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Time English (United States) Language 2 Action
00:06
Whether you're roaming the high seas or moving across the country all by yourself to start
00:10
fresh,
00:11
all adventures begin with the same step: planning and preparation.
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And college is no different!
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Applying to college is exciting and stressful and lots of other things that cause a whole
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spectrum of emotions.
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But you can take steps now that will make the college admissions process a lot easier
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once you get to that point.
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And if you’re not quite sure where to start, we’ve got you!
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Hi, I’m Erica Brozovsky and this is Crash Course: How to College,
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a Study Hall series presented in partnership with Arizona State University and Crash Course.
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[INTRO MUSIC PLAYS]
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College is all about a lot of things, and all those new experiences can get overwhelming.
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That’s why it’s so important to get organized early.
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You’ll probably need certain documents over and over.
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And it’s a tremendous pain to have to dig through your desk drawers
00:57
or your downloads folders to find them every time.
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So it’s a good idea to create a file system that works for you,
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like a separate college prep folder on your computer, that has all these documents.
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In general, setting up a storage system that makes it easy
01:08
to find your documents will save lots of time in the long run.
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And it’s even worth deciding on a naming convention,
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or a format for how you name all your documents so even if you lose something,
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you know how to search for it.
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Something simple that also explains what the thing is usually works -- like “Brozovsky
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Personal Statement.”
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Once you’ve gotten organized, the next step is to think about your goals for the future.
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This helps you focus on what is most important to you in a school.
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Short-term goals are goals that are able to be achieved in a few weeks or months.
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When preparing to apply to college, a short-term goal might be to get all your documents organized.
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They can also be goals focused on helping us become more well-rounded students,
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like maintaining a personal calendar to help you manage your time,
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or reading a new book each month to expand your knowledge and interests,
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Long-term goals require longer periods of consistent work to achieve.
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A long-term goal could be maintaining a 3.0 Grade Point Average through your senior year
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of high school.
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3.0 is the national average for high school students throughout the United States,
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and it’s a GPA that can help you get accepted to most colleges.
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Or maybe your long-term goal is to one day own your own business.
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And knowing that can help you decide what colleges to apply for.
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Like maybe you want to research schools that are known for business degrees,
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or trade schools that will help you develop skills to set up your company.
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We can revisit and adjust our goals as often as we need,
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but we want to make sure they’re realistic and measurable.
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Then we can figure out what steps we need to take to achieve them.
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And no matter where you are in life, thinking about what additional courses
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can help you prepare for college is another important step on our planning journey.
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If you are in high school, this might mean challenging yourself
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with Honors, Advanced Placement, or International
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Baccalaureate programs - these are programs designed to be more rigorous
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in some ways and help high school students prepare for college-level courses.
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AP and IB courses also let you earn college credit by taking a final exam at the end of
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the course.
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Another option is dual enrollment courses,
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which means you’re earning high school and college credits at the same time.
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Unlike AP and IB, many dual enrollment courses are available to students taking the GED
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in lieu of traditional high school classes.
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AP, IB, and dual-enrollment courses can have additional fees,
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but they’re great opportunities to earn college credits for a lot less money before
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you even start college,
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which gives you a head start.
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And, by starting college with a few credits under your belt,
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you can make more time during your degree for extra experiences,
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like studying abroad and internships.
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What we’re doing here with Study Hall, a collaboration between Arizona State University
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and Crash Course,
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is providing a path to start learning academic topics on YouTube
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which lead directly into college credit courses.
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You can start anytime without applying to the university,
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pay after you complete the course, and be able to transfer the credit to most universities.
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It’s also never too early to think about specific steps in the admissions process,
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like preparing for college entrance exams,
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which are exams like the SAT and ACT which measure how
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different groups of students perform relative to others.
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You can prepare for these by taking prep exams like the PSAT and PreACT.
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One of the biggest advantages of taking these preliminary exams
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is that you can get to know the testing process and the types of questions you’ll need to
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answer.
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Colleges will not see your scores for these practice exams,
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so this is a great way to practice with less pressure.
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Since it’s possible to improve your score, some educators recommend taking a standardized
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test twice.
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You may even be able to combine your scores from different exam dates.
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So if you were crushing the math section the first time, but not the second,
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you may be able to combine that math score with another test’s English or writing scores.
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This is called “super scoring.”
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Some students will also need to take the TOEFL.
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The TOEFL test is required if you need to show proficiency in speaking the English language.
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And if you want to apply for college but did not receive a traditional high school diploma,
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you will need to take the General Education Development test, or GED.
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The GED is made up of four separate tests on different subjects
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but you do not have to take each part at the same time.
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You can learn more about test topics, format, and costs at GED.com.
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College entrance exams can be a stressful step,
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but you can prepare for them just like the rest of the college process.
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Each of these exams serves a different purpose and can help you show colleges your knowledge
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in a different way.
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But requirements can change based on lots of different circumstances,
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so make sure you research what exams different colleges require --
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some schools don’t require any at all!
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Colleges are always trying to improve their admissions systems, and some schools,
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like the University of California colleges, are experimenting with test-blind admissions,
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which means they won’t look at standardized test scores even if students submit them.
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It’s hard to predict how admissions departments will weigh and handle the SAT and ACT in the
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future,
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but for now, you should know that the tests can help you stand out if you do well
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and you can excel on them with the right preparation.
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And as you research college entrance exams you can note other information
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that can help you meet your post-high school goals.
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Like the names, locations, and costs of attendance for these colleges.
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Or just what you like about the college and why you feel like it might be the right fit
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for you.
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And it doesn’t hurt to look into at least two ways you can pay for your college tuition
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and fees.
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While some students and their families use out-of-pocket savings to cover college costs,
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up to 86% of college students use some form of financial aid,
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which may include scholarships, grants, and federal or private loans.
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The sooner you start reviewing your financial aid options, the more prepared you will be
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to choose the ones that work best for you.
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Don’t worry, we’ll talk about paying for college in a later episode.