As a working class, Black/Latino who went to public school and wanted to go to collegeNo one in my family knew what to do about college, all they knew was that they wanted me to go to one. Here’s a short list of things I wished someone had told me (this list is mainly geared toward POC):
1. If your grades are bad coming out of high school, but you want to go to a highly selective college, you can always go to a community college, earn good grades, then transfer to a 4-year school.
2. Schools in your state that are considered state colleges usually offer lower tuition to in-state residents. Many states also offer more financial aid to residents going to in-state schools.
3. Once you are in college, you can ask professors for extensions if you don’t think you will finish a paper in time. Some schools will give you an “incomplete” in the class and allow you to finish the work by the following semester. When the work for the class is complete, they will replace the “incomplete” with the grade you earned.
4. Online scholarship resources don’t usually have lists of all the scholarships and grants that exist for students. Take some time to sit with scholarship books in your local library. Take a notebook or your laptop, phone, tablet, etc. for note-taking. Take down deadlines and application requirements. You will have to write an essay for many of them.***You might live near a Foundation Center Regional Center (foundationcenter.org) that is also a huge help with finding funding for all sorts of things. Check their website to see if you live near one.
5. If you plan to become a professor one day, check to see if the colleges that you are interested in are institutions that participate in the McNair Scholars Program or the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship. Both of these programs are geared toward providing students of color and students from underrepresented communities with the academic support and research knowledge they will need to become researchers in their fields and prepared professors. Both programs also provide funding, including funding to attend or present at conferences. They also help you find funding for outside programs, grad school, and sometimes GRE prep and testing.
6. Not all graduate programs require a GRE!!! This is so important because some tests are not for everyone, and it doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve to be an English professor or a high school math teacher if you have anxiety about the GRE. Look for graduate schools that don’t require these exams if you fear you won’t perform well on them.7. Graduate school can be expensive, BUT if doesn’t have to be. If you meet the requirements for a grad school program, they might offer you full tuition AND an additional living stipend. Lots of graduate schools have grants that they offer to students to whom they offer enrollment.
ALSO, if you get an offer from two different graduate schools, but the school you really want to go to is offering less money than the other, you can often negotiate more money out of your choice school. For example, School A is your first choice and offers you full tuition and a $15,000 living stipend, but School B offers you full tuition and $20,000, you can ask School A if they can offer you money to match School B. This doesn’t always happen/work, but it doesn’t hurt to try.
8. School can be emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and physically draining. This is super important because many people struggle to find balance while dealing with undiagnosed mental illnesses, especially if you’re like me and come from a family where counseling is frowned upon and mental illness is called “overreacting.”
Lots of schools offer counseling services or therapy sessions to students. If your school doesn’t, find hotlines that allow you to talk with someone (National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1 (800) 273-8255; Trans Lifeline 877-565-8860). If you draw strength from faith, try to find a faith community near the campus that you can worship with and possibly receive faith-based counseling from.
If you feel like you need a break from school for a while, some schools offer a medical leave of absence or a semester off. You can use the semester or year off to relax and regroup. Some schools, not all, require that you also see a mental or medical health professional during this time who can treat you and let the school know whether you are fit to return.9. Some schools offer combined undergraduate and graduate degrees. You may have to do a little research to find out if the school you want offers it, but if it does, you can earn your bachelors and masters degree in a combined amount of time (usually 5 years).
10. Many PhD programs accept students who have just finished their undergraduate degree and who don’t yet have a masters. I used to think that you had to earn a masters and phd separately. Some PhD programs are open to people with their masters degrees, but some have the masters degree built-in and they will accept your undergraduate education.
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Some other thoughts:
- If your school has a gym, it might be a good source of free stress relief if you are able to use it and if you like working out.
- If you are worried about the material in a course, find a tutor. Some schools have tutors or teaching assistants who can help. If your professor has office hours, go to them and ask them how you can improve your grade or where you can get tutoring.- Join an extracurricular (sports, choirs, clubs, etc.) that you like and where you get along with the people. This can serve as a social safety net or a source of good friendships.
- if you are an undocumented resident, there are scholarships that you can apply for for college also. check every scholarship you come across to see what the citizenship requirements are. you may be eligible for more scholarships than the ones that openly advertise it.
