College admissions time can be stressful for both students and parents. It seems almost impossible to get all these ends to meet. Between tracking down letters of recommendation from your teachers to getting the office to send over your grade transcripts, you’re ready to lose your mind. Half of the requirements to get into your college depend upon assistance from offices, clerks, teachers and administrators. Then, of course, you have to pay your fees, get your physical, write your essay, fill out your application and meet all the deadlines. By the end of this grueling process, you’re probably wondering, “Is it even worth it?” Little do you realize that this is just the beginning of a never-ending sea of financial aid forms, internship opportunity applications and resume writing.

As soon as the college admissions process is finished, you should immediately set your sights on funding college. Be sure to have an honest discussion with your parents and see if they’re willing to throw in anything to help you out. Look at your current job situation and your prospective job situation. If you’re keeping your current job, how many hours a week can you realistically work? If you’re going away to school, you need to begin applying in the town you’re moving to immediately before the late summer rush of applicants flood every possible job opportunity. Work won’t necessarily cover everything, though. You may also need to look for student financial aid to scrape together short-term cash to cover tuition and board. The last thing you want is to be de-registered from all your classes because you were late with your payment!

Most college admissions offices have a separate department to deal with financial aid for students, where you will find applications for college loans. There are Federal Perkins Loans that award undergrads up to $4,000/year and must be repaid to your school within 10 years after graduation, with a 5% interest rate. There are also FFEL Stafford Loans from credit unions or bank institutions, which may be subsidized for students with financial need or unsubsidized for other applicants; the amount awarded varies based on a number of factors and the repayment period could be as long as 25 years at 6.8% interest. Next you can apply for a Direct Stafford Loan from the US Department of Education, which operates under the same terms as the other Stafford loans. The FFEL Plus loans are for parents who wish to pay for their children’s education at an interest rate of 8.5% over 10-25 years. Similarly, Direct PLUS loans are for parents with a 7.9% interest rate.

After the madness of filling out college admissions and financial aid forms has died down, you will need to start thinking about your summer internship prospects. Half of all internships are unpaid, offering school credit and training experience only. However, a number of student intern opportunities have turned into job offers upon completion. Your school guidance counselor should be able to direct you to the college’s career center where you will find binders or databases of internship opportunities available to students in your school. You might also want to check out Business Week’s list of “Top 50 internships” to find some promising paid internship options that may appeal to you.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 30th, 2009 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.