Choosing what college to apply to can be a tough decision for some students, no matter how prepared they are. There are dozens of variables to consider when choosing a college; one class that can help is AVID, but participating in AVID can make scheduling frustrating if there are other classes that one may want.
“If you want to go to an affordable university, there are universities like University of Oregon and Portland State University, […] who have tuition free programs where you only have to pay the other additional costs of student fees, books, etc, [and] housing if you’re going to stay on campus,” AVID teacher Jen Winchell said.
Winchell mentioned the Oregon Promise, which offers a free two years of college for students with a 2.0 GPA or higher.
“I highly recommend students, regardless of what they want to do or where they want to go, to get two years of college for free at a local community college or find a community college where they can go and stay in dorms,” Winchell said. “I highly recommend public universities. I think some people choose private, and that’s totally fine and up to them, but I think public universities provide the best value and have great programs, especially the ones here in Oregon. I know Western [Oregon University] has a great teaching program if people are interested in going into education.”
Oregon State University is known for its Technical Engineering and STEM field programs, and the University of Oregon is known for its Journalism and Liberal Arts programs.
“The only downside to waiting [to go to college] is [that] there are a lot of scholarships and programs for people directly out of high school that then become unavailable when you wait,” Winchell said.
Winchell also advises students to take weather and temperature into consideration when choosing what college to attend, urging students to try and find colleges in areas that are similar to Oregon weather and temperature so they can adapt easier.
“LBCC is always a great option. They’ve got a lot of great programs there. And then Chemeketa as well, and I think with a lot of scholarships, there [are] so many scholarships out there that just go completely unapplied for,” AVID teacher Stephanie Ockerman said. “They’re not necessarily always GPA requirement scholarships, so putting in the time to look and find those scholarships [is worth it].”
“Junior and senior year of high school, it is very, very tempting to take advantage of having opens, but West Albany is amazing in the sense that you have access to so many classes that you have the opportunity to get college credit for,” Ockerman said.
Ockerman added that kids in high school don’t realize how much money and time is saved by taking any college credits in high school instead of having open periods. Despite losing a bit of freedom in high school, it is advantageous to get college credits early too shorten the time spent in schools in general, and Ockerman also adds that for that lost freedom, College life does give lots of freedom in scheduling and choice, to a benefit and detriment depending on how that freedom is used, and in college it is up to the student to self advocate and find out what needs to get done, “ In college, your professors have so many different students that that they might know you not know you by face, and they definitely can’t tell you like you missed this assignment.” Ockerman said.
