I hope everyone is having an amazing summer so far! Summer has been flying by. I cannot believe that it is already July.

I decided to take a class this summer and it starts on July 13th. I’m taking Statistics because math never has been easy for me. I am hoping that if I take this one class and it is the only thing I am focusing on I will do great.

Other than school starting soon, I have also picked up another job over the summer to try to save up as much money as possible so that I do not have to take out as many loans. Plus the summer class that I am taking is not cheap. I wish I would have started saving more when I was in high school because it definitely would have helped me out now.

To all the high school students reading this I highly recommed saving up at least a little money for college because between tuiton, books, supplies, food and everything else you need, you go through money like crazy!

Also this summer for all the newly graduated students going into your first year of college in the fall, do not wait until the last minute to get all of your things together. Try to buy your things little by little (or even all at once) so that when it is time for you to go off to school you are not rushing around the day before to a million stores trying to find/buy everything that you need. It will make things so much less stressful if you are just already ready when the day comes where you have to leave.

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their summer and have fun getting ready for college. It is one of the best experiences.

At this point, most of you have already decided where you are going to college, unless you applied to a school with a rolling admission.  I know after I had applied to the colleges I decided I was interested in it felt like forever before I found out which schools accepted me. Once I found that out, then I had to look at the schools more closely and decide which one would be the absolute best fit for me, even though they were all great schools.

For the juniors in high school who are now going to be seniors, my advice is to apply to at least 5 schools. That way you have options and you always have a fall back school. I know that may sound bad, but you never know what could happen, so it’s always best to just have a “safe” school.

Now, unless you’re rich, most people cannot afford college. Never think you cannot go to college or decide not to apply or go to a school because it is too expensive. That’s what financial aid, scholarships, and loans are for. A good tip to remember is to never stop looking for scholarships. Not all deadlines are the same and not every scholarship is looking for the same things. Look for ones for which you know you meet the qualifications, so that you do not put in a lot of hard work applying for a scholarship just to find out that you are not qualified for one reason or another. Also, never not apply to a scholarship because they are offering a “small” amount of money. Any amount of money you are awarded will be so much help to you because being a college student is definitly not cheap.

Although most of you have already decided on where you are going to college in the fall, I wish you all luck if you are still looking for scholarships to help you avoid taking out loans.

It’s already 2 weeks until Thanksgiving and I know most of you high students are looking forward to it because that means a 4 day weekend! I remember thinking that last year and couldn’t wait for it to come.

What I also remember about this time was that I was getting ready to start my college application process and I hope all of you high school seniors are too. If you have not started yet, don’t worry it’s not too late to start.

There are so many colleges out there and some students are probably wondering “Which one do I want to go to? How can I pick?” What I suggest doing is making a list of everything you look for in a college and go off of that. Some sample questions would be:”Do you want to stay close to home? Do you want to be in a city or in a college town? Do you want to go to a big school or a small school? Does diversity in your college matter to you?” and more questions similar to that. By answering a bunch of questions like that can really help narrow down your search and make it easier to pick which colleges you are interested in. I myself answered questions like that to help me narrow down my search because before I did that I was feeling kind of overwhelmed by how many colleges there where and this helped me eliminate some. For questions which you could go either way on like “how big do you want your school?” just apply to both because then you can never have too many options.

I would also suggest to at least apply to 5 schools. Every school will offer you a different financial aid package and different things and like I said before, keep your options open!

Try making a time line for yourself especially when applying to schools that have application deadlines. You do not want to miss an important deadline. Some schools may have rolling admission so there really is not a deadline but it is always better to apply sooner because then it’s more likely you will get a spot!

If you have not already figured out which teacher you would like to write you letter of recommendation it would be good if you made that decision soon so then you can ask that teacher. Also so then they could get started on it if necessary because just how you don’t like doing papers at the last minute, they don’t like doing letters of recommendation at the last minute.

You should probably begin creating a personal statement if you have not already started and I highly suggest you have someone else read it and help you with it! They can help you improve it and make suggestions that you might have not thought of before.

After you have all these things done all you really have left to do is wait to hear back!

To all you freshmen, sophomores and juniors, you can do all of these things too because it is never too early to start college preparation. Of course you cannot apply to college yet but you can have everything ready so that when you are able to apply for college all you have to do is fill out the application because everything else is already done. Also make sure that you take the ACT/SAT and make sure you are prepared for them which means study!

I wish everyone the best of luck and if you need help or have any questions don’t be afraid to ask your parents, teachers, counselors, coaches, or even me! Just leave me a comment after you read my blog.

Time. It is what we all want more of right?

Right now I am really wishing I had more time in my life because I am one busy person right now! I am going to college full time, I work at Sears part time, I have to volunteer 40 hours before December 12,2009 (I still have 20 hours to do) and I am a mom full time.

For the past month it feels like I am always on the go because I always have something to do or somewhere to be. This can sure get exhausting at times because I feel like I never have down time. To try to keep track of everything I keep a planner with me at all times so that I do not lose track of what I am supposed to be doing.

For those of you who are having time management problems or who are not able to get everything done in one day I suggest you try using a planner and not only to write down your homework assignments but everything else you have to do to.

I have a planner that has space for you to write out what your doing every hour and that is what I do. I know that probably sounds very weird and some people are thinking “who wants to plan out every hour of their day?” but it really does help a lot. It shows me what times I have open to do other things or if I need to fit something in that day. It might not work for everyone but it would not hurt to try because if it does work you might find yourself to be a much more organized and possibly more efficient person.

Amazing.

That was one of my first impressions of college. College has been something that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time and now that I’m here, I love it. I’m also very proud to be here since I’m the first one in my family to ever attend college.

I’ve had mainly good experiences at college and was able to get over one of my biggest worries, which was trying to meet people. I was worried that since I don’t live on campus that I was going to have a hard time making friends but I was wrong. Everyone here at Augsburg is very friendly.

Another thing that helped me meet people was that my school had what they call “Auggie Days” which are the 4 days before school starts and are packed with activities for the 1^st year students so we can try to get to know each other in a fun environment. I made sure to attend everyday because I thought that that would be a great way to meet people. I made a lot of friends before school had even started. Those events really helped me meet people.

Besides meeting people I was also worried about time management. I knew that college was going to be a lot of work but I was prepared. I attended a “Time management” workshop so that I could learn how to use and plan my time wisely. I thought it was very beneficial.

There is also a great tutoring program and at anytime I can sign up to get tutored for free which I’m very glad to know that there will always be help if I need it.

My college experience so far has been great and I’m looking forward to see what the rest of this year brings!