If you are a first-generation college student — or will be soon — your world is about to expand in a number of ways. According to the Online Journal for Workforce Education and Development, approximately 50 percent of today’s college students are in proud, but uncharted, territory as the first in their family to attend a four-year college or university. Whether you’re getting ready to attend school on campus or online, it’s a big deal.

If you’re a college graduate — or soon will be — there are reasons to consider earning an advanced degree. While it’s not the path for everyone, for career-minded students who are deciding to enter postgraduate programs, certain facts are persuasive. Indeed, the number of graduate students in the United States has tripled since the 1970s. According to a CareerBuilder survey of employers, 33 percent are hiring candidates with master’s degrees for positions that had been primarily held by professionals with four-year degrees.

As a young boy, JJ Jones III loved building. He spent hours playing with Legos and k’nex and never tired of creating something new and different. What started as a young boy’s passion has become a young man’s goal. Now in his third year at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., Jones, Navajo, is majoring in mechanical engineering and minoring in Native American historical studies with plans to become a mechanical engineer, helping to keep his community — and nation — safe. 

So it’s time to pack for college. It can seem like a daunting task, especially if it’s your first time living away from home. Here are some straightforward steps to help get you started.

The world today is full of opportunities, yet it can also be challenging to navigate. When it comes to developing effective coping strategies, Native youth have a deep resource — the traditional knowledge that kept previous generations strong through adversity.

Whether your senior year of college is coming to a close, or you graduated years ago, the question of whether or not you should attend graduate school may loom large in your mind. It’s not an easy question to answer, and you’ll need to spend some time really thinking about what your goals are, and whether or not graduate school may be able to help you reach those goals. Such a big life decision can seem overwhelming. Here are a few things to think about as you decide if graduate school is for you.

Identify Your (Career) Goals

As a little girl Kaitlin Russell had a big imagination. Her father fueled it by sharing his love of science-fiction movies, so for young Kaitlin, colonizing Mars wasn’t far-fetched and, she reasoned, there would have to be pets on Mars when people lived there and someone had to take care of them. “I knew I wanted to do something with space,” she recalls. “Space veterinarian?”

For Jacob Calderone, setting goals and following through on them has always been second nature. “I think that comes from my mother,” he says. “My mother uses her dedication and hard work to accomplish goals in her life. Her success motivates me to work as hard as I can for what I want.”

What's new — and what's not — in college admissions

Admissions officers say some things will never change, but applying to college these days does have a few new wrinkles. Like the move many universities in the U.S. are making away from requiring standardized test scores. Or the states that are short-cutting the application process for top-ranked graduating seniors. Or grade inflation at some high schools, which compromises the reliability of a GPA as a predictor of academic success.