Preparing for College

Optimal Timeline for the 7 Critical Decisions
1. Make a Commitment (to attend college): Fall of 8th Grade – Spring of 9th Grade
There are only two options regarding commitment. You’re either IN or you’re OUT. There’s no such thing as life in-between. – Pat Riley

2. Discover Your Destiny: Fall of 8th Grade – Spring of 10th Grade
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. – Mark Twain

3. Achieve Admission Requirements: Fall of 9th Grade – Spring of 12th Grade
Do or do not. There is not ‘try’. – Yoda

4. Finalize Your Choices (college selection): 11th Grade
A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are. – Ara Parasheghian

5. Apply to Colleges: Fall of 12th Grade
There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction. – John Kennedy

6. Choose Your College: Spring of 12th Grade
It’s kind of fun to do the impossible. – Walt Disney

7. Finish with Conviction: Summer of 12th Grade
Be true to the game, because the game will be true to you. If you try to shortcut the game, then the game will shortcut you. If you put forth, good things will be bestowed upon you. That’s truly about the game, and in some ways that’s about life too. – Michael Jordan

Scholarships

There are several helpful scholarship web sites! Visit:

www.VirginiaMentor.org

www.schev.edu

www.fastweb.com

Financial Aid
Visit these two web sites for more information on financial aid:

www.VirginiaMentor.org

www.fafsa.ed.gov/