Picking the Right College 

Picking the right college is important. This decision will affect the rest of your life, so it should be done carefully, and with a lot of thought.

Getting Prepared

The first thing you should do to pick the right college is to ask yourself the right questions. This will prevent you from making a rash or poor decision. Some example questions you should ask yourself are: 

• What do I like to do and how motivated am I to turn that into a career?
• What kind of college can I afford?
  
• Were my grades in High School high enough to get into the college I want?
  
• How will college affect my family?
  
• How close do I want to be to home while attending college?
  
• Do I have the passion and drive to work and take online college courses?
  
• What steps should I take to be prepared to go into college and finish it?

When you are honest with yourself, you may be surprised how quickly the options become more and more limited. Often times you can reason yourself down to just a few choices.

College Options

 Your college choices are seldom limited to the neighborhood community college, and following the crowd may not be the wisest decision.  The field you are interested in going into is very important in determining the type of education you will need.

For instance, if you wanted to be a Medical Assistant and work in your local doctor's office, then you can start out by attending a local career college and get your occupational associate degree within 18 and 24 months. With the accelerated course work, you will be able to find a job much faster than a normal 4-6 year University.

 If you were interested however in a business or management degree, then a four year college may be your best choice, but even with that, there are many options. Today you can earn a business degree from home by using your computer to participate in online classes. Online Schooling is less expensive than full tuition universities and often times you can accomplish more, sooner than the typical college.

Financing 

Financing is one of the biggest challenges in attending a college. When you pick a college, the price will usually be the determining factor as to if you go with it or not.  Depending on the field you go into, you may need to attend an expensive college, knowing that in the long run it will be worth it. Many students often work during college to pay for part of tuition as they go, to prevent from being in debt upon graduation. 

To help with financing the government offers student loans as well as other financial aid that allow you more flexibility in your college choice.  When you speak to a college admissions representative, one of the questions you may want to ask is about financial aid.

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References

How to Check an Online School's Accreditation

Online Schools