Advice for Teenagers: What Comes After High School?

There comes a time in life to think about what comes next, a major part of life is what comes after high school. Ideally, every teenager should begin to think about whether or not they want to attend college and then to think about their living arrangements.

Usually the first thing that comes to mind to anyone who thinks about college is how do I pay for it? My suggestion for teenagers is during freshman year to start looking for a job. Because I know at age 14/15 it is hard to find a place that will hire you, try looking for odd jobs, for example babysitting, cleaning, and mowing grass. Every time you get paid set aside a certain percentage of your check into a savings account and don't touch it. This is also an excellent idea if you decide not to go to college, because you could be able to save enough money to afford your own apartment or buy a nice little car.

Another way to pay for college is to apply for scholarships, here is a great website to use: www.fastweb.com ; this is a website that lists scholarships and grants you can apply for through the website. The earlier you apply, the better your chances of actually obtaining one (again you should apply freshman year of high school). There is another way to pay for college, however you would have to pay them back later on down the road with interest, loans.

Some other tips if you are considering going to college, you should consider joining in extra curricular activities such as girl scouts, boy scouts, swim club, or football, whatever holds your interest. These activities will open up more opportunities for further scholarships. Try to remember to keep your attendance records and grades as high as possible, college boards do look into things like that!

If you decide not to go to college, you should try look for a decent job- which is hard to come by in these trying times, however, if you have the credentials people will call you! Here are a few job sites to look through:

-www.hotjobs.com

-www.snagajob.com

-www.monster.com

Also you should check your local newspaper and the newspaper online lists for local jobs- you never know when the perfect job will pop up. Another option is to attend a technical school or take technical classes/courses at your local community college.

Lastly to discuss, depending on what you choose, your living arrangements. For example, will you live alone, with roommates, family, or a dorm room? While living alone is an excellent luxury, you may not be able to afford it at first. Your next options are roommates, but that depends on what type of person you are, if you can handle cleaning up after someone else; my suggestion is to find someone you trust completely and someone whom you know will be responsible. If that doesn't work out you are always welcome home at your Mom's house; and don't forget if you do get accepted that you may just be living in that cozy dorm room.

While the possibilities are endless for your future, make sure to plan it out as much as possible, some things can not be planned and may change the entire landscape of your layouts, however, you should not get discouraged because there is always a way to go around any obstacle!