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Going back to school after 2 years
RavynBlackheart
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I graduated high school in 2004, and now I've finally decided what I want to do with my life, I just need advice for getting into college. It's been a long time since I've been in an academic state of mind. I want to go to school to become a high school teacher. I just need a bunch of advice on getting in, paying for it, everything that I should have done 2 years ago.
RavynBlackheart on
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Fill out an application to the college of your choice
Look for scholarships and apply for as many as you can, you'd be surprised what you get even when you aren't technically qualified for.
If you've had no college at all, you'll be an incoming freshman. If you've had some, you can go in as a transfer. Transfers can generally apply up until a month before school starts, but this is very much different school to school.
After you get your applications sent, start filling out FAFSA. This is for grants and the like. It's basically free money if you qualify. All the while, look into college loan information through the school, and with banks around your area. Unfortunately you can't really finish it completely until you find out where you got accepted.
Impatiently wait until you get responses back from schools.
If your scores and grades from high school weren't high enough, check out community colleges. You can raise your GPA, and use that to transfer you into a university. Plus community colleges have info on what courses they offer will transfer as credit towards your university of choice.
Don't get overwhelmed either. Universities love dicking people around. Once you get accepted, find out who your adviser is, and go visit him or her in person, and ask them to give you a time-line and explain in detail all the course requirements. Some courses aren't offered every semester, and they'll know. Plus it's better to have them work with you then to try on your own and potentially mess something up.
Notes: FAFSA is pretty stupid in that it pretty much assumes that your parents will be paying almost all of your schooling until you're 25. So it'll be annoyingly tough to get a decent amount from them.
Look into scholarships too. There are some that aren't claimed at all. People see them, assume they don't qualify, and then don't bother. Seriously I've talked to people that aren't even close to meeting the requirements that received them because they were the only ones to apply. Go for the small ones too. $200 isn't a lot, but every little bit helps.
Agreed. It doesn't take a whole lot to be hired as a teacher right now. I'll consult my mother this weekend, she's an assistant director of HR at a school district here in CO so she'd probably know what kind of degree and such would get you the best kind of teaching position, how not to screw up, etc.
As far as paying for it goes, start first with a school you might consider a potential candidate. Apply. Go through all the admissions hoops, the financial aid hoops, and see what kind of number you come out with at the end. You can usually do all this stuff online. This is the only foolproof method for finding out what kind of grant-in-aid you'll get, and if there are any merit-based scholarships or grants the school might consider you for.
Look at in-state schools (I see you're in CO too, CU or CSU or UNC are price-conscious options, DU is a fantastic school but pricey, Western is great if you're a ski bum), you'll save a ton, and the school you get your BA or BS from matters pretty much none, it's all about learning the basics of your field (in your case, education, and maybe an additional field of study if you're specializing in one subject). If you're going to do graduate work then it matters a little more, to employers, what kind of school shows up on the degree, but not by a lot, and school districts aren't picky. They love Masters degrees of any kind.
You'll also need to submit high school transcripts and official copies of test scores, SAT, ACT, and so on. You can go to www.collegeboard.com for the SAT scores and do it there, or call them and they'll walk you through it. I forgot what the ACT website is but Google should help you there. Contact the office at your high school and find out who you need to speak to or what kind of form you need to submit to get transcripts sent, usually it's the registrar.
Someone said something about if you think you're rusty on your high school subjects. If you weren't very good a specific subject, I have bad news: you're going to have to take it again as a Gen Ed requirement. If this frightens you, look at spending a semester or two at a community college getting back up to speed. For one, it's a lot cheaper to fail a class if you're sorely behind (I discovered this the hard way) and for two it's a good way to get back into the school mentality without it being as high pressure. Your milage may vary, but this approached has helped me.
With about 40 hours a year of scholorship work, and being timely with my FAFSA, I got over $7000 a year in free money.
'You know BSS when you hear it"