Precalculus
Welcome to my precalculus page! This is where I will post about what we're studying throughout the year in Precalc! Our teacher this year is Jennifer Snead, who is always willing to help her students out so that they can better understand the content of this class. I truly look forward to the challenge this class will present.
Budgeting for the Future
For our final projects, students had a variety of choices to choose from. Some students, such as my friends Robin and Shannon, chose to research credit cards: How to beat the companies and wind up paying as little in interest as possible along with avoiding debt. Other students researched retirement plans or loans. For my project, I started looking into college, and how I could manage my money most effectively throughout the course of those first four years. This was an incredibly enlightening project because it allowed me to really spend time considering the expenses I'd be facing in college. I had to work and rework equations over and over again when I'd find some new expense to factor in or out of the equation. If you would like to see that process, please click here.
Two main components to my project were produced by my research and work. The first was the board you will see to your left, which was the main piece I displayed for my exhibition. The pieces on this board are derived from the document linked above. The second piece was a series of questions designed to be solved by others. They will be added to this post as they have been revised. Please take some time to look at the questions and even answer them if you so desire!
This was a very valuable project because it really opened my eyes to the realities of loans and college. I don't want to spend the next fourteen years paying off only my undergraduate loans in college, so I'm going to have to learn how to allocate my funds effectively in order to avoid that. This project was very fascinating to me and it was an experience that I wish all high school students could have in order to really face the realities of money allocation in college.
Two main components to my project were produced by my research and work. The first was the board you will see to your left, which was the main piece I displayed for my exhibition. The pieces on this board are derived from the document linked above. The second piece was a series of questions designed to be solved by others. They will be added to this post as they have been revised. Please take some time to look at the questions and even answer them if you so desire!
This was a very valuable project because it really opened my eyes to the realities of loans and college. I don't want to spend the next fourteen years paying off only my undergraduate loans in college, so I'm going to have to learn how to allocate my funds effectively in order to avoid that. This project was very fascinating to me and it was an experience that I wish all high school students could have in order to really face the realities of money allocation in college.
11/5- The Price of College
The purpose or this project, as stated in my earlier post (see below) was to help inform students about the price of college and the importance of knowing how much you will be paying before you go. It was about preparing us by teaching us about college tuition costs and repayment plans. College is expensive, and the costs continue to rise. Even having a rough idea of how to handle loans and debt is incredibly helpful. Each student spent time looking at one of their choice colleges as well as the price of a community college in the same state. The colleges that I chose to look at were The University of Northern Colorado and Fort Lewis College. The following is an account of my findings during this investigation.
In summary, these were my results: If I attended Fort Lewis College all four years of my undergraduate experience, the total cost of tuition alone would be $15,828.45. With student fees, this would equal out to a total of $22,396.07. The most convenient part of going to FLC would be the fact that I wouldn't have to pay for room and board because my home isn't far away. This would cut down quite a bit on the costs of attending college.
If I were to attend the University of Northern Colorado for all four years, the total cost of tuition would be $23,430.99. With added student fees the total cost of attendance would be $36516.84 plus the cost of room and board which still needs to be added and is the addition of another 6000+ dollars.
The best option for me would be to attend Fort Lewis for the first two years and the University if Northern Colorado in the last two. Tentatively, the tuition cost of this would add up to about $26,560.94 and the total education cost (minus room and board) would be $40,745.06.
If you would like to know more:
Here you will find my project reflection, a more detailed summary of the project.
Here you will find my spreadsheet, a collection of data collected throughout this project.
In summary, these were my results: If I attended Fort Lewis College all four years of my undergraduate experience, the total cost of tuition alone would be $15,828.45. With student fees, this would equal out to a total of $22,396.07. The most convenient part of going to FLC would be the fact that I wouldn't have to pay for room and board because my home isn't far away. This would cut down quite a bit on the costs of attending college.
If I were to attend the University of Northern Colorado for all four years, the total cost of tuition would be $23,430.99. With added student fees the total cost of attendance would be $36516.84 plus the cost of room and board which still needs to be added and is the addition of another 6000+ dollars.
The best option for me would be to attend Fort Lewis for the first two years and the University if Northern Colorado in the last two. Tentatively, the tuition cost of this would add up to about $26,560.94 and the total education cost (minus room and board) would be $40,745.06.
If you would like to know more:
Here you will find my project reflection, a more detailed summary of the project.
Here you will find my spreadsheet, a collection of data collected throughout this project.
10/2- The Price of College
This is our first project for the year: we are taking the past tuition rates of our preferred colleges and the tuition rates of a community college and using linear equations in order to find projected tuition costs for the years when we will attend. But first, let's get some back story.
Why are we looking at this project? Well, because Animas is a project-based college preparatory school, this is the perfect project. College is expensive, and having even a rough idea of what it is going to cost to attend is incredibly helpful. Our teacher Jennifer Snead showed us a video on the ever increasing costs of attending college, then showed us how to create calculations for future years. I will write more about my results as we wrap up the project.
Why are we looking at this project? Well, because Animas is a project-based college preparatory school, this is the perfect project. College is expensive, and having even a rough idea of what it is going to cost to attend is incredibly helpful. Our teacher Jennifer Snead showed us a video on the ever increasing costs of attending college, then showed us how to create calculations for future years. I will write more about my results as we wrap up the project.