Step #2 College Selection

Step #2 – College Selection

Part 1

Once you have a sense of direction by identifying a future career and major, now it’s time to select the right school. Recent closures makes this process even more essential and a critical part of your plan, since it can save tens of thousands of dollars. As you’ll see, the key is to ask questions. You’ll find the more you ask – and redefine your own personal Action Plan – the more you’ll save.

My CAP Resource Guide

RG-Step-2

Part 2

Once you have completed your College Action Plan for Step 2, click on the button to go to Step 3.

As we’ve covered, the more you delve into the details about a specific college – its costs, its track record and financial stability, the percentage of students who graduate, and how long it takes them to graduate – the greater your chances of making a wise investment with every college dollar spent.

This video continues to explore some of the essential questions that will help you make the right college decision.

Go to Step 3

My ‘College Action Plan’

The schools you selected in Step 1 are listed in each of the questions below. If you have not selected your schools, go back to Step 1 and do so before completing Step 2 of your Action Plan.
You will obviously have other criteria to consider when selecting a school. These questions are simply intended to help you avoid costly mistakes that millions of families make every year.
As previously noted, no one resource or table will provide drop-down answers to each of these questions. That’s why they are so often overlooked, but absolutely critical to your overall college decision. You’ll find specific links to help answer each of these questions in your Resource Guide.
Once you completed this Step, your Action Plan will print a table highlighting your answers for each school for easy comparison. This will be an invaluable process as you begin to narrow down your options.
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  • For each college you listed in Step 1, answer the following questions.

  • What’s the total cost of Each School?

  • What’s the graduation rate?

  • How long does it take the average student to graduate?

  • What’s the school’s ROI?

  • What’s the student loan balance of the average grad?

  • What’s the 3-year cohort default rate? (Currently, under 50% is fairly good)

  • Is the school accredited? (Yes/No)

  • How financially secure is the school? Are they on the HCM List? (Yes/No)

  • What is the mean College Admission Test score?

My Toolkit