Two-year schools may be less prestigious but are also typically far less expensive than four-year institutions. Many students begin at two-year schools 1) to save money 2) to start earning college credits while weighing their career options 3) to have flexibility in their schedules while working a full- or part-time job or 4) to take remedial coursework. It is common for a student to earn an associate’s degree from a community college and then transfer to a four-year school. A trade school can also be an excellent option if you’re sure you know which vocation you want to pursue.

Spend some time matching up your interests with potential schools, and see what their requirements are and whether you meet them. Also consider what supports you need versus what schools have to offer. Check out The College Board’s College MatchMaker. Once you’ve generated a list of potential schools, learn more about them with the College Quick Finder.

Talk to friends and families about their careers and careers of people they know to see if any interest you. Check with your school about going on a job shadow day. You can find many career and skills assessment quizzes and job descriptions online. Here are links to just a few sites:

• Career Zone
• Junior Achievement
• Get Schooled

Filling out the FAFSA is a complicated process. We recommend that you and a parent or guardian go to any FAFSA events held at your school and to an event held by College Goal Sunday, which offers free assistance filling out the FAFSA.

The first thing you’ll need to do in filling out the FAFSA is to request a federal personal identification number (PIN). Go to www.pin.ed.gov to get a PIN for you and your legal guardian, usually your parents. A PIN acts as your online signature and should be safeguarded.

You’ll also need to gather this information for yourself and your parent or legal guardian:

• Social Security numbers 
• Date of birth
• Official marital status
• Current year tax return
• Use estimates if your parents/guardians have not filed taxes yet.
• Current year W-2s
• Records of your parents’ and your untaxed income, i.e. Social Security benefits, public assistance, WICA, SSI, etc. Any banking, investing , real estate or business records belonging to you or your parents.
• Your driver’s license
• Student’s alien registration number (for non-U.S citizens)
• PIN
• Names of colleges to which you are applying

Once you have your documents together, you can fill out the FAFSA online. You also can practice filling out the FAFSA in advance. After you’ve submitted the FAFSA, you’ll get an e-mail with your Student Aid Report (SAR). It will include your Expected Family Contribution (EFC), the amount of money the federal government determines your family can afford to pay for your college. Report any discrepancies immediately.

You can submit the FAFSA anytime as of Jan. 1 of your senior year. Turn it in as early as possible to maximize the amount of aid you’ll receive.

To apply for TAP, you first need to complete the FAFSA. When you submit your FAFSA, your confirmation page will include a link to TAP. Try not to miss this page! While you can still apply to TAP if you do, you’ll need to wait to be notified by postcard or e-mail before you can complete your TAP application online. Once you get to your application link, start by creating a user name and personal identification number. Keep these in a safe place. You can go to “Manage My Account” on the TAP Web site to check the status of your application. If you provide an e-mail address on your FAFSA, the Higher Education Services Corporation can use it to tell you about your TAP application or award status or to ask you for information needed to complete your application. If you do not provide an e-mail address, you will receive an approval postcard or denial notification letter. The TAP application deadline is May 1 for the academic year for which aid is sought.

Start by checking out the latest New Visions scholarship guide which has hundreds of scholarship listings. Also ask for scholarship books at your local library. You can search for scholarships online, but be careful of scams. You should never have to pay to apply for a scholarship. Different scholarships have different requirements, so be sure to read the descriptions carefully.

Your guidance counselor can help you with fee waivers. See The College Board’s guides to SAT fee waivers and fee reductions on A.P. exams.

New York State has its own fee waivers for A.P. and International Baccalaureate exams.

Several colleges waive application fees for students who have gotten an SAT waiver from the College Board. A list of participating schools is available here. If a college where you want to apply is not on this list, check with the school about application fee waivers. For a private college or university, you should write a letter of need for an application fee waiver and send it to the admissions office. Your guidance counselor can give you a fee waiver to apply to a CUNY school.

Familiarize yourself with the format by taking practice tests. Practice questions for the PSAT are here, and a full SAT practice test is here. Visit the College Board’s SAT Preparation Center, and answer The Official SAT Question of the Day.

To build your vocabulary, check out this analysis of the 100 most commonly used SAT words. Also see the word of the day on the Learning Network blog by The New York Times and the SuperKids SAT Vocabulary Builder.

We recommend creating flashcards to memorize vocabulary words and math formulas.

While taking the tests, check the answer sheet periodically to make sure you’re answering the right question, a step that’s especially important if you skip a question. You should skip a question if you cannot narrow down the answer, since points are deducted for each wrong answer. But if you can eliminate some choices, it’s best to take an educated guess.

Each of the three sections of the PSAT is scored on a scale of 20 to 80. According to the College Board, the average score for 11th graders in 2009 was 47 in critical reading, 48 in math and 46 in writing skills. The average 10th-grade score was about 42 in critical reading, 43 in math, and 41 in writing. If you are in 11th grade, your score report will include a “selection index” – your scores on the three sections combined – used to determine whether you are eligible to win money through the National Merit Scholarship Corporation programs. The average selection index for 11th graders is 141 on a scale of 20 to 240. Your score report will also tell you where you fall in a national percentile ranking against other students in your grade. If you fall, for example, in the 55th percentile, you scored higher than 55 of every 100 students your age and lower than 44.

On the SAT, the three sections are scored on scales of 200 to 800. About.com reports that the average total score is 1,538: 520 in math, 510 in writing and 508 in critical reading. Of the approximately 1 million students who take the SAT each year, only about 20 get a perfect score of 2,400.

Different colleges accept different ranges on the SAT, so the definition of a good score depends what school you want to attend. Go to www.campustours.com, where you can search for the schools that interest you and see their score ranges. Check out this Web site to see the ranges for top private colleges, top public colleges and the SUNY system, as well as a list of 20 great colleges for students with low SAT scores.

After you have decided what type of career you want, the best thing to do is to be pro-active and look on the companies websites to see if they have any career openings or to physically go to the business, restaurant, stores, etc. and ask if they are hiring and if you can leave your resume and/or fill out an application.

Sometimes, however, you may need a little help in your search. Here is a helpful link:

• Job-Applications.com

Naples High School in Florida has developed a resume template for high school students. Find it here.

Also check out these sample teen resumes from About.com, including one for someone with no work experience.

And the College Board offers its guidance on resume writing.

You should list your activities and school accomplishments, as well as interests and references, especially if you don’t have work experience. But make sure your resume is no longer than one page!

High schools have different course sequences, but what matters is that you earn 11 credits and take classes in all your core subjects each year, for a total of 44 credits to graduate.

There are many ways to make up credits. Meet with your guidance counselor to develop an academic plan outlining the best credit recovery path for you.

To graduate, you have to pass these five Regents exams with a minimum score of 65:

• Integrated Algebra (formerly Math A)
• Global History and Geography
• U.S. History and Government
• Comprehensive English
• A science test in physical science (Earth Science, Chemistry or Physics) OR in life science (Living Environment)

In math and English/language arts, you need to score at least a 75 to show you’re college-ready.

To earn an advanced Regents diploma, which helps you to get into college, you’ll need four* more exams:

• Another science test: in physical science or life science (whichever one you didn’t take before)
• Geometry*
• Algebra 2/Trigonometry*
• A foreign language exam: French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Latin or Spanish

*In the past students needed to pass one additional math test for an advanced diploma, but the state is phasing out the Math B exam and replacing it with two exams: Geometry and Algebra 2/Trigonometry. The last administration of Math B is in June 2010.

You’ll want to pass at least one Regents your freshman year, two more your sophomore year and the last two by junior year. By senior year at the latest, you should be working toward your advanced diploma by taking the additional Regents in math, science and foreign language.

See the Regents page for more information.

In general, you need to keep up with four things:

• Attendance: You need to be in school at least 92 percent of the time. That means not missing more than a day or two a month.
• Credits: You need to earn at least 11 credits per year, for a total of 44 to graduate. That includes two credits a year in each of your core subjects (English, math, science and social studies).
• Grades: You need to pass all your classes; to be college ready, you should maintain at least an 80 average in core subjects.
• Regents: You need to pass five to graduate, plus three or four more for an advanced Regents diploma.

Different colleges have different requirements, but New Visions recommends maintaining at least an 80 average in all your core subjects (English, math, social studies, science) to be on track for college. Grades must be higher for very selective colleges but can be lower for many two-year institutions. Colleges often look at how your grades compare with the rest of your high school senior class. Type the names of the colleges you’d like to attend into the College Board’s College Quick Finder to see whether your GPA and class rank fall into their ranges.

You need 44 credits to graduate unless you are in a career and technical education program that requires more. That means you need to earn at least 11 credits each year beginning in ninth grade, including at least two credits in each core subject (English, math, social studies and science).

Visit the credits page of this Web site for more information.