Aidan W

Colleges

When you are a junior senior and possibly a sophomore in high school, it is a fun and

nervous time in your life. College starts to get on people’s minds and can cause anxiety and

extra stress added to their already stressful lives. College is one of the most important times in

your life, because you need to do extremely well so that you can be as successful as possible in

your future. There’s a lot of things about college that people want to know how each level like

community college. Division 1 is the best college the biggest name colleges, division 2 is the

second best, and division three is third best but it all depends on what you are going for. D-1,

D-2, and D-3 college can give you the best chance to succeed in your future life. The tuition

also can play a huge part in students and parents decision. The stressful lives of the student

becomes even more stressful when you take college visits. You want to take visits to schools

that you are interested in and can have a shot of making it in, so you need to be aware of the

acceptance rate for each school. When you and your family are making this critical decision for

your life you want to know what’s some of the options and the best schools to go to. If you’re

interested in playing a sport in college you want to find a college that will benefit your game and

still be able to set you up for your future in whatever job you want to pursue. Also you the

student wants to know the success rate from attending that school and how likely you are of

being able to get a good quality job that you are happy with for your life.

When you are applying to college and you send your application in, they can send you a

letter back saying that you got rejected. The rejection could be many different factors other than

just your grades weren’t good enough. Colleges strive to look at every single thing when they

are considering to accept or reject you. The college wants to pick the right student that will show

what their school represents in a positive way.

 Your grades play a factor in the colleges decision, as well as many other things. The

colleges look at your SAT and ACT scores. The text says,”Your SAT and ACT scores are

arguably the most important part of your application.”(usnews). The SAT test is a test that

measures high schoolers readiness for college, and provide colleges with one common data

point that can be used to compare all applicants. The ACT is a test on the five core areas:

English, math, reading, science, and writing. The SAT score ranges from 400-1600 and the

average test score is 1083, but you want to aim for a 1200 because that can get you into most

colleges. The ACT is on a range from 1-36, while the average score is a 21 out of 36. Colleges

also look at the students time extracurricular activities so that they can see that you can balance

your time and not all about school. The amount of volunteering that you do will also be a huge

factor. The college doesn’t want to accept someone that does nothing in their community

because they want their college to be represented in the best possible way. Some of the best

places to volunteer at that colleges are impressed with are: animal rescue centers, national

parks, food pantries, local libraries, and etc. The college doesn’t want to accept someone that

does nothing with their life and just goes for an education. They want someone that is willing to

focus on other people other than themselves in the community to help make a change.

There’s one part of the college applying process that may scare people, the acceptance

rate. The acceptance rate is one major factor that parents and kids look at to see if they have a

chance of making it into the college. All of the different levels of colleges have different

acceptance rates. “The average acceptance rate for every college is 66% of true

freshman”.(Nacac).A true freshman means that it is his or hers first year ever in college. When

you are looking at schools you may be turned away and doubt yourself that there’s no chance

that you will make it in. You just need to try because the worst possible thing is you get a letter

back and you are rejected or you get a letter back saying you’re rejected. You have to at least
try because you don’t want to live the rest of your life wondering if you could’ve made it into your

dream school.

There can be many factors that contribute to the acceptance rate, one of them may be

your GPA (grade point average). The major colleges will at least accept a three for your GPA. A

three is equivalent to a 85% and may turn schools away if you don’t do anything else besides

school. A 3.5 GPA is the equivalence of a 90% while a 4.0 GPA is a 95-100%. If your don’t have

a decent grade point average the college won’t even look at your application and just deny you.

One thing that is key if you are applying to a extremely competitive school, is make sure you do

your very best because every single big test you take in high school is critical because it will

have an effect on your GPA and could prevent you from getting into that college you always

wanted to.

When you are looking for a college, the cost can and will be a major factor unless you

are rich then you don’t have to worry about it. There are ways to help out the cost, one of the

main ways is through scholarships. The two main types of scholarships are academic and

athletic. The two main types of scholarships can cancel some or full cost of your college trip if

you are lucky. One way to get an academic scholarship is to just have a 90 overall average

throughout high school and then you will receive the presidential scholarship. Only certain levels

of college can offer you an athletic scholarship, division 1 and 2 may offer you and academic

scholarship. Division 3 may not offer your a athletic scholarship at all. Every single level of

colleges can offer you an academic scholarship though. If you are a high school athlete, “only

about 2 percent of high school athletes win sport scholarships every year.”(O’Shaughnessy). If

you are looking for an educational scholarship, “only about 19 percent of high school students

with a grade point average of 3.5-4 recieve one.”(O’Shaughnessy). In order to receive and

educational scholarship you must excel in all of your classes throughout your high school years.
Even if you excel you only have a 19% to receive one. Both types of scholarships, academic

and athletic are extremely hard to recieve.

The college tuition may play an important part in deciding where to go to school and

further your education. Parents want to be aware and know what the tuition will be for their child

so they can know and figure out how to plan for it. If you are looking to go to a community

college the costs will vary for every state. “The average annual in-state tuition in New York was

$9,759”(college cost). Depending on what state you want to go to a 2-year community college in

can be lower and higher than the cost for New York State. If you already know what degree you

want to go for you can attend three levels of colleges. The levels are: division one, two, and

three. “There are 231 division three schools with an average tuition cost of $27,000 a

year”(college cost). In New York State there are 60 division 2 schools and their average tuition

cost is $22,000 a year. There are 69 division one schools in this region and their average tuition

was $32,000 a year. All of the different levels of colleges have different amounts of tuition costs

that you will have to pay.

The college tuition is extremely high for someone to just go to school for an education.

The text says, “student loan debt in the U.S has reached a staggering $1.2 trillion, and the

average graduate will have to repay more than $35,000”(Wikipedia). The college tuition is so

high that it’s causing an extreme amount of debt in our lives. One of the main reasons the tuition

is getting out of hand is that the colleges need the money to recruit the exact type of students

they want by offering them college tuition discounts. The college wants to get a certain type of

person into their school so they go out and spend our money that we are paying like it’s nothing

just so that their college is represented in a positive way. Every college should be represented

in a positive way but, not so extremely by giving out tuition discounts just because they fit what

you the school wants the ideal student to be. The colleges are choosing to raise their tuition cost
so, there is no factor like going bankrupt for the school. They are starting to lead families to go

bankrupt because of how high the cost is. The colleges have also had nobody make a big push

to make the cost lower so they feel powerful and are hungry to raise the price even more so

their school can thrive and become even better than it is.

When you are making that choice of what college to go to, you need to figure out what

you will major in. Figuring out what you want to go to school for can be one of the most

important decision you make and can be very stressful. All different colleges are better than

others in some way in terms of majors. You want to choose the best college that will fit your

major. When you are in college you may realize that the major you picked is not for you. You

can do a major change in that school or you can transfer schools and change your major there.

When you are making the major change it affects your whole entire family not just you. Your

family may have to pay again for a new school and they may have to help you transfer

everything over to the other college. Sports in college are one of the main things, sports are a

huge attraction to many people and cause a lot of controversy.

Sports in college is extremely exciting and important to the school. “Texas A&M recently

topped the list of the schools that make the most money off of college sports, taking in more

than $190 million annually”. Not a single penny legally goes to the players who made the school

the money. Sports in college can be something that you and your friends can go watch when

you have free time and might even be lucky enough to go play a sport in college. One of the

major sports in general is basketball, “in high school 34% of high school boys who were

basketball participants go onto play at a NCAA school(division 1,2,3) but only 1% of high school

participants do so at D-1 level.”(O’Shaughnessy). The chances of you being able to play

basketball at a division one school are extremely low. One of the most controversial topics in

sports is whether or not college athletes should or should not be paid.

 ​College student athletes should be paid because they are already being paid and everybody

knows about it but they, are just getting paid illegally. Many people would argue that college

student athletes should not be paid because their scholarship is like them being paid they don’t

have to play for a tuition while they are at the school. The student athletes should get paid

because they devout their lives to whatever sport they are playing. They can’t be like other

normal college students and get a job for money they have to practice for their sport all year.

Most college athletes also have paid a handful of money to just to get to where they are and had

to sacrifice a lot of time and money.

College student athletes should be paid because being a student athlete can be a full time

job managing school and the sport that you participate in. In the text it says, “being a

student-athlete is a full-time job, bouncing between the weight room, the court/field, classes and

film sessions.(Martinez)”. For student athletes they have to put all of their effort and time into

their classes. The student athletes can’t go out and get a part time job while they are in school

like how a student who goes to the same college who doesn’t play a sport. The athletes who are

in school for the sport, in the offseason they have to still stay completely focused on school and

their sport that they participate in for their school. Most of the student athletes have spent

thousands of dollars to get to where they are in the sport. So, if the student athletes didn’t get

paid they couldn’t pay their family back from all of the money that they have spent for them to

get to be a college athlete they are.

College student athletes should be paid because 98% don’t go pro. With 98% of college

student athletes not going pro that leaves them to all of a sudden find a job, that’s an actual job.

They have to stop something that they could have possibly been doing since they were 5 years

old and spent thousands of dollars on to not even make it professional. The text says, “less than

2% of these players go pro, leaving 98% to undergo some serious life

re-evaluation”(Cheney-rice). The 98% of players who do not make it need to actually figure out

something else they want to do instead of playing professionally. The text also says, “For years

more they dedicate increasing chunks of their time to preparation, conditioning and competition.

In many cases, life revolves around their sport — it defines them and gives them purpose. Then

suddenly, it's all gone.”(Cheney-Rice). The players who have devoted their lives to do that sport

just all of a sudden gets it taken away and you have to find something else to do.

The college athletes try their hardest to get a scholarship because some know they don’t

have the money and if they do get the scholarship their parents can focus the money on

something else and not for the kids college expenses. An article says, “86% of the athletes live

in poverty”(Hayes). All of the athletes who are in poverty can’t focus their money on sports they

focus it on the most important things in life. If the kid receives a scholarship and gets paid in

college, they can help provide for their family and keep some for themselves.

Works Cited
“College Cost Data.” College Costs, Savings Planning and Student Loan Calculator,

www.collegecalc.org/.

“College Openings Update 2019.” National Association for College Admission Counseling,

www.nacacnet.org/​.

Hayes, Matt. “Report Concludes 86 Percent of Student Athletes Live in Poverty.” ​Sporting

News​, 15 Jan. 2013,

www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-football/news/4465460-student-athletes-poverty-paid-schola

rships-ncpa-texas-duke​..

O'Shaughnessy, Lynn. “8 Things You Should Know about Sports Scholarships.” CBS News,

CBS Interactive, 20 Sept. 2012,

www.cbsnews.com/news/8-things-you-should-know-about-sports-scholarships/​.

Rpowell. “Estimated Probability of Competing in Professional Athletics.” ​NCAA.org - The Official

Site of the NCAA​, 13 Mar. 2017,

www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/estimated-probability-competing-professional-at

hletics

Square, Zócalo Public. “Why Student Athletes Continue To Fail.” ​Time,​ Time, 20 Apr. 2015,

time.com/3827196/why-student-athletes-fail/.

“What Are the Most Important Parts of the College Application?” U.S. News & World

Report, U.S. News & World Report,

www.usnews.com/education/blogs/college-admissions-experts/2011/12/28/what-are-the-

most-important-parts-of-the-college-application​.

“What You Need to Know About College Tuition Costs.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S.

News & World Report,

www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/what-you-need-to-k
 now-about-college-tuition-costs​.

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_debt#United_States.