Finding a great career can be an arduous process and it is a cycle many people go through multiple times in their lives.  People grow and their interests change and because of this, they want to change careers and seek out a more fulfilling career based on these new interests and new growth.  The three steps below can be used for high school students, college students, and adults!

1. Ask yourself a few reflective questions

• What do I like to do?
• What are some things that people have told me I do well?
• What skills do I have that I would like to improve on?
• Where does my passion lie? 
• What type of environment would I work best in? 
• What times of day am I most creative and do my best work?

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2. Follow your curiosity
Think about what you really enjoy learning about and what you seek out.  By going into a field where you have a genuine curiosity, you will have a drive to do better every day and you'll be inspired every day.  Don't be afraid if the things that get you excited and wanting to learn more seem trivial. Once you flush out what they are you will have a direction to go into.  What classes were most exciting? What T.V. programs do you love to watch? Is there a particular subject that can completely suck you in? One of the best ways to really get to this is by thinking about what you would do if money were not an option. 

3. Research some careers and then try them out! 
Use sites like MyNextMove.org to research careers that match the introspection you've done in steps 1 and 2. Then use your personal contacts to see if you can meet with someone in that field and ask them about what they do, how they got to their chosen career, what skills and knowledge they use in their career, and any other questions you may have.  This conversation could also lead to you asking if you could shadow them for a day or even volunteer in their office.  Many large companies have programs that allow  students to shadow selected careers but using your personal contacts will be best.  

As always, Riley College Advising can help you think through all 3 of these steps.

We all know colleges value community service on a student's application and resume but the reasons might surprise you.  When colleges are reading applications, they are looking for students who would not only be a good fit for their campus but also add value to their campus.  They want students that can juggle many responsibilities, students that have great time management and are able to work with others.  Participating in community service activities helps a student learn these skills but it also shows colleges that the student has a heart. They can infer that a student with significant community service experiences, especially a student who has volunteered at one or two places for a long period of time, is committed to really making a change in their community.  The student will probably carry this interest with them to campus and take part in making their college better.  Because of this, students should actively seek out community service opportunities throughout their high school careers.  They should focus on volunteering at an organization regularly and for a long period of time.  It is great to help out at a soup kitchen three or four times a year, but it is so much better to volunteer every Saturday for two years.  Students should also think about using community service as a way to gain real world experiences and knowledge that they couldn't get inside a classroom.  By regularly volunteering at soup kitchen regularly, a student could, after time, move into a managerial role or work in outreach. Volunteering is a great way develop skills, learn more about career options, make friends, and acquire professional contacts.

With all of this being said, where can students in the Pittsburgh region go to volunteer? 

• Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy: Volunteers of all ages, interests, and abilities can help out at one day events or more often! This organization has a great program for teens called Urban EcoSteward.  This program is for long-term volunteers that work at parks to remove invasive species, plan native flora, slow erosion, and clean up trash.  
• Tree Pittsburgh: This organization uses volunteers to plan trees in the Pittsburgh region.
• Bike Pittsburgh: Bike Pittsburgh organizes OpenStreetsPGH, a family-friendly celebration that creates 3.5 miles to walk, dance, run and play in Downtown.
• Just Harvest: Just Harvest is a nonprofit that works to end hunger and poverty in Allegheny County.  This organization is always looking for volunteers for many jobs such as outreach, administrative, and market assistant.
• American Red Cross: Volunteers are accepted as young as 13 with the youth volunteer application.  They offer many volunteer opportunities! 
• Pittsburgh Marathon: 4,000 volunteers are needed for the event each May! 

Need help connecting with organizations or evaluating extracurricular activities? Riley College Advising can help!

With the cost of college rising every year, it is no wonder parents and kids are worried about paying for all of it.  Many times the conversation about how to pay for college starts in high school and not earlier like it should.  And it is even more common for parents to exclude their kids in this conversation.  Then, when the time comes for students to choose a college and analyze their financial aid letters, they have an idea of how much money their parents will contribute to these costs. This is usually different than the amount their parents have decided to contribute.  It is crucial for parents and kids to have this conversation way before junior year.  Ideally, parents would begin planning for college at birth by starting a 529 or another savings plan.  As the student goes through elementary and middle school, parents would talk with their kid about expectations related to college.  These conversations should include whether the parents are expecting their kid to go to college and if the kid has aspirations of going to college.  They should also talk about how college will be financed.  Will the parents pay for it completely? Does the child expect to contribute something?

A recent study by College Savings Foundation found that 82% of students believe it is their responsibility to pay for at least part of their higher education.  71% of students said they would pay for at least 25% of college costs. While this is up from 53% the previous year, 25% of college costs can be a pretty big number and if students do not have a plan for saving, they won't be able to actually contribute this money.  With cost of attendance, for one year at private 4 year colleges averaging $46,272, it is essential that families begin talking about college costs, financing, and responsibilities before junior year.  If your student expects to pay for at least 25% of college costs each year, they will need $11,000 a year. They'll need to save this amount before they graduate high school but that is just for one year of college. They'll then need a solid plan for how they'll save for their contribution of the next 3 years.  

So how can students save? Students can get a part-time job during the school year, making sure to put away most of this money for their college fund. They could also work more hours during the summer and do the same with their paycheck. Not only is this great for their savings, it will also show admissions officers that the student is responsible, is able to manage their time, and is able to juggle multiple responsibilities at the same time like school and work.  Students who do this could save $3,000-$7,000 a year! Students can also contribute to their own 529 plan with these funds!  Students should also be on the lookout for scholarships for kids their age. While there aren't as many scholarships for 9th or 10th graders as there are for seniors, there are still great scholarships for them!  Students should take the initiative and research these scholarships and apply for them! A few helpful sites: www.fastweb.com ; https://colleges.niche.com/ ; www.cappex.com.

How can parents save and make college more affordable? Well, it is important to make sure you fill out the FAFSA. This is done in the student's senior year of high school. The FAFSA is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. By filling this out, you will automatically qualify your student for state and federal grants and some scholarships. Check to see if your employer offers tuition assistance program or scholarships for the kids of employees. Also check with your union, church, or any professional organizations  you are a part of and ask them if they offer scholarships for the kids of members.  Start a 529 savings plan and ask friends and family to contribute to it instead of buy gifts for holidays and birthdays.  This might seem odd to some people but the money really adds up!

At Riley College Advising, we counsel families through the financial aid process and help them make realistic plans for paying for college.  We're here to help make this stressful process a lot more manageable and even, enjoyable. 

US Lacrosse recently published an article urging parents whose kids participate in sports to stop, breathe, and enjoy every single moment because the moments go by so, so fast.  Try not to get wrapped up the the politics on the field and off of the field.  Have fun, every day! Remember the reason you are there, in your camping chair, holding a bag of oranges in the hot sun or sitting in the stands in a big winter jacket a homemade sign.  You're there so your kid has fun and so your kid is happy.  

Often, parents can get wrapped up in number of goals scored, changing the lineup, or playtime.  While those things are important, they rank second to your child's happiness. Yes kids need to learn discipline and they need to experience failure, which, won't be fun for them. But your child should want to go to practice and play in the games. If he or she isn't feeling joy and satisfaction from playing, have a long conversation with your kid and discuss what stands in between their happiness on the field.  Is it that they aren't feeling like their skills are up to par with their teammates? Are they afraid of really pushing themselves and failing? Are they uncomfortable with being part of a team and sharing responsibility and play time with others? All of these issues can be worked on and used as a learning experience. From hard work and evaluating the situation, kids can move forward and learn how to take ownership of a situation and feel like they really did something to fix their problem on their own.  

Playing a sport for a significant amount of time can really enhance a college application.  It shows commitment, team work, time management, responsibility, respecting authority, and so much more. These skills are essential to being successful on a college campus and afterwards, in the working world.  If parents get wrapped up in the nonessential parts of the game, this can detract from the kid's ability to acquire all of these great skills.  An example: If parents get too wrapped up in being their child's manager and yelling at the coach or their kid for their performance, they could hold their kid back from learning how to take the coach's instruction, they could embarrass their kid in front of their teammates and damage the bond they had been working on, and the parents could make their child miss out on learning how to advocate for themselves. The next time you feel your kid's sports stressing you out, remember that there will be a day that you long to watch your kid at practice and the chats you have on the way home together. The reason you put your kid in sports is for him or her to grow and have fun so make sure those are your top priorities.

How long has it been since you have check your child's social media accounts? No, not just Facebook or Instagram but ALL of their social media accounts. Do these accounts portray your child in a positive light or do they highlight your kids more questionable activities? In a recent survey by Kaplan Test Prep, 40% of admissions officers said they routinely check applicants' social media accounts. They are looking to find out more information about the applicants' interests, awards, creativity, and illicit or questionable behavior.  This isn't a practice for admissions, coaches and athletic scholarship committees also take a student's social media into account.  In a recent article by ESPN, the author includes a picture posted by a coach at SMU showing the length his team goes to to review what recruits are posting to social media.  The article also shows how a coach at Auburn University dropped a prospective recruit because of his social media presence. It is heartbreaking that a student can have the skill, ability, and drive to make it on a team at a DI or DII school or earn an acceptance to a great college or receive a scholarship but because of their lack of discretion on their social media accounts, they lose out on those amazing opportunities.  

If social media is so important, then how can students use it for their benefit? Cleveland.com published an article detailing how student athletes can use social media to their advantage.  The article says students should connect, communicate, commit, and promote with their social media accounts.  Although these ideas are for athletes, all students could use these methods to mold a positive public persona.  Most, if not all, colleges and many admissions offices specially, have social media accounts. After visiting a college or meeting with an admissions office, student could mention the school or admissions office online along with a complimentary message. Talk about what they enjoyed on campus or what programs offered at the college that they would be interested in taking part in.  Students can also use social media to talk directly to the admissions office. For some colleges, students could get into contact with the admissions office faster via social media than if they called the office's main number. Once a student has chosen a college to attend (ideally after they received not only their acceptance letter but also their financial aid letter), they could mention the college in a post, using a picture of themselves in the college's t-shirt, with a pennant, or the college mascot. Most importantly, students really need to take an objective look at ALL of their social media accounts to see what an admissions committee, scholarship committee, or coach would think of them if they saw all of these accounts.  They should also take into account what their friends are posting about them, including mentions in their posts and pictures posted.  Most social media apps have a feature to turn off tagging or require that the person who is tagged in a post or picture approve of the post before it is posted.  Riley College Advising has helped many students modify their social media accounts to portray a more professional online presence and highlight their achievements, creativity, and great personalities. 

April is the season of acceptance letters and of course, rejection letters from colleges. For many kids, a rejection letter from their dream college can be crushing.  If they planned well, they should have at least  one acceptance to another college, which they might have deemed their "safety school". College admissions is more competitive than ever so rejection letters are expected.  The New York Post recently published an article suggesting that parents can take the rejection just as hard as their kids.  Parents can drive themselves crazy thinking about what they could have done differently. Where did they go wrong? Should they have paid for an SAT prep class? Did they make a mistake by having their kid take AP Calc instead of AP US History? What about that internship? Second guessing could go on forever and it will do no good.  

We've worked with many families where students have taken the rejection letters better than their parents.  Students are preparing themselves for the rejection, even if they don't seem like it. They know that there is a chance that they could not get in.  Parents, on the other hand, feel like they've done everything they can to make sure kid will get into the best, most prestigious college and when that doesn't happen, they can take that rejection personally.  How could a college not totally fall in love with your baby? How could they reject your talented, smart, witty kid? Take comfort in the knowledge that you and your child did everything you could and college admissions is complex.  It is not just about grades or community service. It is more than what is on a student's transcript or application.  Admissions officers have complicated and secretive processes for accepting and rejecting an applicant. Riley College Advising can help you and your child navigate the college admissions process.  We will help your child create a well thought out college list, making sure to include a variety of schools that fit your child's personal, academic, and financial interests. We will help your family celebrate the many college acceptance letters he or she will surely receive but we will also help if a rejection letter makes its way to your mailbox. 

We all know at least one person who went away to college and didn't make it. They came home because they were homesick, or they didn't like sharing a space with a stranger. Maybe they couldn't live away from their parents or they didn't know how to make new friends.  Whatever the reason, everyone's first time living away from their home is always challenging so it makes sense to give your kid experience with this before they have to do it when it really counts.  A recent article by NBC News suggests going to sleepaway camp to give kids the chance to build the skills they need to be successful living away from home.  

Most of kids we work with express feelings of anxiety with moving away from home.  Even the kids that seem the most excited at the idea of leaving their parents or leaving their city are scared to actually do it.  These fears are amplified when the kids actually get on campus and begin to feel uncomfortable in their new environment.  They are expected to manage their money, get along with their roommates, manage their time, complete rigorous college-level work, navigate a new area, make friends, stay in contact with old friends, and of course, do laundry.  Going to sleepaway camp as child could give kids the experience of living away from home but with more support and less severe consequences if they mess up.  By fostering these skills at camp, kids will gain confidence in themselves to live on their own.  They've done it before and they can do it again.  This can also be true for parents who will inevitably be stressed and worried when their little baby leaves for college.  If you have the confidence that your child has accrued the skills he or she needs before they get to college, you can feel a little better knowing your kid can make it.  And while there is no guarantee that your child will be 100% prepared, it is worth a try.

The Washington Post recent published an article that chronicles a parent's frustration with financial aid.  In her article entitled When he’s accepted to college, but we can’t afford it, Tracy Major explains how she and her family must come off the high of their kid's many college acceptances to amazing colleges, many of them very selective colleges, when they realize that the financial aid packages that many of these colleges have created for their kid means that they are too expensive and unrealistic. She writes about "merit aid roulette" and how the merit aid offered by many colleges is set aside, often times, for freshmen with outstanding test scores and grades.  Merit aid is not something student can count on receiving until they see it on their financial aid letter and merit aid is at the discretion of the college. This ultimately leads her family feeling disappointed that they can only afford to send their kid to a few of the colleges that he actually got into.  

We've definitely seen this in the financial aid packages we review with families. Students and families will bring in their acceptance letters from one college after another, racking up Yes after Yes.  These Yes's eventually turn into No's for families when, after careful review of the financial aid packages they've received from these colleges, many of acceptances are not realistic because they are nor affordable.  Working with a College Advisor will help your family carefully evaluate every financial aid letter so you can make an informed decision when choosing what college your son or daughter ultimately attends.  It is important to think about cost when creating a college application list; however; you will not know how much a college will actually cost for your student until the financial aid packages is awarded. For middle class families, it often comes down to what college is most affordable but you do not want your student to only look at schools that seem inexpensive. Many colleges that look expensive on paper can turn out to be affordable once the financial aid letter is reviewed. But sometimes a college that told families they give out tons of financial aid and that they offer lots of scholarships to students, turns out to not be affordable because that money did not, in reality, make it onto the student's financial aid letter.  Make sure you work with an experienced College Advisor who will help you make a great list of colleges to apply to.  They'll have the knowledge of having seen many financial aid packages from these colleges and can recommend colleges they know give good financial aid.  

Thinking about majors can be grueling for kids and parents. As parents, we want to make sure our kids will go to college and then get a great job that fulfills them and pays well. This, as we know, is not always reality.  When considering majors, students and parents should think about life after college! What can someone with this major do in the working world? The US Department of Labor has a site called the Occupational Outlook Handbook that allows users to search for careers based on median pay, education, number of new jobs, growth rate, and on-the-job training.  It also provides lists of careers with highest paying, fastest growing, and most new jobs.  Topping the list of highest paying are Physicians, Surgeons and all other with a median salary of $187,200.  Wind turbine service technicians have the highest projected growth rate coming in a 108% and personal care aids have the highest number of new jobs. Users can also search by career and bring up profiles that show  lots of details about the job including work environment, how to become one, pay, job outlook, and similar occupations.  

Another great site is My Next Move which provides similar data to the Department of Labor site but it is a little easier to use.  It also allows users to search by industry and has a section for people who do not know what they want to do! This sections includes an interest profiling quiz and then provides users with a list of potential careers. Definitely helpful for students who are completely unsure about what they want to do with their lives. 

Just as seniors are finalizing their plans for life after high school, many juniors are beginning to shown symptoms of senioritis. This virus is highly contagious and symptoms includes sluggish behavior, lack of motivation, belief that their actions do not have consequences, and a gnarly attitude.  It is very important for juniors to keep their momentum going in their last few weeks of their junior year.  Letting their grades slip, racking up tardies, skipping school, or accruing behavior slips could cost them their college acceptance or even scholarships.  Students apply to college with their cumulative GPA, which means the GPA from 9th, 10th, and 11th grades.  If a student drops off at the end of their junior year then they are negatively impacting this cumulative GPA.  They are also showing colleges that they might not be ready for a rigorous course load and that they do not take their education seriously.  Students should do everything they can do to get the best grades they can get so the GPA they use when applying to college is the best one.  Check out this article from NBC about senioritis in senior year for additional information.