What's Important in Picking a College?

Picking a college can be a very challenging process for both parents and students. There are a lot of factors that count and what’s challenging is that students and parents find different factors to matter more than others. For example a student might want small classes and fun activities while a parent might want good price and well educated professors. In the end everyone has to be happy with the decision if parents are helping you pay for college.

It seems like with different generations important factors change over time. Today I believe that for students college is no longer only about education. College is about meeting people, having fun activities, opportunities to grow among your peers, developing good relationships and networking. In life education is only half of what you need. Creating good relationships and networking is very important especially when you graduate college. I never understood why everyone always kept telling me how important networking is. I always thought, “Oh, if I meet this person today they will never remember me in the future”. I never thought that I would need contacts where I could refer to down the line. When I graduated I realized how important networking and creating relationship really is.

The beauty of Berkeley is that it allows students to get a great education and have networking opportunities. Activities between students are very important because you get to meet people with the same goals as you and you are on the same level. Never burn your bridges, you just never know who you will need in life. I have already helped two past Berkeley students get a job with my company where they are thriving and building their business.

Berkeley had a great event called the Spring Soiree. It was like a semi formal dinner/dance where certain students got to go to and networking with other staff members and teachers. Check out some of the pictures:

Change

Change is something that happens to all of us at some point in our lives. Change can be small, or change can be big, it can be good or it could be a bad. Sometimes we decide to go through change where we don’t really know where it’s going to lead us but we are taking a risk in hope for something good. No matter what kind of change it is, we all handle is differently.

Transitioning from being a student to a graduate is a huge change in our lives. Graduating college is always a good change, but what’s waiting for you outside may not always be. You worked hard for 3-4 years to achieve your college diploma and now what? You go out into the work force all excited just to find out that nobody is hiring. You spent $50,000-$100,000 for a degree and it’s not doing anything for you right now. This can be a very scary experience.

This is a change that I am currently going through in my life. I am moving June 25th, and actively searching for a new job. The downside is that there is not much out there. Nobody wants to hire you for a lower end job because you are overqualified. The employer knows that as soon as you find something better that you will quit on them and the time they invested in training you has been wasted. The positions for college students are being filled with people who have a lot experience because they have been laid off from their higher end jobs. I feel like I am stuck in a vicious circle that is not getting me anywhere.

The most important thing is that you stay positive during this change in your life. If you are positive people notice this about you, and it may put you ahead of the game when it comes to job searching. Finding a job is almost like dating! Nobody wants to be with someone who is desperate and who looks miserable all the time. Same thing goes for employers. Nobody will want to hire you if you look miserable and complain all the time.

A book that I believe everyone should read is called “Who Moved My Cheese” by Spencer Johnson. It’s a short book, about 90 pages that you can finish in one night. This short cute story is about 4 mice that had their cheese moved on them. The difference between these mice was how they handled this change. This book will really make you relate this story to your life and hopefully help you make certain changes that will help you along the way. Right now my cheese is being moved on me and I am learning how to deal with it too!

DON'T Take the TAG!!!

My plans have changed yet again and now I will be moving to central New Jersey instead of south New Jersey on July 25th. We have found a great two bedroom apartment about 15 minutes from the beach, hardwood floors and each apartment even has its own little yard which will be perfect for the puppies. I had to shift my job search from south New Jersey to central New Jersey. I am still very excited.

About two weeks ago I was at the high school and I received a call from Dean Hughes. At first I was a little confused as to what could he be calling me about but I was happy to hear from him. As everyone knows, TAG is being taken away from certain proprietary schools so that they can fix the budget problem that they have created. Without this grant, many students will have to drop out of college and lose their hopes of finding a good job. For some people this may mean creating higher debt, and having a hard time paying it off after graduation.

When I received the call, Dean Hughes asked me if I would be interested in going to a dinner where we can speak to senators and express our opinions and views. TAG is very important to all of us so we wanted to have the most outspoken people there to represent Berkeley. It was held at the beautiful Sheraton hotel in the Meadowlands. When I came in I automatically spotted Dean Hughes and about 10 other Berkeley students.

First we went to cocktail hour where we networked with other business people, telling them our reason for being here and finding out what it is that they do. After that we went into a small banquet hall and sat down in our assigned seats. Each table had a senator assigned to it, so we could discuss with them our reason for being there. As we were eating dinner certain senators went on stage and discussed their views on certain things and what they hope to accomplish.

Some senators were very determined to make a change and some of them sounded like they really don’t care about what the public wanted. It was very discouraging to see how ignorant some of these people could be when they represent our state. TAG is very important to students and I do not agree that it should be taken away from only certain schools. It’s not fair that some colleges still get to keep the grant and it is being taken away from others. If you’re going to create a change, do the change equally for everyone!