Mission Statement:
College Planning Association's mission is to empower students with the tools and knowledge so they may actively participate in the planning of their high school and college education, enabling them to become responsible citizens and the leaders of tomorrow.
High School And College Planning Does Matter:
(you can make the presentation full screen by clicking the Icon in the lower right corner after it starts)
How To Choose A Major That's Right For You:
College Planning Association
believes there is a better way to navigate career exploration and
the college planning process. According to the
U.S. Department of Education, when considering college, there are
two areas of concern that a family should be aware. The first is
that of careful financial planning; second is career
exploration along with proper high school course selection.
Let’s briefly discuss the area of financial planning. The U.S. Department of Education states, "Start saving early: Saving money is the best way to prepare for meeting the costs of college. Set aside money each month, starting now, to build a college fund. Think about where your child might attend college, how much that type of college might cost, and how much you can afford to save. The earlier you and your child begin saving, the smaller the amount you will have to set aside each month."
The bottom line: planning needs to start as soon as possible after the birth
of a child. The Department of Education's recommendation makes sense because time is on your side,
which means you can put away smaller amounts of money
for a longer term which will grow into a significant significant
college savings account thanks to compound interest.
The second area of successful college planning involves planning for their career choice, class selection and transitioning from home to campus. The Department of Education recommends planning as early as middle school. Introduce the idea of attending college while your child is in sixth grade, making it clear that you expect them to earn a minimum of a bachelor's degree.
It is very important for every student to set goals for college from a young age. What a student does in middle school will have a direct effect on the courses they may select in high school. By setting goals and visualizing themselves in college, a student can find inspiration when challenged with difficult courses or heavy homework loads.
If a student follows and successfully completes an approved Advanced
Placement (AP)/Honors Program, they could save an entire year of college as
well as tuition costs.
AP courses typically satisfy general-study courses such as
freshman English and mathematics.
But there is so much more to college planning. Many families make the mistake of starting their planning too late due to lack of experience or knowledge of the process.
College Planning Association's motto is "Knowledge Conquers All!" A family that is educated about the process and prepared to do what is necessary for their child's future is empowered to have the best outcome possible.
Let’s look at our vision of college planning and preparation as compared to the "typical way" as described in "Ed's Story - A Major Decision".
So, how does a student know which colleges they may attend?
The 'best way' to plan for college:
The student starts out by taking assessments to review their likes, dislikes and their personality. From the assessments, the student starts exploring possible career paths. After identifying career paths, they will explore, investigate and narrow down to the few that most interest them.
Having identified their potential career paths, the student explores the different types of degrees needed for a particular occupation. Many students are surprised to find that one occupation could have several degrees that may be used in that career path. This diversity in degrees allows the student to choose the path that is right for them.
Having identified several degree choices, the student begins to investigate various colleges nationwide to see which ones offer the degree program they are considering. They will also consider demographics such as size, student body, location and various other aspects to be certain the school matches their desires. With the list of colleges in hand, a high school course selection plan can be made to match the college choices.
The student’s plan should be updated on a regular basis to be consistent with their high school progress as well as any changes in their goals. As their plan changes, so will their class choices. We never want to see a student be denied the opportunity to attend a college simply because they failed to plan ahead.
The process we’ve just described above is only a small part of the services that College Planning Association offers to our families. We encourage you to contact one of our local advisors to see how we can help you and your family prepare for this life-changing endeavor. It is our goal is to provide you peace of mind so that you may know that you did your best to empower your student for this life event.
Ed's Story - A Major Decision:
I would like to discuss the way many students choose their
college major by sharing my personal story with you. When I was a senior in high
school, I was approached by my guidance counselor and asked if I was going
to college. Up until that moment of my life, I had only thought about it once
or twice. No adult had ever talked seriously about college with me. The guidance
counselor stood there awaiting my response.
I took a few seconds and imagined that I was looking up into the sky and
flipping a coin. I hoped that I was making the right decision. I turned to
the guidance counselor and said, "Yes, I would like to go to college." In
about thirty seconds seconds, I had made a decision that would affect the rest of my life
with nothing more than a question and an imaginary coin toss. Thinking I was
out of the woods and happy with my decision, I just stood there in the
hallway staring at my guidance counselor.
Having the expectation of returning to my teenage life, it happened again.
The guidance counselor asked another question with expecting an
answer on the spot. I remember it clearly . . . a simple question that would have
a ripple effect in my life for the next 6 years. What I thought was a simple
question was actually a very complicated one in hind sight. But nonetheless, the
counselor asked, "What is your major going to be?” Again having nothing to
draw on other than what I had seen on television, heard from my friends and
possibly read about in science class, I quickly responded, "Aeronautical
Engineer!” In that moment, I had started down the path of attending college
with no more research or discussion other than those two questions asked by
someone who cared about my future.
Over the next couple of months, I applied to colleges that my guidance counselor
believed had good engineering programs. It is
funny how the counselor had no concern as to how much the school would cost
or how my parents were going to pay for it. After getting excited about
several great engineering schools, I approached my parents and informed them
that I was going college and what the cost was going to be. My parents sat
across the table from me with a puzzled look on their faces and stated, "Let’s
see what schools you get accepted to." They also established a list of
colleges they wanted me to apply, along with the guidance counselor's
recommendations.
Let me explain how my parents made their list: "This school is close to your
Uncle, this school is close to your Aunt. Let’s call them and
see if it is alright for you to live with them while attending college."
During this process, there was no concern if the school even had an
engineering program.
Realizing that my parents were sending me a message that the cost of college
was a concern, I went to my guidance counselor and asked how I was going to
pay for college if my parents could not. The guidance counselor asked
approximately how
much money my parents made last year. Within thirty seconds his
response was, "Well, your parents make too much money and you will have to
take out loans or pay for it with savings." The next statement was probably
the worst advice ever given to me: "There is no need for you to come to the
Financial Aid Night, or to fill out the financial aid forms, as you will never
qualify."
So, off I went and applied to colleges without financial aid forms and was
fortunate to be accepted to many great universities around the country. Along with the
acceptance letters came the cost of attendance. As I showed these acceptance
letters to my parents, I was informed that I would have to come up with the
money on my own to attend college.
I sat down with all of my acceptance letters and put them in the order by
cost of attendance. You probably can guess . . . it was from the least expensive
to the most expensive. I then went through the list to see if any of them
were close to a relative. So there you had it. I was going to a college in
the southwest, close to Aunt Grace, and yes, lucky for me they had an engineering program.
I left for college in early August. The day I arrived at the university,
it felt like an oven, 113 degrees. I headed over to the financial aid
department and they handed me an application for a student loan and in
fifteen
minutes, I was the proud owner of a loan for college with payments starting
in 6 months. Now remember, I attended college in the mid 80's and it was a
lot less expensive then. Tuition was $4,500 plus books, housing, etc. Which was a lot of money for a full time student that had no plan
of working during college.
In that one moment my highest goal of studying hard without having to work
seemed to be gone forever. For those of you that
experienced the recession of 80's, you know it is similar to today's. The country
was going through an economic struggle and interest rates rose to double
digit highs, which also included student loans. Within 6 months, I had a job
working from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM as a security officer at minimum wage (for
those of you wondering, minimum wage was in the $3.35 per hour range). It
started as a part time job at my request, but by my second year of college, it
was full time and I could barely make the student loan payments.
Let’s get back to the topic at hand, my college major. So there I was
accepted into a major university, a large loan that I had to pay and a full
time college course load. Does anyone else see a problem with this plan? At
the time, it made sense! I discovered a very interesting fact about
engineering: it is difficult and your calculations had best off the page and
create a visual picture in your mind. I could do the math, but my mind did
not see a visual representation of what it looked like or meant. During the
first semester, my grades quickly went down and I received notice that I was
on academic probation. I continued in the program for a second semester but
was asked to leave and look for a different major. Having a low GPA, I did
what everyone else in my situation does: I went to the Liberal Arts College
and spent a semester getting my grades up high enough to transfer to a new
major.
This time, I picked Computer Science. This was the days of FORTRAN, Assembly
Language and Compilers. You probably guessed that the "1's and 0's" never
spoke to me. I again was asked to leave the program. So, there I was two
years into my college career with a barely acceptable GPA, and no closer to
a degree or knowing what I really wanted to do.
Lucky for me, I had a professor that saw that I was struggling and took the
time to sit down with me to discuss my future. After several conversations,
he asked me this simple question, "Put everything else aside. What do you
want to study and do with the rest of your life?" We spoke several times
over the next week and had some great conversations. With his help, I decided
on the College of Public Programs. Low and behold, I excelled in the program, met my
wonderful wife and finally graduated. Sounds
like a great outcome, and it was.
Now let’s look at what it cost me. I had to changed my major five times, added an extra two years to graduate. Those two years increased my student loan balance approximately $10,000. This was an expensive lesson to learn, something I should have done before going to college. How expensive would this mistake be today? I would hate to fathom that.
For those of you that have had the opportunity to attend
college, I would bet that each of you know somebody who had a similar
experience as mine. Based on the complete lack of my own college planning, I
recognized the need for a program to help families and their students pave
the way for their college education.
I only wish there had been a program for me during my high school years, or even earlier, that provided the service that College Planning Association offers. Helping families begin the process as early as middle school empowers the student and parents to be fully prepared when it is time to leave home for college.
Review the many informative pages of this site and see how College Planning Association can help you with plan for college planning and beyond.
Ed - Arizona State University Graduate
Grant
Goodeve's Thoughts on College Planning Association
Could you imagine if my television dad
from “Eight is Enough” had to put all 8 of us through college
... that would be more than enough for most families.
As parents, my wife Debbie and I have put three children through
undergraduate and graduate school so we know how daunting and
expensive paying for college can be. Like many parents, we were
willing to do “whatever it takes” to give our children the best
education and took on considerable personal debt to fund their
higher education. So, what if we had been told
before our kids applied to school that they could still
have received an excellent college education but we wouldn’t
have needed to spend so much of our own money? Well, today many families are
experiencing that reality because of the College
Planning Association. College is big business, and these
days families don’t have either the time nor experience
to negotiate the twists and turns of preparing students
for higher education all by themselves. The non-profit College Planning
Association provides parents and students with all the information
tools and support they need to choose the right schools and find the
best funding options without the anxiety. Wouldn’t it be great to
discover that you don’t necessarily have to “pay full price” for
tuition, books and housing? Sure, as a parent like me, you probably
want to do “whatever it takes.” But what if that meant not having to
dig such a big financial hole? Or taking out fewer loans? College
Planning Association’s mission is to help students prepare for
higher education by helping them pick the best schools that match
their desires and interests, while guiding parents to the best
sources of funding. As an actor and spokesman I have promoted
many products and services during my career, but spreading the word
about the College Planning Association has become a personal
crusade. I want to see students and families thrive as they
experience the positive pursuit of quality higher education. Grant Goodeve
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