How Can I Afford College?

There is a million dollar difference between a high school graduate and college graduate, over their lifetime of earnings. What could be a better investment than a college degree?

Summer Plans?

What are your summer plans? Colleges are interested in how you are spending your summers. They don't rank "working a job" lower than "an expensive summer program on Harvard's campus". In fact, they don't rank summer plans at all, but expect that you do something. Colleges learn a lot about you as a person by how you spend your free time. It does not have to cost you any money. Be sure to check WHO is sponsoring the (expensive?) program. Often, for-profit companies rent out elite campuses to run summer programs, and advertise them to you and might lead you to believe it will help in getting into that college. You might assume that the admissions departments are running them. Check the fine print. 

Take a Summer or College Course

Summer Internships for students interested in STEM 
http://www.msgc.org/students/internships/highschool/

Preview a College Course
Yale and MIT provide free and open access to a selection of courses taught by distinguished teachers and scholars. Before applying to either college, may I suggest you preview a course? It will make you a more informed applicant. Highly selective places like Yale & MIT would expect that you are involved in learning outside the Cheverus classroom. Have you explored Khan Academy? (free!) Check out Engineer4Free which offers college-level math, science & engineering classes.

What's a Gap Year?

Gap Year: take a break from schooling, and enjoy travel, paid work, training or volunteer work. Consider these well-know options: