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Written by Ken Bauer
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This is one of the most overlooked things when planning for college.
The first time you read the “Student’s Handbook” should not be while
lying in your new dorm room. It should be while you are considering the
final schools of your choice. You would be surprised how a tough choice
between two schools that you really want to attend can be settled by
reading their student handbooks.
While you will find each student handbook chock full of surprises you
may want to keep your eye out specifically for the following.
- Dispute Resolution: You may be surprised to find
out that there is a formal step-by-step process that the university
expects you to use in regards to other students or immediate neighbors.
- Appeals Processes: There are a lot of “automatics”
in regards to universities. There are numerous reasons that you may
need to appeal a decision by a professor, department, administrative
policy, etc. Check your handbook and be at least partially familiar
with these policies.
- Mandatory Application Dates: Colleges need to get things
done in a timely manner and that means having all of the student body’s
various applications in by specific deadlines. It never fails to amaze
us how many people are late and wind up having to use an appeal process
for things that they knew about long beforehand.
- Campus Police Procedures: Most colleges that are a state
college like University of New York, University of California at Los
Angeles, University of Illinois, etc. are operated by the state and
make police officers for their campuses actual state police officers.
By nature those offices will do things a little differently than local
and county police forces. Also, those police forces are tailored to
meet the specific needs of a college community. Getting to know some of
the basics of these police forces is a wise thing and they usually have
safety tips that are specific to your campus.
- Textbook, Materials & Library Fines for Late Returns:
You may be surprised to find out just how expensive fines may range for
different things in different departments and sometimes within the same
department. Many students have been surprised to find that being one
week late with materials may cost them a small fine once but then cost
them $50 or more for being one day later the next time. A variety of
equipment including books, magazines, software, laptops, cameras,
sporting and camping gear can be rented at colleges. The late fines may
be minimal for something that seems really expensive but
disproportionately large for things that seem inexpensive. Make sure
you know how much these fines are.
- Parking: Many universities respond to available parking
shortages by not allowing freshmen to have cars on campus. This and a
series of other restrictions can make it very difficult to bring your
wheels to campus. Also, most every college charges for parking permits.
Make sure you know what limitations and hidden charges apply to you
ahead of time.
- Curfews: Yes, believe it or not moving away from the
parents may not allow you to stay out until the early morning. Whether
this is the case at the college of your choice or not it is almost
certain that there is a curfew on how late guests are allowed to stay
at on-campus housing.
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