Same goes for financial aid. If you feel stressed because there isn’t enough time to get your paperwork in, you probably started the process too late. If you think your financial aid department is slow, then you’re in the wave of students who want to do everything just before deadline. Ask your financial aid department for a good time to get in before the rush and have your paperwork checked in early.

Take the time, mid-semester, each semester, to check in with your counselor, financial aid advisor, and teacher/professor/instructor on how you’re doing and to plan the following semester. You’ll find they are interested, willing, and happy to offer professional and educational advice. And… often this relationship building leads to great letters of reference for your next stop on your career and educational journey.

Scheduling… with budget cuts, getting classes is dicey. Planning ahead leads to a more organized approach. In addition, many colleges consider a date to begin one minute after midnight of the day before. If you’re set to register on the 5th of the month, set up to give it a try at 10 minutes after midnight on the 4th. This may give you an eight hour head start on the other 5th of the month students who register in the morning.

If you need a class you haven’t been able to get into… mid-semester, the semester before, talk with the instructor and explain that you’ve tried to get in, want to take the class, and ask if you can discuss your goals and previous work. Some will say it’s a get-in-line approach only, others may find an extra chair.

It’s difficult to explain the reality of the beginning and end of the semester crunch to students. There are so many stories of what students are willing to say and do to get into a class and pass a class. You can plan ahead, be proactive rather than try to cajole or bully during the crush of bodies who say their entire future hinges on whatever it is they want to happen at that moment. Don’t ask for an exception when you’re one of 25 in line; in those moments the only fair answer is no.

Timing isn’t, as the saying goes, “everything”. However, you don’t need “everything”, you need to bypass a few bumps in the road to keep forward momentum going. Planning ahead and checking best days/times and availability will give you a nice boost.

There’s no logical reason to follow a path your school prints; it is a guide, they will be happy to offer feedback on meeting your goals with an alternative approach.

Private schools may have a policy limiting the number of outside units involved; the number is often 12. They typically ask you to submit a request to bring in outside units before taking the course. This process is pretty straightforward and can save both time and money.

Several colleges around the nation advertise online classes. The tip with those programs is matching accreditation. Your college will, most likely, not allow transferring in non-accredited units and may require units that are approved by the same accrediting agency as your own college’s.

This seems like a lot to track, however, we’re talking about total paperwork time of a half day in order to potentially support graduating on time and saving hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Make an appointment and get counselor approval before signing up for an off-campus course; keep a printed or emailed copy of your school’s approval. When you complete the off-campus course(s), request an official transcript be sent to the Records Office of your school. This is your responsibility to follow up on; no transcript = no units.

Be careful with semester vs. quarter units. Typically three semester units equates to four quarter units. Three quarter units will not satisfy three semester units. Units are calculated based on the number of hours in a class.

This is a great use of your time. Your graduating college simply can’t satisfy all student scheduling needs. It’s up to you to proactively set up and complete the series of courses required for your degree. Do so creatively, productively, and successfully.

A handshake is a way of saying, “It’s great to meet you,” or, “It’s great to see you.” We say and show this with a level of enthusiasm and earnestness. If you don’t know how to shake hands with someone, you are saying, “I can’t do this, I can’t do this, I can’t do this.” In years past, students attempted to show their total strength by grasping a hand and squeezing like crazy. That muscle approach doesn’t work, however, neither does what I call the duck approach.

Take just a minute, right now, as you read this. With your right hand move your thumb and fingers together and apart, and as you do so, say or think, “quack quack quack quack”, as though you were showing a small child your hand as a duck puppet. That fun, duck or crab, quack is not the stuff careers are made of.

Duck Shake front

Back Side of the Duck Shake

Here are a few things to consider:

• You want to meet/greet the person. Let a smile or welcome in your eyes. Make eye contact and think about how nice it is to get to greet and interact with interesting people. If your mind is thinking these words, rather than fear or nervousness, your eyes and body language will follow.
• Typically you’ll both stand for the handshake, even if one of you or both need to lean over a chair, desk, or table to shake. Standing is respectful, however, it’s even more about the awkwardness of getting it right while sitting; especially if you’re at different heights or crossing a piece of furniture.
• Think about giving someone a handshake, not a finger shake. Your hand will shake their hand, rather than your fingers will quack their hand. Your hand goes in for a match to theirs, the skin between your thumb and forefinger will match up to theirs. This is a full handshake.
• Gauge the strength of your handshake on theirs. Women… sometimes a man will begin a light shake. This isn’t so that you don’t shake back: it’s to offer you the opportunity to determine the shake. Shake back purposefully, as though you are picking up your handbag or a grocery bag; be yourself, be purposeful. Your fingers don’t stay straight. Your whole hand is in the shake, confirming your interest in meeting.
• Handshakes go up and down, typically 2-3 times. Sometimes if you don’t make eye contact, the other person will keep shaking until you do. They want to make a connection with you. It’s not an intimidation contest; the best handshakes emanate from people who really like to engage with others. You’ll be able to naturally gauge when the handshake is over, your intuition will kick in, don’t over think it.
• Sometimes you’ll see people reach over with their free hand and place it on top of the shake. This is okay when you’re with people that you’re handshaking who you’d really like to hug instead. It’s an indicator that you’re friends beyond the handshake. If it happens in a job environment, then that person may be older and is offering kind words, if it’s a person who is interviewing you or who is not older, then it’s a bit off-putting. The person probably considers it something to do with personal style, with showing themselves as kind. You see politicians do it on television when they’re showing themselves as super-super-caring. Don’t do it to impress, don’t worry if it seems natural and you find both of your hands are in the handshake.

End the handshake with a smile. After all, it really is great to get to meet you or to see you again.

The "It's great to meet you" handshake

• Each person earning an Associates or a Bachelors degree in the U.S. completes the general education requirements once in their lifetime. This means that qualifying courses taken at any time qualify toward meeting the requirement. If one or twenty years pass, the courses count.

• Take the time to carefully consider the list of courses that meet each section within the general education guideline. Look for the class that best meets your learning interest, something you either are interested in learning or have an affinity for. As an example, History of World Civilizations resides in the same group as Introduction to Mass Media. One looks at the 1600s, the other at new and emerging media; the classes are significantly different. Your consideration may relate to your personal life; are your working or taking a lot of units, know something about media and want to complete the class with a minimal time investment? Or, have you always enjoyed history, love to read fiction tales of medieval times, and want to learn more about the world and how we came to be who we are?

Let’s take a closer look at each requirement:

The purpose of general education is to provide a common educational experience for students, regardless of major field of study. The general education program cultivates knowledge, skills, and values that are characteristic of a learned person. Examples from universities include:

1. Communication Skills (9 units minimum) with an Oral Communication Requirement
2. Natural Sciences and Mathematics (9 units minimum) with a laboratory course
3. Humanities Requirement (9 units minimum)
4. Social, Economic, and Political Institutions and Human Behavior (12 units minimum)
5. Upper Division General Education Requirements (9 units minimum)
6. Multicultural Requirement (3 units minimum)
7. Language Requirements (varies)

Your approach to meeting your General Education requirements is to:

• Go to the catalog of your college/university and take the time to print or copy the full requirements list
• Highlight or mark the classes that seem the most interesting to you (descriptions of what the courses are will also be in the catalog)
• Go in the catalog to your major and determine of some of your prerequisite courses match up to general education courses. It’s good to take the general ed courses that also count within your major rather than take one science, for example, for general ed and then find out you need another science to meet your major requirement

As soon as you can, mix in a couple of your major classes with general ed. Don’t spend your first three or four semesters on general education only. For one thing, you’ll be bored, and for another, when you get into your Junior and Senior year of college, it may be difficult to get the classes you need due to budget issues. Spread your major classes over the 4-5 years you will be in school and spread your general ed courses across as well. That way, you have more semesters/quarters in which to get the major classes you need and you can fill holes in your schedule with general ed. There are many students who take only a couple of classes per semester because they’re so limited as to which classes are left for them to take.

In summary… you need to complete general education requirements once in your lifetime. Take the time to study the options at your college/university, there are many more choices than you might think there are. Spread general ed courses across the years you’ll be in school, start taking major classes as soon as you can. This way you’ll have more semesters available to secure enrollment in your major courses and you’ll backfill with general ed.

An additional bonus; college semesters equate to a high school year. As an example, a college chemistry class lasts one semester and fulfills one year of high school chemistry credit. College classes are commonly available in the evenings; most evening classes meet one night per week or two days per week. As such, Wednesday nights, for one semester, will take out one year of a high school course and grant you credit toward your college transcript.

The downside… college is college. You need to make it to class, do all homework, and be responsible for all turn-ins. Your grade will follow you to college so make it count. You’ll prove your ability to do college-level work. The upside… if your high school teacher isn’t great or if the homework load in your high school class is legendary, college will be doable. You’ll need transportation to get there, but you don’t need to fear your ability, as long as you go and put in a reasonable amount of time, you will be motivated by cutting class time in half and earning credit twice.

Limitations include age; this program is primarily for high school juniors and seniors. You’ll need to check applicability in subject areas such as Math and Physical Education that are often not allowed due to previous abuse of the system. The cool factor is this, compared to an AP class, there are half the class meetings, a fraction of the homework, no test at the end, and you get the credit.

Your high school may not promote concurrent enrollment, don’t let that discourage you. Find out what the college you’re interested allows and take that paperwork to the high school. Oftentimes, high schools are too overwhelmed to offer concurrent enrollment or may have issues with their AP teachers. Your high school will continue to receive the same funding for you as their student. Take the initiative; visit the college, get the paperwork, discuss possible class fit, and then take the information to your high school for approval. Your willingness to be the responsible party goes a long way in getting quick approvals. And attending both high school and college makes for a great change of pace and provides a window on what your college education will be about. Good stuff.

Rather than look at national or state statistics, let’s narrow our focus to one student at a time and divide reasons for dropping out into two categories:

Category A

• Don’t care whether I graduate

or

Category B

• No transportation
• Need to work
• Focus problems in class
• Family issues
• Don’t understand enough
• Boring

If you identify with Category B, consider starting again, this time at a community college. Your local community college has great resources for helping you to choose classes that interest you in addition to many other support services such as:

• Daycare
• Financial aid
• Free tutoring
• Learning disabled help
• Fun programs
• International student assistance
• Great Veterans programs
• Test taking help
• Work experience credit

If you’re 18 or older, a high school diploma or GED are not required. You will find your community college to be a respectful environment where you are treated as an adult; college faculty have much more freedom in developing ways to help you learn than did your high school teachers.

In a community college you can attend class as few as two days a week or as many (typically) as four, in hours that work best with your work and sleep schedule. Some students prefer mornings, some evenings. A common schedule might be Tues, Thurs 10-2 and one evening from 6-10pm. It’s up to you.

Community colleges offer A.A. and A.A. degrees that transfer to four-year universities. In addition, community colleges offer Career Programs that focus on both transfer to a university or direct entry to a great job. Community colleges also offer certificates toward careers.

If you know you need to get back to school, but the GED is to big, difficult, or intimidating a test for you, consider your community college instead.

In summer session classes meet in a condensed semester or quarter, last a few hours a day, often three or four days a week. You’ll take one class at a time, two at a maximum, typically over a six-week period (sometimes shorter or longer depending on the class). Generally, each unit equates to 16-18 hours of class time. A 2-unit class, then, runs around 32-36 hours; a 3-unit class around 48-54 hours. In addition, you’ll have homework hours although in summer homework may be a little lighter since class sessions are closer together and don’t leave much study time.

The decision regarding what classes to take in summer depends on your strengths and classes that may cause you some trouble. The summer before your Freshman year it’s best to take a general education topic that’s not too much of a struggle because you don’t want to enter your Freshman year with a below par GPA. There are plenty of required courses such as Art, History, Communication, Sociology, Anthropology that serve as a great entry to college. If you’ve survived High School Math with no problems, summer is a good time to take a Math class. Lab sciences such as Biology and Anatomy typically fill before Freshmen have the chance to register. Non-lab science courses such as Oceanography, Geology, and Astronomy may be available. If, for some reason, a science course and lab is available, summer is a great time to enroll, these classes are in great demand since they form the foundation for many health care industry students and because a minimal number of sections are available due to the high costs of offering these courses for the school.

The summer before your Sophomore year is a great time to pick up a class or two that are difficult to get during the school year or that you don’t want to hassle with when you’re enrolled in multiple classes. If you’re worried about Philosophy, Statistics, Chemistry, or a difficult major course, summer is a great fit. First, make sure the faculty member teaching the course is who you’re expecting, sometimes the best faculty take the summer off although sometimes new, innovative faculty like the freedom summer offers. Another great catch for Sophomore summer is a course that is a part of a series. It’s important to not let a series course start too late in your college career. For example, if you have a series of three business courses to complete for your major, never wait to start that series until your Senior year because if one is canceled, fills early, or you need to drop, you’ll add an additional semester or more to your graduation date.

Summer school may feel like “doing time”, however, remember there will be plenty of summer enjoyment time after summer and before the fall semester/quarter start. Typically, summer school doesn’t extend into August. The Summer School Lifeline offers up 4-6 weeks of vacation and an extra 3-6 units of credit. On the first day of Fall, you’ll feel rested and ahead of the pack. Nice work.

Don’t try one cover letter for all jobs. It will read as fake, copied again and again, maybe even a little desperate. Create a list of keywords from the job advertisement. Create a list of keyword phrases that describe you, and incorporate the job keywords into your phrases. Here are a few examples:

Job Ad #1
Looking for a good time? If you like to have a great time at work, we’re looking for you!!
CITY CRAB SHACK is hiring fun, energetic servers and greeters. Come and join one of our great teams at Joe’s, where WORK HAS NEVER BEEN SO FUN!!! Now hiring at Fisherman’s Wharf location.

Keywords we can pull from this Job Ad include: Fun, energetic, team, people person with a positive attitude.

Job Ad #2
City Cyclery is currently accepting resumes for the position of part time Retail Sales Associate (16 to 23 hours a week) for the spring/summer season. This position requires strong sales and interpersonal skills, enthusiasm about cycling and the ability to give great customer service in a high volume sales environment. Weekend schedule: both Saturday and Sunday are required. Duties will include greeting customers, new bike
sales, accessory sales, clean up, stock and working in a team environment. Experience in the Bicycle Industry is welcomed but not required. Having a friendly, self-starting, retail customer service oriented personality is a must in our shop. Pay commensurate with experience and ability.

Keywords we can pull from this Job Ad include: strong sales and interpersonal skills, enthusiasm abou tcycling, great service in a fast paced store. Greeting, upselling, stocking, working with a team, self-starting, friendly personality.

This job also uses the term “currently accepting resumes” which is a more formal approach to the hiring process than the first job listing suggests.

If it seems like writing a different cover letter for each job takes too much time, remind yourself that it takes less time than looking for a lot more jobs. Also, some of your cover letter will be the same from job to job. Let’s take a look, first at the format:

Your Name
Address
City, State, Zip Code
Phone Number
Email Address

Date

Employer Contact Information (if you have it. Look them up on the web if these details aren’t in the listing. This shows you’ve done your homework.)
Name
Title
Company
Address
City, State, Zip Code

Dear Mr./Ms. Last Name, (leave out if you don’t have a name)

First Paragraph
Identify the job you are applying for.

Next Paragraph(s)
What you offer the company. How your qualifications fit great with the job you’re applying for. Don’t repeat your resume.

Last Paragraph
Thanking the employer for considering you, restate your interest in the job.

Complimentary Close,

Signature
Your signature is typed if sent by email, signed by hand if sent in the mail or delivered in person.

Next, let’s take a look at examples for both of the jobs we described earlier. You would change these words to reflect you, your personality, your enthusiasm for the job.

Job #1 Cover Letter Sample

The tone of the Crab Shack job is friendly and fun, per the Job Ad.

Job #2 Cover Letter Sample

The tone of City Cyclery is positive, yet more formal than fun.

In summary, target the Job Ad, add your strengths, and be enthusiastic about working the job. Good luck.

Start with keywords that describe you. Really describe you. Ask your friends and family to come up with 10 each; you come up with 20. Take a look at all of the words, and organize them in such a way that they tell a great story about you. Here’s an example:
Creative, insightful, caring, strategic, honest, able to multi-task, great communication skills, good follow up, artistic, technical, detail-oriented, thoughtful, fun, friendly.

These words guide your next steps and highlight your strengths. If you can’t think of 20 words, imagine different friends or situations and find words to describe how you were, at your best. For example, maybe a friend of yours needed help, how did you help in that situation? Were you supportive, caring, or respectful? In school, at work, or if you volunteer, how are you in that situation? Organized, hard working, or supportive? Thinking of different context will help you come up with more keywords than thinking generally about “you”.

Next, comes the summary. The key to the summary is that it’s not about what you’re looking for, it’s about what you offer. Your summary should answer the employer’s real question of, “What are you going to do for me?” And, if appropriate, it should address what you’re going to do in regard to revenue or profit. A summary is different from an objective. An objective, in my mind, is dull stuff that doesn’t get traction with an employer.

Objective
College student, studying marketing, looking for the opportunity to learn and grow my skills in a company dedicated to innovative marketing and customer service.

It might seem that I’m exaggerating this objective, however, I’ve seen many like this, and even several where the statement was both about what the interviewee wanted and where more than one word was misspelled. How about:

Summary
Marketing student offers creative content writing skills, enthusiastic customer service, excellent analytical ability, and a passion for all things related to serving clients. Searching for a position in the advertising industry where I can assist with obtaining new clients, producing effective campaigns, and increasing client satisfaction.

Your summary may include another sentence or two related to the specific job. The focus remains what they get in hiring you, not what you will get by working with them.

After the summary, create a two or three column bullet list of things you bring to the job, based on your keywords. Where you can, think of contexts to go with your keywords, create keyword phrases. Your keyword phrases are strengths you bring to the job, whether you performed them previously in your work or personal life, such as:

• Experience using and marketing social networking portals
• Create and promote blog articles
• Strong web user skills
• Ability to multi-task
• Great customer follow-up
• Excellent communicator
• Positive attitude

It’s great to have an abundance of keyword phrases to choose from. I like to categorize them, such as those related to people, managing, operations, office, etc. With several categories, I can grab and organize them depending on the job. For example, applying for an office job changes the order and the mix of keyword phrases than applying for a sales position. The exact order of the keyword phrases also has to do with their length and the way they line up best on the resume, as demonstrated in a sample resume at the end of this article.

After keywords are identified and keyword phrases are created, it’s time to list education and work experience. They both follow the summary and keyword phrases without identifying which job or class each of your strengths is associated to. This is because it’s assumed you don’t have significant enough job experience to separate the jobs and identify keyword phrases for each. Instead, this resume promotes you, rather than your history in any one job.

Let’s see how this might look in a resume. The formatting of this resume needs to be simple enough to be copied and pasted into an email or attached as a document. Over-formatting is a problem with many online resume submissions. You’ll want one version saved as a document, and a second that can be copied and pasted into the body of an email. If you’re applying, for example, through craigslist, attach a copy and add it to the body of your email because there are so many responses, oftentimes employers don’t want to deal with opening a lot of attachments and taking a chance on a virus in one of them.

Don’t include references in your resume, unless specifically asked for. And, then, they are often in the cover letter.

Here is an example of bring focus to you, to what you offer, your experience, and your strengths. By the time the reader gets to your job history, they are able to note it’s not extensive, but have first seen the potential you bring to the table.

Show your strengths-even when your job experience is minimal

How are students admitted with a transfer agreement?
Universities may have different specific guidelines, however, the general ideas is the order of admittance is:

1. Transfer agreement students
2. Community College graduates transferring without agreements
3. Qualifying incoming freshmen
4. Transfers from other 4-year colleges

Here’s why. Transfer agreement students have met the university requirements and proven their ability to compete and complete. Community College graduates, without transfer agreements, have reached the end of ability to go to college. They are in 2-year schools that do not offer 4-year degrees. Qualifying incoming freshmen come next, there are fewer spots than there used to be, however competition varies from university to university. Transfers from other 4-year colleges are last, the theory being that they want to change, but could realistically finish where they are. Their best chance is to change because they’re switching majors or because they’re moving to a university with an open transfer policy. The goal is to offer a good path for as many people as possible, and stay as efficient as possible.

How can you find out if you qualify for a Transfer Agreement Guarantee (TAG)
The TAG agreement exists in California. All universities and community college admissions office can tell you, or their website will explain what their TAG requirements are. This is the real deal, when they say guarantee, they mean it. You’ll need to check which campuses are available and if there are impacted degrees, however, the course list, GPA requirements, and paperwork are very reasonable. This is, if it’s available in your location, a fantastic way to graduate from a great university, even if you don’t begin there immediately after high school graduation.

I suggest starting with contacting the universities you’re interested in, as well as the community colleges in your area. Find out what your alternatives are. Also, while you’re at it, find out what you can CLEP test through. Check the CLEP article here at 2ude for the details. If there are a couple of universities on your wish list that you’d love to graduate from, and can’t get into now, transfer agreements are an awesome alternative.