Making Your Job Easier

As the parent of a college-bound high-school student, you're going through a lot. Your student's senior year will be filled with milestones, difficult choices, lots of excitement and a little frustration – for everyone involved. While we can't iron out every problem, we can provide you with a few insights to help your student choose a college, ease his or her transition into college life and – most of all – alleviate some of your concerns, – no matter where he or she decides to attend.

Smart Questions | Financing Education | Departure | Settling In | Keys to Success

Ask Smart Questions on Campus Visits

During your campus tour, be armed with questions so you'll get the facts you need.

Financial Aid

Don't be afraid to locate the financial-aid office and drop in on a counselor to discuss your specific situation. While you're on campus, you should get straight answers about your financial situation.

Residence Halls

Find out the different types of residence hall rooms that are available (for example, suites versus traditional rooms), the number of each type on campus and a freshman's chances of landing one of the choice floor plans. Talk with current students to find out which hall they'd most like to live in and remember to request it.

Campus Life

Plan to take some time to speak with students who are hanging out in common areas. Common areas are often the best places to get insight about a school's strengths and weaknesses, and students are usually more than happy to chat with prospective freshmen. Make sure to ask their opinions on faculty, facilities and the social climate. (Is it a party school? Are there a variety of activities on weekends?)

Helping Finance Your Student's Education

The cost of a college education isn’t cheap, but there are several ways to assist in paying for college.

Know the Basics

If you and your student haven't started looking at financial-aid information yet, you need to begin. Check out the information available from our Office of Financial Aid. The new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form will be available in December, and you can submit the form beginning January 1. The information you provide is essential to gauge your family's expected financial contribution, which is then the standard figure used to help secure grants, loans and scholarships. Without this crucial information, your student will essentially be unable to receive any form of financial aid. Income information is confidential, and it's only shared with the colleges you list on the form.

“But We Probably Won't Qualify”

Don't assume anything! Many families wrongly believe they won't qualify for financial aid, and they end up missing out on the resources they deserve. Even if you're an oil baron or software magnate, your student may qualify for merit-based scholarships that will require information from a FAFSA. Besides, filling out the application is a relatively quick – and free – process, so there's no excuse not to do it.
There are several different federally subsidized forms of financial aid. First, try for grants. These are need based and they require no repayment.

Pell Grants are given to students working on their first bachelor's degree.
Federal Supplemental Education Opportunity Grants are additional grants given to students with extreme financial need.
Colorado Student Grants are available to full-time resident students with financial need.
The Colorado Leveraging Educational Assistance Partnership Program provides financial assistance for full-time undergraduate Colorado residents who show exceptional need (dependent on legislative funding).

Even if you don't qualify for grants, there are federally subsidized loans that offer low interest rates and flexible repayment plans.

Stafford Loans, one of the most popular federal loans, offer low-interest, no-collateral loans to enrolled students. Your student will receive an affordable loan and begin repaying it six months after graduating from college.
Perkins Loans are low interest and repayment begins nine months after the student graduates.
Parents who meet minimum credit requirements can receive a Federal PLUS loan. Qualifying parents can borrow up to the total cost of their child's education, minus other financial aid.

And don't forget scholarships! More than $100 million is awarded each year to students who take the time to dig up and fill out applications. Our application for admission serves as an application for several scholarships the university offers and admitted students can apply for donor scholarships by completing the Universal Scholarship Application.

How Northern Colorado Can Help

We understand the emotional and financial strain of trying to put a student through college, so at Northern Colorado, we do everything we can to help families achieve their goal.

One thing is certain: No matter what the source is of your student's college funding, you can be sure it will be well spent. It's no surprise either – full-time resident tuition is considerably more affordable than Colorado's other universities with comparable facilities and student bodies.

Plus, Northern Colorado devotes the greatest percentage of its budget to instruction of any college or university in Colorado!

We also provide extensive financial-aid services to our enrolled students. Our Office of Financial Aid maintains information on scholarships, grants and work-study programs. We are committed to helping our students pay for college as easily and painlessly as possible.

We're also here to answer any specific questions about financial aid you may have. Often, many parents’ questions are answered during the financial-aid seminars that precede and follow campus tours, but our staff is also eager to meet face-to-face with parents to discuss financial issues. Make sure it's a part of your trip to the Northern Colorado campus!

Preparing Your Student for Departure

Amid all the organizing, packing and frayed nerves that are part of the leaving-for-college process, it's easy to overlook some questions that may ultimately be more pressing than whether your freshman has enough laundry detergent to last a semester. And the most important ones are about academic issues.

Course Load

Depending upon the college your student chooses, the number of credits he or she will need to take each semester to graduate in four years will vary. Most advisors consider 15 credit hours to be a standard course load, so most students should register for roughly this amount to stay on track. The standard load also gives students a yardstick for judging future semesters' course loads. Some students opt for a slightly lighter load the first semester to give them more leeway to handle the academic adjustments needed when starting college.

Class Selection

Whether your student has selected a major or not, there are a few rules to help him or her choose the first semester's classes:

Go General. Don't get too specific in the first semester's schedule. Stick to the basic requirements for graduation –math, science, composition and survey-level courses – to test the waters of future areas of study.
Balance. Balance easy with difficult, requirements with electives and left-brain (logical) courses with right-brain (creative) courses.
Keep It Fresh. Getting math, science and language classes out of the way early – while your student's high-school foundations are still fresh in his or her mind – is always a good idea.
Have fun. Your student should select one elective that sounds simply fun or interesting. It will make studying and getting into the college groove that much easier.

Northern Colorado Specifics

At Northern Colorado, your student will be part of a streamlined and efficient registration process. He or she will talk with an advisor at the New Student Orientation Program and get specific questions answered. During orientation, students will be introduced to Ursa, our new integrated database system that they’ll use to register for classes online, avoiding the rigmarole of in-person or telephone registration. Ursa also lets them keep track of their grades and their progress in fulfilling requirements. Fine-tuning a semester's classes has never been easier.

Want to start planting the seeds of a well-balanced semester in your student's head but don't know where to start? We're here to help, with an online catalog of classes you and your student can peruse at your convenience.

Settling Your Student Into College Life

Roommates

Living with roommates may be the biggest change from living at home for your student. Encourage your student to communicate with his or her roommate as much as possible, as it can help prevent conflicts. Also, let him or her know that although some roommate relationships can blossom into lifelong friendships, roommates won't always be two peas in a pod. That's OK, as long as they respect each other.

Resident Assistant

A fellow student is assigned to making residence hall life as hospitable as possible. This student, the RA, can answer your freshman's questions about campus, facilitate interaction among residents and provide any other form of support that may be needed. Let your freshman know his or her RA is there to help.

Activities

Whether your student loves sports or the arts, college is the perfect place for him or her to indulge his or her interests, whether it's watching NCAA sports, participating in intramural teams or joining a special-interest club or organization.

Social Opportunities

The movies have it partly right – a college campus can provide the opportunity for a vibrant social scene. There are guest speakers, concerts and the natural give-and-take that comes when students are thrown in with a large group of their peers. Campus life gives students a chance to practice their social skills.

How We Can Help

There are plenty of reasons for you and your student to get excited about Northern Colorado. If our intimate atmosphere (most classes are smaller than 40 students) isn't attractive enough, the academic and social opportunities that come with such scale ought to get your freshman fired up.

Your student won't be totally on his or her own after arriving at Northern Colorado. In fact, a number of facilities do nothing but focus on helping students. Both the Office of Academic Support and Advising and the Center for Human Enrichment help students maintain a successful academic balance while our Learning Communities program pulls together tight-knit groups of students by enrolling them in the same classes

Keys To Your Student's Success

More than 40 percent of all freshmen who start college never graduate. Here are a few important areas you (and your student) should know about to help avoid becoming a statistic:

Freshman Haze

After being uprooted from the life your freshman has known for 18 years, it's normal for him or her to feel overwhelmed or confused at first. Just the size of many campuses is enough to confuse them, not to mention the complex academic and social changes they'll go through. Many students feel lost or befuddled when they don't immediately get plugged into campus life. It's important to let them know such feelings are completely normal and nothing to get upset about.

Get Involved

Whether or not they admit it, nearly every freshman has some pangs of homesickness and loneliness. A club or campus activity is often a solution. Involvement not only provides freshmen with a social circle outside of the residence halls, it gives them a sense of attachment to campus. What's more, students who join clubs and activities are more likely to graduate than those who do not.

Ask Around

Freshman confusion is often compounded by the reluctance to ask questions. Let your freshman know it's OK – and expected – for him or her to ask questions, even if the question seems trivial and unimportant.

Stick to the Basics

As simple as it sounds, many freshmen overlook the basic building blocks of academic success with their newfound freedom. Stress the importance of attending classes and getting to know professors, who are not only a valuable academic resource but also provide freshmen many answers to general college questions.

Help Is Always Available

At Northern Colorado we provide a cornucopia of ways to help your student find success in his or her four years of college. From activities to support networks, your freshman won't have to look far if he or she needs a little help.

Our Office of Academic Support and Advising is an entire office devoted to helping new students get on track at Northern Colorado. From academic advising and help with choosing a major to tips on note taking and study skills, the ASA is a great place to turn to.

Our summer New Student Orientation program gets your student thinking about campus issues and allows him or her to register for classes even before moving to Greeley. Whether it's help selecting courses, getting academic advisement or just asking current students questions, orientation will get your freshman off on the right foot. It's mandatory for all Colorado residents, and highly recommended for everyone else who can make it to campus.

Free Supplemental Instruction groups led by trained, advanced students majoring in the subject can help make sure students get the most out of entry-level courses that are required to begin most majors. These are usually courses that require large amounts of reading from difficult texts, utilize examinations that focus on application and analysis, do not require or record attendance, and because of their size, offer diminished opportunity for teacher/student interaction. And free individual and group tutoring is available in our Tutoring Center for students who are having trouble keeping up in any course.