Things in the Gaza Strip are now so bad that even the United Nations is trying to get out. Read more here.
COLLEGE
I know that a lot of you are seniors, and you’re starting to really freak out about next year and college. The bad news? You should be freaking out, because you were supposed to have started your college search and applications last year. The good news? You still have options. Use the following information to get next year in order today.
You can still register for the February 7th ACT until January 16th. You just have to pay a late fee. The next ACT test date is April 4th. You can register for that until February 27th; March 13th is the deadline for late registration. Go to actstudent.org to register online and find out more information.
Delgado Community College is a two-year college that’s a great choice for students who have fallen behind in the college admission process. You can go here for a year or two, boost up your GPA and save money before transferring to a four-year college. Delgado’s application deadline is July 15th. Learn about their application process here.
The University of New Orleans is a four-year university that’s funded with public tax dollars. It still costs money to attend, but way less than other colleges. The application for UNO isn’t due until July 1st, so you still have plenty of time to take the ACT, raise your score and GPA, and apply. Find out more here.
Tulane University is a pretty selective school, but if you’ve got above a 3.0, I’d recommend applying. The deadline for incoming freshmen applications is January 15th – that’s next Thursday. You can absolutely pull an application together in a week, if you don’t play around. Find out more about how to apply here.
ITT Tech has a campus in St. Rose. Find out information about their different degree and trade programs here.
One of you asked about ROTC programs. The Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) is a college-based, officer commissioning program. Basically, you take military classes as electives while you’re in college (majoring in whatever you want), and the military pays for your college and gives you a living stipend. When you finish school, you automatically become an officer, and then serve in the military as payback for your tuition. The Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines all have ROTC programs.
For anyone who's seriously considering the military as a way of paying for school, I'd suggest enlisting in the Reserves or National Guard as well as ROTC. You can do both.
ReplyDeleteThe Reserves (for Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force) and Guard (only for A.F. and Army) are kind of like part-time military, where you serve one weekend per month and two weeks during the summer. I did it for six years and would be happy to talk to anybody about it.
The reason I suggest both is because: as a Reservist, you'd be eligible for a signing bonus of $2,000 to $5,000, depending on your job. You'd immediately get GI Bill money for college (about $250-$450 per month) and some states even pay tuition for Guardsmen. You'd also be paid for your weekend trainings and receive some government benefits.
While you're a Reservist and in college, you can take ROTC classes. That's what you'd do to become an officer, and it has some of its own benefits. Another good point of being enlisted first is you'd get street cred... a lot of enlisted people don't like officers who were never enlisted.