OfftoCollege.com

college prep: Why Go to College

What Type of Post-High School Career?

Spend time researching future career opportunities to help decide what you want out of college. You need to answer the question:

"Is college or trade school right for me?"

To answer this question, research job statistics, employment trends, and collegiate majors using our quick link tools. Then evaluate your aptitude skills for different career disciplines.

 

Salary Check

Check salaries within regions to get an idea what some careers pay:

Salary Wizard®   Find out what your college degree is worth   Job title     ZIP Code

 

Check Labor Statistics

Find out what jobs are going to be hot and what's jobs will not. This will help you decide whether to go to college, vocational school or jump right into your career:

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
occupational outlook by category: provides insight on the training need, work environment, earnings, expected job prospects and more. It's a valuable resource to help decide what career you may like.
www.bls.gov/oco/

projections on what's hot and what's not. Includes employment statistics and the fastest growing careers:
www.bls.gov/emp/

provides information on careers from an occupational perspective
www.bls.gov/oco/cg/


Individual State Labor Statistics:
occupational projections by state and region — helps determine where you may need to locate for the best growth
www.projectionscentral.com

Link to individual State job and occupation trends:

State Job Sites: Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

From America's Career InfoNet:
making smart career decisions - research the job market, wages and trends by region and occupation:
www.acinet.org

employability checkup form - find out how different careers stack up by city and wage:
www.acinet.org

 

When You Should Complete These Tasks

Juniors: start of your junior year: see calendar Seniors: little late - need to get going: see late-starter calendar

college prep: Assessing Yourself for College

Get to Know Yourself

by taking some career and personal self-assessment tests to determine your aptitude and character for career opportunities. By understanding your personality type, it will help determine what career opportunity will bring you the most satisfaction.

• Start with defining your personality type:
  take this online quiz to get a non-test based review of your personality type and careers that may be of interest
  www.personalitytype.com
  
  another test-based online character assessment:
  www.advisorteam.com

 

About Self-Assessment Tests

you can view more information about personal assessments and how they can measure your personality traits for jobs and other life-events

• Kinds of self assessment tests:
  summary of personality assessment test and which tests work for careers:
  www.humanmetrics.com
  
  about the Myers & Briggs self assessment test:
  www.myersbriggs.org/
  about the Keisey Temperament assessment:
  www.keirsey.com/
  
  other Self-Assessment resources:
  www.rileyguide.com/assess.html

 

When Should You Complete This Task:

Juniors: start of your junior year: see calendar Seniors: little late - need to get going: see late-starter calendar

college prep: What Kind of Major

What career would you like?

By understanding who you are and what you like, you can now explore career opportunities that will be most satisfying to you:

• Evaluate Your Career Interests
  your first step in finding the right career is to evaluate what you would like to do and what career fits your overall aptitude
  start with careerkey.org
  
  
• Understand your interests and career relationship
  you can take this online career assessments for a small fee - not recommended at this stage of your planning
  view the Strong Interest Inventory®
  
  
• Other Helpful Career Assessments:
  use this skills assessment to understand job types that you may best be qualified for based on your temperament assessment:
  http://online.onetcenter.org
  
  what to do with your skills into shaping a collegiate major:
  www.udel.edu

 

Now explore what's required for your career type

See what will be required in order to achieve your dream. It will summarize collegiate classes that you should take:

• In-depth review of collegiate majors.
  requires log-in to myroad.com
  
  What do you want to be?
  Interest measurement based on varying fields of study: www.jvis.com
  
  
  
• Do you have the aptitude skills for your selected major?
  Learn more about this Vocational Aptitude exam that measures several aptitudes in mathematics, general science, reasoning, and other.
  
  The exam is used by the armed forces in place candidates in select career fields — by taking the exam, however, does not imply that you are enlisting for any armed service:
  www.asvabprogram.com

 

When Should You Complete This Task:

Juniors: start of your junior year: see calendar Seniors: little late - need to get going: see late-starter calendar

college prep: Get Ready for College Exams

Discuss with your guidance counselor about the following college exams:

1. Advance Placement Exams:
   you should consider taking Advanced Placement Exams or CLEP tests in your Junior and Senior years. This allows you to test out of some college courses that can save you time and money.
   
   The exams are administered each year in the Spring with some preparation required prior to the exam. Check with your school for exam administration, enrollment and information.
   
   
   Information about the advanced placement program:
   the collegeboard administers the AP exams. This site has all the information you need including test programs and dates:
   visit collegeboard.com for more information
   
   View our advanced placement prep/study guides:
   includes prep planning books and other reading materials that can help you with these exams: click for prep area
   
   
   
2. College Entrance Exams:
   almost all colleges and some trade programs require a college entrance exam. These exams measure your ability to understand college-level materials. Most colleges require the SAT college exam; some require the ACT Assessment exam. A few college will require both exams. So check with your college which exam will be required.
   
   

   You will take these exams in your junior year. So get some practice with the college entrance "preparation" exams. It will help on the day of the real exam.

   Why take college prep exams:

   • to help prepare for the real test. You will be familiar with the type of questions being asked
     
   • to help you take tests under timelines. It is important that you work quickly so that you can complete the entire test.
     
   • to view your strengths and weaknesses for college study. You can then focus on areas to improve your skills.
     
   • to view how your performance compares with other students who are applying for college

 

About the SAT Tests

SAT Reasoning (formerly SAT I).
The SAT Reasoning Test is a three-hour test that measures a student's ability to reason problems instead of general knowledge. It has three sections: writing, critical reading, and math. Most of the questions are multiple-choice.

SAT Subject Tests (formerly SAT II).
The SAT Subject Tests measure the student's knowledge in specific subjects: English, mathematics, history, science, and languages. SAT Subject Tests are primarily multiple-choice, and each lasts one hour.

more information: collegeboard.org

Information about the PSAT (practice exams):
the PSAT is the test prep exam for the SAT tests. The PSAT is usually offered in October and November through your school. Check with your school counselor for dates.

more information: see collegeboard.org for information

 

About the ACT Assessment®

The ACT Assessment® is used by some colleges. The exam has four multiple-choice tests: English, reading, mathematics, and science reasoning.

more information: actstudent.org

ACT test preparation:
some colleges use the ACT test. You need to check your college to determine which test they use for admittance. Many students will take both the SAT and ACT so that they have the right exams for the college of their choice

more information: actstudent.org about ACT exams

 

When Should You Complete This Task:

Juniors: start of your junior year: see calendar Seniors: ASAP. Exams will be coming up: see calendar

college prep: Meeting with Guidance Counselor

Meet with your guidance counselor (or school administrator or teacher) as soon as you can to discuss your post-high school plans.

Items to coordinate with your guidance counselor:

• availability of and enrollment in Advanced Placement classes
  
• schedules for the college entrance exams (includes P SAT, SAT I and II, and ACT). Discuss with your counselor on the exam required to get into your college of choice
  
• admission requirements to college including GPA requirements, credits, exam type and scores, etc. Try to fill in any gaps.
  
• review your transcripts to make sure you are on track to graduate with the required credits and courses to get into the college(s) of your choice.
  
• understand what career type you should pursue based on your scholastic and aptitude abilities
  
• scheduling visits to college campuses and college admission offices after you select your college of choice
  
• discuss preparatory classes or seminars on the various exams to help boost your scores
  
• review all other information related to your college planning tasks as discussed within this web site

 

When Should You Complete This Task:

Juniors: start of your junior year: see calendar Seniors: start of your senior year: see calendar

college prep: Let's Start on the Right Foot

The most important criteria is college acceptance is good grades. So don't slip your senior year. These grades are important.

• We have some online guides that can help:
  view college prep help for high school students

 

Now is the time to build a successful future

Success in college and your career requires planning, discipline, and execution.

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view our "building success" module: FREE downloads

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