8-2-2007

College Q and A

It IS okay for my Mom to fill out my college applications, isn’t it?

No!  Not even if she tells you it is.  The only exception I’ll accept is if you’ve written out all the answers to the questions, and all she is doing is typing them in.  You’re becoming a big person now, and it’s your responsibility.

What’s a GA?  And what’s the difference between a GA and a TA?

A GA is a Graduate Assistant, and a TA is a Teaching Assistant.  The terms Graduate Teaching Assistant and Graduate Research Assistant, among others, are also used.  Basically, they refer to graduate students (those working toward Master’s or Doctoral degrees – MS/MA/Ph.D/Ed.D, etc.) who have a job assisting someone with the university.  Most of the time they will be assisting a faculty member, but may be teaching, grading assignments and tests, doing research, or helping in some other way including working on a project or grant.  They are usually studying whatever the faculty member is, or have significant education, experience and/or knowledge related to what they are doing.

Whose responsibility is it to fill out the FAFSA?  I thought it was my parents’, but they keep telling me to fill out “my part”…

It’s your responsibility to get it done and turned in as soon after January 1^st as possible.  There are parts you should fill out (name, date of birth, social security number, etc.), and parts your parents will, most likely, have to fill out.  Your job is to help your parents and make their job as easy as possible.  Make sure they know when you plan to have it ready for them, and make sure they know when you hope/plan to submit it.  Let them know that they don’t HAVE to have filed their taxes, they just need to have them done and ready to be filed (it IS possible to turn in your FAFSA based on an estimate, but it could cause a delay in your financial aid award letter).  Find out when and where a financial aid workshop will be held and plan to attend it together.  Bring your parents cold soft drinks while they’re working on your FAFSA, and thank them when they’re done.

My friend and I are going to the same college, and she wants to room together.  But I’ve heard rooming with a friend is a sure way to ruin your friendship, and I don’t want that to happen.  What do you think?

Whether you are already friends with your roommate or not isn’t as big an issue, in my opinion, as how flexible you both are, and how respectful you are of one another.  In my experience, most roommate problems occur when one roommate either isn’t aware of or doesn’t care that something they’re doing is problematic for their roommate.  So I’d look at how self-aware, flexible and considerate the other person is when deciding if I wanted to room with one of my friends.  Regardless who you room with, you need to plan to communicate and be willing to compromise so you’re not the roommate in someone else’s horror story!

Submit questions to lance@collegeanswerguy.com and visit http://www.collegeanswerguy.com as well as http://collegeprep.okstate.edu.

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