - answer the questions:
• What, specifically, do I want to accomplish? (e.g. rather than "eat better", "eat 5 servings of vegetables per day" or "limit sugar to less than 15 grams per day"
• Why is this goal important?
• Who is involved?
2. Measurable: How will you know when the goal is accomplished?
3. Achievable: What skills or resources do you need to achieve this goal? How will you develop the skills or find the resources? Who can help you with this?
4. Relevant: Understand clearly why this goal is important to you.  Sometimes people are swayed by what other people think they should accomplish, and the goals are not personally meaningful enough to put in the effort required to achieve the goal.  Make sure this is YOUR goal, not something someone else thinks you should do.
5. Time-Bound: Set yourself a deadline!  If your goal is to save $500, when do you want to accomplish this?  Next week? Next month? Next year?  Or maybe your goal is to run a marathon within the next year.  Be specific.  Accountability can be uncomfortable sometimes, but it keeps you on track.

Once you have reviewed all of these, re-write your goal as a SMART goal.  Underneath your goal, address each of the 5 points above.

Example of a SMART goal: "I will run a half-marathon this summer"

• Specific - yes, I'm going to run a half-marathon
• Measurable - yes, either I've done it or I haven't
• Achievable - yes, but I'm going to have to get a training plan and stick to it.  A training partner would probably help keep me accountable.  Also, if I register for an event and pay the race fee, that will help keep me committed to achieving the goal
• Relevant - yes, I really want to get back into running and improve my physical condition.  This will really help with that.  
• Time-Bound - yes, it will happen this summer

Turn in your SMART Goal to your EF.