My plan changed, and now I need a bit of help.

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I'm a senior in HS who was originally planning on majoring in and becoming a nurse. Fortunately/unfortunately, I couldn't cut it in my HS Anatomy class so I did some reflection and realized nursing isn't really for me. </p>

<p>So now, I thought about things I like. I really love history and anything that incorporates social sciences. I also love working with kids (i've worked with younger kids mostly and now older kids, they all have their pros and cons so it could go either way as far as age is concerned), so it seems really natural to pair up history with education. </p>

<p>But most of the schools on my list I picked for their nursing programs, and I admittedly don't know much about great schools for teachers. I know some of the in-state U's (not the university system, the lesser state U's) are well-known as "teacher's colleges" but they honestly don't have much of a great reputation beyond that. I'm really worried that i'll change my plans when I get to college so I want to have a lot of options. I mean, I thought I was locked in to nursing for the longest time and that changed pretty quickly. Right now i'm panicking a little (not afraid to admit it) and I feel crunched for time, plus with the beginning-of-school rush I feel like I have no time. You guys are always a wealth of information, so I figured i'd re-start my search here.</p>

<p>I guess you need information, too:
Stats:
3.2UW/4.2+W GPA (I got a new, higher weighting this year, so it's higher, i'm not sure by how much. I think maybe 4.5.)
SAT I: 1920 first try (640/640/640)
ACT: n/a
Rank: unknown, definitely in the top half in a class of ~200. I'd estimate top 45% conservatively. (ranks every 5%)
Well-regarded but small public HS in Massachusetts (very few APs, "idea and thinking" oriented)
White, female, middle-class (parents think we're "lower-middle class", they sort of need a reality check...just solidly middle-class here).
Looking to stay local, MA preferred.</p>

<p>EC's:
AFJROTC - 4 years - C/ Maj. right now (due to be promoted soon!), Deputy/Group Commander (Group during second semester), Drill Team Member, Color Guards (no team though, sob), Academic Bowl Semi-Finalists, so many other things. This takes up most of my time. Looking to join AFROTC if possible.
IES - 3 years - regional economics competition w/ 100 teams. Super fun, won an award my first year.
Gainfully employed as a counselor at the town's teen center for middle school youth, also employed as a babysitter and during the summer at a swimming pool.
other clubs like UNICEF and debate blah blah</p>

<p>Schools on the old ('nursing') list and how I think they measure up:
Northeastern (reach)
UNH (OOS) (match)
Salve Regina (OOS) (match)
Simmons (match, am really falling in love with this school)
UMass Dartmouth (match, second choice)</p>

<p>The new list so far:
UNH (OOS) (match) (many majors to choose from, AFROTC)
Simmons (match) (AFROTC is an option via local schools)
Salve Regina (OOS) (match) (not as crazy about their history department, not sure if they have an education major).</p>

<p>So umm, yeah. I haven't done much. Thanks in advance for your help.</p>

2

<p>I would just remove any school that you ONLY had on the list because of nursing. Keep your options open going forward: you really don’t know yet exactly what you will want to study and do. You might even decide to go back in a health-related direction.</p>

<p>Many subjects are taught very differently on the college level, and expectations can be very different in advanced courses than in introductory ones.</p>

3

<p>UMass-Amherst</p>

4

<p>You need to ask your parents how much they’ll pay each year. The fact that they think that they are lower-middle class is a red-flag that they can’t pay much towards college. That means that you won’t be able to afford most colleges.</p>

<p>So…first find out how much they’ll pay. If they won’t pay much, then you’ll likely be limited to schools that you can commute to. A student loan, summer earnings, and whatever your parents can pay will have to cover tuition, fees and books. You won’t have enough for room and board.</p>

5

<p>

</p>

<p>For now, that’s what I did. I was really disappointed that UMass Dartmouth didn’t have an Education major, so I dropped them off of my list.</p>

<p>@barrk; that’s a maybe, but my parents don’t really want me to go there. They “fear for my safety” and say “I won’t be happy at a big school.” I’d agree with the latter but I feel like they overestimate the former. My dad’s a cop, so “he knows”.</p>

<p>@mom2collegekids; Well, they say lower middle-class but I beg to differ. From the info my mom gave me when I ran some NPC’s, she told me that the combined family income is 91k/yr. It gets kind of ugly though, because my dad makes 38k a year and my mom makes 52k (with a HS diploma/associate’s degree). We own a house (that we pay a killer mortgage on, and 7k/yr property tax, woo!) in a really really nice small suburb in MA, which is worth 2x what it did when we moved here. Otherwise my mom said they have 30k in investments. Plus, we pay about 6k/yr for out-of-pocket medical expenses. We live frugally and always have, which is why we have some savings. I know that 91k/yr is definitely a large amount in many places but in our high COA area plus our expenses it’s not a lot.</p>

<p>So we had the talk after that because I insisted. Mom says there is about 20k in a bank account that is solely for college. Estimated FAFSA EFC is in the 11k range. So that’s about…2 years they can pay for. I should have about 6k saved by the end of this upcoming summer. I get…27.5k of my own loans, so that adds up to be almost 50k that I can pay for over 4 years. I haven’t found out if I get the Adams Scholarship yet.</p>

<p>So that’s the financial situation. I…also can’t drive. :&lt;/p>

6

<p>$11K EFC sounds awfully low for $91K of income. You should recheck the calculations.</p>

7

<p>Oh, jesus, my bad. It’s 16k EFC to most schools after running NPC’s. That sounds right. </p>

<p>I did run MIT’s for giggles, and the EFC was 11.7k. I goofed that one up because they asked for medical expenses, but since my mother already included that as an itemized deduction (at least, common sense says she did), I basically claimed that twice. Oops.</p>

<p>I ran the NPC for my top school right now (Simmons) and the estimated net price was 17.3k/yr, which I guess is…kind of do-able? Including my own loans and work study it’s under 10k/yr so my parents can help me out for 2 years then I can take the rest out in loans. I don’t really think loans are unavoidable, I think i’m a good student but not good enough for serious merit aid.</p>

<p>Here is a notepad doc I kept for future use, if anyone can make sense of financial stuff, i’m really just curious:</p>

<p>Tax form: 1040
Wages, salaries, and tips: 91000, 53k mom/38k dad
Interest/divdent income: 100
Business income/losses: 0
Other taxable income/losses: 0
Income adjustments: 0
Education tax credits: 0
Non-taxable: 6000
Itemized deductions: 16000
Cash, savings, and checking accounts: 6000
Parent’s investments: 30000
How much do they owe on investments: 0
Annual Medical Expenses (some NPC’s asked for this): 7000</p>

<p>Any additional income that was taxed: 0
Current value of house: 385000
How much they owe: 300000</p>

<p>For assets it seems a little low to me. I believe our car ('65 Mustang) is counted as an asset, or at least that’s what my mom remarked once. </p>

<p>I am also confused that we owe that much money on our house, we moved here in 1997, the house was worth about 210,000, and I think the mortgage is just over 1k. It’s a 30 year one.</p>

<p>Also, I do not know what an itemized deduction is, but 16000 seems like a lot to me. Handy-dandy Wikipedia told me medical expenses can count as itemized deductions, so that explains everything.</p>

<p>Another question that is somewhat un-related; my dad is a painter, not the artistic kind. He is an ‘interior decorator’. He’s really great at what he does (at least, I think so), and makes $19/hr. But everyone else he works with are either illegals are incompetent, and he’s the only one with a HS diploma. On the Common App, I currently have him listed as a Semi-Skilled worker. Would ‘Laborer (Unskilled)’ be a better classification? I dunno if that makes a difference or anything.</p>

8

<p>UMass Lowell. Salem State. Reconsider UMass Amherst -it won’t seem big once you get to know the kids in your dorm and especially in your major. UMass Amherst has so many options for you to explore in terms of majors and it is highly regarded in many areas. It is a better school than UNH, and do you know whether UNH is generous with FA for out of state students???</p>

<p>Here’s a complete list of all schools offering education degrees in Massachusetts:
[College</a> Navigator - Search Results](<a href=“College Navigator - Search Results”>College Navigator - Search Results)
You would need to research them more to see if they have ROTC and if they are affordable.</p>

<p>Any help from your guidance counselor???</p>

<p>You don’t want to rack up a ton of debt studying education at a private school since teaching doesn’t pay that well once you graduate.</p>

9

<p>Salem State’s website I just checked out, i’ve definitely heard good things about it. My Spanish teacher just got his Master’s from there this past year. :slight_smile: And it looks like I can do it almost debt-free.</p>

<p>I will consider UMass Amherst but my parents really really don’t want me to and won’t let me consider applying. They seriously think that bad things happen to college girls there all the time, if you catch what i’m saying.</p>

<p>As for my GC i’m stopping in tomorrow to talk to her about something else, definitely gotta bring up the college thing. I was hoping to apply early to a lot of places, but I just don’t know if I can manage it.</p>

<p>Also, i’m worried that a dual major in History and Education will take 5 years and I won’t be able to afford it. I don’t really understand licensure in MA.</p>

10

<p>Yes, I have known lots of teachers who went to Salem State. Their education program is very large.
I get what your parents are saying about UMass Amherst, but the things they are worried about can and do happen on any college campus. Sad, but true. All students need to be smart about who they hang out with, how much partying and drinking they do, etc. etc.
Also, don’t dismiss UMass Lowell. After visiting the campus and learning about his intended majors, my son decided he really liked it (better than UMass Amherst). Originally, he didn’t even want to apply. I think their education and nursing programs are supposed to be very good.
I don’t get the MA licensure stuff either. Ask your teachers for their advice, they all know how it works. I think it works different for high school teachers though?
There is also an education majors forum here on CC, start browsing or posting there and you may find tons of advice:
[Education</a> Majors - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/education-majors/]Education”>Education Majors - College Confidential Forums)</p>

11

<p>Yeah, makes sense to visit UML. I hate how my parents are so fussy, they told me they won’t let me go to Lowell either…but they have AFROTC there…</p>

<p>I’ll definitely chat more with my teachers. It’s a bit tricky though, I talked to 3 of mine so far. 2 of them did different things in undergrad (one was PoliSci and the other a history/gender studies double major), then they got their Master’s before they started teaching (but both haven’t had other careers), and one had a totally different career altogether. It also seems like university programs are larger for elementary education, and I was hoping for secondary…plus there are so many different majors that will get you there. Aaaaaah…</p>

12

<p>OK, all the more reason to save money on undergrad education - you may want to go for a Master’s degree.
So where do your parents want you to go???</p>

13

<p>The irony is that since we had the money talk, all hands are off the table. They basically said “okay, becoming a teacher is a respectable career choice, everywhere is going to be really expensive, so apply where you think you’ll get in and nowhere else (just not a shady UMass campus)”. It’s super-frustrating because my mom likes to nag me about college stuff when I really don’t know what i’m doing. </p>

<p>But from what I gather, there are a few ways to go:

  1. Undergrad major in history, brief certification course.
    Pro - quick, 4 or 5 years, less busy in college so I can put some $$$ away. Con - not really prepared for an education career, can’t really get hired w/ BA in history to help pay for licensure.
  2. Major in education (secondary) w/ minor or concentration in history.
    Pro - also 4 years, can work as a teacher after graduation. Con - not enough depth in major of choice to really be able to teach it.
  3. Double major in history and education.
    Pro - combine the best of 1&2, well prepared for a career. Con - may not finish in 4 years, many colleges are vague on whether this can even be done.
  4. Undergrad history, grad in teaching. Pro - most prepared out of any option, higher pay as teacher. Con - how to pay for grad school???</p>

<p>So yeah.</p>

14

<p>Sorry for the bump, but I talked to my GC and learned some things;</p>

<ol>
<li>No bonus GPA weighting. :frowning: At least, not for the transcript they will send first to colleges, the 3-year transcript. On the midyear it will show the GPA increase so my weighted is 4.2. Not bad.</li>
<li>According to my GC, i’ll need to go to grad school. I feel like this isn’t the case because a family friend just got his certification here in MA and is now teaching math (granted, he is teaching in one of the worst cities/school systems in MA, but still, he is teaching). However, just about all of the teachers at my school (a well-respected school with some of the most amazing teachers in the best public school system in the US) have their Master’s, or higher. So I guess this lines up pretty well.</li>
</ol>

<p>That pretty much leaves Salem State as being the only affordable option, which is kind of a bummer. But I could do that with almost no loans.</p>

<p>So what she was proposing was;

  1. BA in History at Salem State -> straight to grad school at ??? (maybe Salem State, maybe not, who knows, a lot can change in 4 years) -> boom you are a teacher and you have only a little bit of debt yay.</p>