After junior year, I figured, “If I got through the ACT, SAT, and all my AP exams, I can get through anything senior year throws at me -- piece of cake!” Truth is, I find that it’s a lot more complicated than it seems.
As I think about life after high school and the decisions ahead, the most important thing to me is the rigor of the programs at the college I choose.
The answers are right there.
College isn’t the right fit for everyone, and apprenticeships offer wonderful opportunities for students to train toward a specific career and earn money while doing so.
Every year I always make a checklist for myself, focusing on what I want to accomplish academically, socially, and athletically that year. I believe it has helped me to focus on what is important and what things take priority in my life. Sadly, I have realized in recent weeks that my academics took precedence over a lot of other options in high school. Therefore, my advice to high school students regardless of their grade is to find a balance between fun and seriousness in their lives in order to get the most enjoyment and the best education out of their high school years.
Whether it’s paper, plastic or even an intangible number on a computer screen, money makes the world go round. You need it to eat. You need it to stay warm. You need it to have fun. So why is it so hard to understand?
No matter how well planned, one’s path in life will change often so learning to adapt is key.
College life and atmosphere can’t be summed up in a brochure. Here’s how to get the most out of visiting a campus.
Flight engineer: Monitor aircraft equipment and control systems during a flight.
Sometimes decisions don’t make sense when you try to explain them to other people, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re wrong.
Explores the value of college and how to figure out how expensive is too expensive.
Students should focus less on rankings and more on the right fit. Helps students understand how to best use the rankings and where they can be legitimately helpful.
As a junior signing up for next year’s classes, I have a lot of questions I wish people would just answer straight out instead of giving me the whole “It’s your life and they’re your choices” spiel I’ve gotten from just about every counselor, teacher, and friend that I’ve asked for advice.
Highlights the important benefits of students developing a relationship with their school counselors.
Everywhere you go, you have the chance to apply for a credit card. Just don’t join the line of students currently in credit card debt.
You can be one of the ‘good guys’ working in a cyber-security career
Addresses the growth in online bullying and actions victims can take to stop it
Decision Making Activity
Lesson Plan Guide: Diary of a Senior - Big discovery
With the option to explore thousands of different colleges across the United States, it may seem pretty overwhelming to find the one that suits you best.
By junior year, I have realized my time here is dwindling away.
As I start the transition for my senior year, I am overwhelmed with excitement and fright.
How would you like to operate an airplane without leaving the ground? Get a job in the emerging field of unmanned aircraft and you could.
Lesson Plan Guide: Earning College Credit
Profiles programs you may have never heard of but that could be big in the years to come.
Time flew by way too fast during my first two years of high school, and this year I am a junior.
There are some strange laws on the books across the U.S. Find and submit the craziest and you’re the winner.
This year I am a junior at Birdville High School.
What if you were so passionate about your job that it didn’t feel like work?
Mobile banking and deposits via smart phone are here, but Conestoga Bank wants your ideas on the next big thing in banking – in 500 words or fewer
All along, my post-secondary plan was to head straight to college after I graduated.
Weekend and summer pre-college courses let students step into their future
Lesson Plan Guide: Getting Inked
Whether a fad or a phase, tattoos are forever.
If you can’t find the right one for you, consider developing your own.
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act re-authorized by President Obama’s administration in March 2010 includes revisions aim to have all diploma-earning students properly “college- and career-ready” by the year 2020. This article explains some of the possible meanings of that goal.
Outlines process for identifying, setting and achieving goals
As a senior in high school, every time I hear the word “college,” an endless list of worries and anxieties runs through my brain like the final credits to an overstaffed movie.
Encourages teens to think about who they are looking up to
Careers in agriculture don’t just mean working with pigs and cows. Opportunities to help the environment and promote sustainability abound.
Developing good study skills can make your life easier and more enjoyable.
About 80 percent of teens date before the age of 18. But how many have the skills and wisdom to do it well?
There are many resources for aspiring young entrepreneurs. Here are just a few places you can begin.
Profiles high school and college students who have started their own businesses
The differences between high school and college are huge. For every benefit, though, you can expect a trade-off.
I have a long list of hopes and wishes for the year ahead but I will share only a select few. First and foremost, I anticipate reading more books. I plan to read more since I am determined to go to college for English and Communication Arts. Secondly, I hope to grow taller. I am an inch from being 5 feet tall. Thirdly, I hope to befriend more people in my senior year.
Talking about money is really hard, especially with your parents, but families need to be on the same page with what they can afford.
“Teens are sharing more information about themselves on social media sites than they have in the past,” according to a recent Pew Internet research report on Teens, Social Media, and Privacy.
Students are huge targets for identity theft, so protect yourself.
Now that parents have started patrolling Facebook (coaches, college admissions reps and employers do, too), many teens are switching to mobile apps such as Instagram and Snapchat.
Test-drive that career while punching up your résumé.
“There are all kinds of opportunities out there … take advantage of whatever is available. — Jordan Harper
Algunas veces las decisiones no tienen sentido cuando tratas de explicarlas a otras personas, pero eso no quiere decir que sean incorrectas.
Lesson Plan Guide: Growing Green
Lesson Plan Guide: Help with studies
Lesson Plan Guide: Adapting
Lesson Plan Guide: Advice from the Real Story
Lesson Plan Guide: Apprenticeship - The other 4-year degree
Lesson Plan Guide: Aspiring Entrepreneurship
Lesson Plan Guide: College debt, is it worth the investment?
Lesson Plan Guide: College rankings - controversies and caution
Lesson Plan Guide:Dealing with Cyberbullies
Lesson Plan Guide: Decision Making and Time Management
Lesson Plan Guide: Distracted Driving
Lesson Plan Guide: Emerging Programs of Study
Lesson Plan Guide - Exploring STEM Careers
Lesson Plan Guide: Finding Your Passions
Lesson Plan Guide - Get Involved
Lesson Plan Guide: Getting on the Right Track
Lesson Plan Guide: Getting the most out of campus visits
Lesson Plan Guide: Habits Worth Forming
Lesson Plan Guide: Healthy in love
Lesson Plan Guide: How do I talk to my parents about our money situation for college?
Lesson Plan Guide - Identity Theft
Lesson Plan Guide: Industry Internships
Lesson Plan Guide: Managing your online identity
Lesson Plan Guide: Minimum Wage = Minimum Lifestyle
Lesson Plan Guide - MyStudentPath
Lesson Plan Guide: Nonverbal communication - the loudest voice of all
Lesson Plan Guide: On the brink - managing stress
Lesson Plan Guide: Passion or Profit
Lesson Plan Guide: Positive attitude
Lesson Plan Guide: Power of words
Lesson Plan Guide - Prescription for Disaster
Lesson Plan Guide: Pressures and parents
Lesson Plan Guide: School versus the working world
Lesson Plan Guide: Setting Effective Goals
Lesson Plan Guide: Top tips to reduce the cost of college
Lesson Plan Guide: Wacky Scholarships
Candid, peer-to-peer lessons about life after high school from a college freshman
When thinking about college and making future decisions, it is very easy for me to get overwhelmed.
The famed senioritis is already beginning to spiral through my thoughts. As I make list upon list of things I need to get done, I find myself succumbing to distractions.
There are plenty of things I’m hoping to get out of this school year. I’m excited about senior year! When I looked at all the past seniors they looked like they’ve had so much fun and I want to experience all of that, too. That mini feeling of being the “Top of the School.” I’m scared because I know it’s my final year and I want to do extremely well but also enjoy myself. I want to accomplish having great grades in my regular classes and in the college classes I’m taking.
I believe that in life I fit in a relatively eccentric category.
Students should not expect extra credits or grade negotiations to boost their GPAs.
Two key words: employers refer to them as soft skills. Take note of these important tips to give yourself a good shot at landing a dream job.
Be careful about who is learning about you online – it just might be college admission counselors or prospective employers.
Effective communication helps restore missing links in growing chain of friendships.
Put the skills you’re learning in your foreign language class to important use in the U.S. military.
If you’re looking for an easy – and monthly – opportunity, just fill out the online registration form and be entered to win the drawing
Scraping by on minimum wage isn’t pretty. If you want to live comfortably,education now—and after high school—is the key.
Most still are free, and now some offer credit.
First financial aid offer doesn’t have to be the last word
My goals and expectations for the coming school year are beginning to feel a bit overwhelming.
Stressed out? You are not alone.
On May 1, 2013, I made the single most difficult academic decision possible as a teenager.
How do you make the choice between doing something you love and making money?
Many college-credit classes offered to high school students are those that fulfill general education requirements.
While being optimistic isn’t always easy, adopting a positive attitude can unleash a spiral of success.
Just because you can get it from a doctor doesn’t mean it can’t hurt you.
As if today’s teens don’t face enough pressure, some of them face an even tougher challenge – their parents.
A deadly phenomenon in the age of mobile devices. Compares reaction times of driving while texting, driving while intoxicated and driving while elderly.
How Organized are you really?
Although for many people school is a dreadful occasion, I always seem to be more excited as the years pass.
Why is boasting important in “Beowulf”? If you can write a winning essay answering that or one of five other questions about the work, go for it!
Highlights new degree programs, including commercial space operations
Whether the armed forces are your destination or a stepping stone, opportunities are many and varied.
Those who study science, technology, engineering and mathematics are in high demand.
Khan Academy, online or in-person tutoring can aid learning
Sussle.org, a “community-generated encyclopedia” that seeks posts of images, videos, how-tos and hard-to-find facts, will reward the best.
Todays construction jobs utilize the latest technology.
Disagreeing—it happens all the time. People like to be right, and they want others to think they’re right. But when someone else doesn’t think you are correct (or the other way around), it’s OK. However, when people forget that it’s alright to disagree and don’t respond appropriately, problems occur.
Highlights some main differences you will experience when you take off that cap at graduation and head into your first week at the office.
Nonverbal communication makes up a significant share of how we understand one another and make ourselves understood.
There was a 2010 documentary, “Catfish,” about it (that’s where the term comes from), which spawned an MTV show of the same name.
Like all branches of the military, the Navy is actively pursuing recruits with STEM training and interest
Degrading comments cut deeply, but so can a bystander’s silence. If you want to help, not hurt, speak up against teasing and bullying.
"I just feel so out of control sometimes. There is so much pain, and I just need a release.” These are the words of Jason (name changed to protect identity ), a 16-year-old sophomore from a rural town outside of Boise, Idaho. Hiding his arms in the sleeves of a large zippered hoodie, Jason is a cutter. “I’m not trying to kill myself or get attention. I hide my arms so no one sees (the cuts). I don’t think my parents know I do this, but one of my friends does. I’m embarrassed that I do this, but I don’t know how else to feel better.”
Things I’m hoping to get out of the year ahead and goals I’m setting for myself: To simply be proud of myself at the end of the year is my most honest goal.
“Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that’s the stuff that life is made of.” – Benjamin Franklin
Ideas on how to save money and keep the cost of college down.
Getting into the saving habit now can lead to better fortune in the years ahead. Here are a few ways you can get started.
Mi plan era ir directo a la universidad después de graduarme.
The best advice I can give my fellow high school students is to be open to change.
I am not exactly sure where I would like to go to college, but I have requirements, expectations, and goals.
Two Student Paths high school contributors share their answers. Now take some time to think about yours.
Looking back on my experience with the college admissions and future planning process, the phrase “hindsight is 20/20” comes to mind.