First-Generation Student Tips

Tips

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  Research and develop a reasonable estimate for your anticipated Cost of Attendance

  Your actual cost to attend college may be much less than the published Cost of Attendance. Gather information to make a reasonable estimate for what you will pay for tuition, books, housing, food, transportation, and personal expenses. Knowing what to expect will help in your planning.

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  Identify available resources and sources of support

  Research and be informed about federal, institutional, and private sources of financial support. Also, become familiar with counseling and support resources on campus. Being more knowledgeable about these programs and services will help you receive needed assistance and interact more effectively with campus professionals.

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  Get help

  Avoid learning things the hard way. Schedule an appointment to meet with a counselor. They can help you register for a reasonable course load, develop your academic plan, make sure you are on track to meet graduation requirements, and create an overall strategy for how you will pay for school expenses. They can help you avoid some of the common mistakes that new students make when they first enroll at the university.

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  Apply early, pay attention to deadlines, and monitor university communications

  To avoid significant and costly disruptions, work well ahead of schedule. Be aware of deadlines, and be sure to monitor and respond to university communications in a timely manner.

  Ask questions and lots of them! It is a lot less trouble to plan ahead and stay informed than it is to fix problems that might have been avoided.

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  Set goals

  Counselors can help you set important and realistic goals for your college experience. Having goals will help you plan more effectively and act in ways that are consistent with achieving these outcomes. Discuss appropriate goals with each counselor you meet with to help guide you in your academic endeavors.

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  Develop a working budget

  Seek assistance to develop realistic expectations for your school expenses. Work with a counselor to develop a budgeting method that will work for you. A budget can help you plan and manage your spending in order to meet your needs and to achieve important goals. Schedule an appointment with Financial Fitness.

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  Find ways to meet your needs less expensively

  An overlooked way to help pay for your college expenses is to carefully assess how you can meet your needs less expensively. Many resources on campus have been provided to help make college more affordable, and to help you avoid excessive or unnecessary debt.

  Look over our website to find more ways to manage spending at college.

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  Avoid unnecessary debt; if necessary to borrow, be sure to understand how much you can afford to borrow

  Avoid debt, as much as possible. If it becomes necessary to borrow, be sure to first calculate how much you can truly afford to borrow, and what amount of debt will be manageable when you graduate. Financial Fitness counselors can help you to do these calculations, and provide other guidance to help you limit or avoid debt whenever possible.

  Use the College Funding Tool to estimate any need to borrow, and assess how much debt you can afford.

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  Develop working relationships

  Learning things the hard way can be painful, time-consuming, and expensive. Seek the guidance of the Enrollment Services counselors to help you understand available options, develop a plan for your school expenses, and to process applications.

  “Thank you for your help today, and if I have questions again in the future, may I call you?”

  In any interaction with a counselor or staff member and found it to be helpful, ask this question to form the basis of a working relationship. Remember, it's their full-time job to help you succeed at the university.