Valparaiso Top 10

I always receive questions about what there is to do for fun around Valpo. As a Valpo native, I can definitely tell you that although this may seem like a small town, we have over 30,000 residents and tons of activities to keep you busy! Here are just a few local hotspots I’ve gathered from personal experience and recommendations from friends and students:

Top 10 Things to do in Valparaiso:
(in no particular order)

1. Relax at a coffee shop. There are a number of great local coffee shops both downtown and near the north side of Valpo. Check them out to enjoy their free WiFi, fabulous Open Mic nights, and delicious drinks and snacks.

2. Visit the Dunes. The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is open year round, and is a beautiful place to enjoy swimming hiking, or just relaxing in the sun. You can take Highway 49 about 15 miles north of campus to find this National Park.

3. Visit the Brauer Museum of Art. Located here on Valparaiso University’s campus, the Brauer features rotating exhibitions of several renowned artists throughout the year. To find out what show they’re currently displaying, as well as their hours of operation, click here.

4. Go bowling. Visit our local bowling alley, just a few miles from campus, on Wednesdays for $1.50 games!

5. Grab some ice cream! Take a walk downtown from campus and enjoy a scoop (or two) of ice cream at one of our local ice cream parlors.

6. Check out a Crusader sporting event. Year-round students come out to support their classmates who compete in any of Valpo’s Division I sports teams. Gather a group of friends, put on your brown and gold, and stop by a basketball game, football game, swim meet, or golf tournament (and use your student ID to get in for free!).

7. See a movie at Valpo’s own (and one of the few remaining) drive-in movie theatre! Pack up your car with snacks, bring your blankets and friends, and enjoy a double-feature out on the lawn.

8. Take the South Shore train into Chicago. Trains leave daily from Dune Park, a train station located north of campus in Chesterton, and take passengers directly into the heart of downtown Chicago. Going to the city for the day or a weekend gives students a chance to go shopping, visit museums, take in sporting events, and visit friends and family.

9. Spend some time outdoors at Taltree Arboretum. Hike, read, draw, or just relax in the gardens and trails.

10. Check out a concert here at VU. Performers on campus this year include Owl City and Jason Derulo, and in the past acts such as David Cook, Augustana, and Ben Folds have performed at Valpo.

I hope these ideas have helped answer a few questions about what Valpo students do for fun, and what activities you can enjoy when you have free time during your visit to campus. If any of my local readers have more favorites they’d like to share, please leave a comment!

No matter where you’re at in your college search, I’d encourage you to explore the local area during your visit to campus. While most universities (Valpo included) do a great job of organizing campus events to keep students busy, you’ll also want to get a feel for the local area you might be living in for the next four years. Drive around a bit off the beaten path, ask students or Admission Counselors for recommendations of local restaurants, and see if the area feels like a good fit for you.

That’s all for today! Enjoy your Spring Break, keep up the good work with your college search, and of course, let me know if you have any questions!

-Laura@Valpo

Paying for College

I know the topic of paying for college is probably a frequent (but not very enjoyable) thought right now, especially for high school seniors and their families. Although I'm not a financial aid counselor, I have learned some great bits of advice from my colleagues in the profession. Today I'd like to share my top 5 tips to help you navigate this (potentially confusing) Financial Aid season.

1. File the FAFSA. The FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal Student Aid, is available online at www.fafsa.gov. Plan to file in the spring of your senior year of high school (anytime after January 1st of the year you plan to start college). If you have questions, just contact the Office of Financial Aid at any of the schools you're applying to, they'd be happy to help you through the process. Be sure to check with your individual schools to find out if they have a Scholarship Priority deadline, so that you don't file too late and miss out!

2. Once you've filed the FAFSA, you should receive a Financial Aid package from the schools you're considering. Read through them and make sure you understand your options, including the differences between scholarships, loans, grants, and work study. I don't want to get into too much detail here, but once again, don't be afraid to contact the Office of Financial Aid with your questions-- that's what they're there for!

3. Apply for additional outside scholarships. There are several scholarship search engines online (note: all of which should be free-- if a scholarship search engine tries to charge you a fee, it's probably a scam.) Valpo has also accumulated a list of TONS of scholarship opportunities here. Apply to both local and national scholarships, and remember, every little bit helps-- even $100 scholarships can add up after you've won a few!

4. Consider working to help pay for college-related expenses. Most schools have lots of on-campus jobs available. Here at Valpo, students work in the library, Career Center, Office of Admission, and Union- just to name a few! Once again, even working only 10 hours a week adds up after a whole semester, and can really help with extra expenses like books and travel.

5. I know you might get a bit of sticker-shock when seeing the cost of a school, especially if it's private and/or out of state; however, I always recommend that you wait until you've received your Financial Aid package before you make your final decision. You never know what types of scholarships, grants, and loans might be available to you-- they might actually make a school with a higher "sticker price" cost less than you expected. In addition, some schools offer a Financial Aid Estimator, basically a mock-up of the FAFSA, that you can fill out during your sophomore or junior year. Although these results are tentative, they can help give you a better idea of what you might actually have to pay to attend a certain school. (You can find Valpo's Aid Estimator here.)

I hope those tips were helpful! I have to give thanks to my colleague, Robert Helgeson, Valpo's Director of Financial Aid, for sharing much of this information with me. Robert gave an excellent presentation on general Financial Aid information this past week at Valpo's Regional Spring College Fair, and I learned quite a bit! If this post sparks any more specific questions about financing college, just let me know and I'd be happy to help, or get you in touch with someone who can! :)

Enjoy your weekend, and keep up the hard work with your college search!

-Laura@Valpo

Going to College Far From Home

Since a majority of the students I work with live far away from Valpo, the thought of moving hundreds of miles away from friends and family for four years can certainly be intimidating to many of them. Recently, while chatting with a few students, they shared with me their concerns about staying in touch with their high school friends, boyfriends/girlfriends, teammates, youth group members, and family while living in a different state. In this blog post I'd like to talk about my own thoughts and experiences on this topic, and I invite you to share your opinions or questions in the comments section! [And as a side-note, this photo features two of our awesome Ambassadors in Admission-- Hannah, from Ohio & Lexi, from New Jersey!]

To begin with a bit about my personal story, I chose to attend a university located almost 600 miles away from my hometown. Not only was it far from the town I'd grown up in for the past 18 years, but its location also meant that I would have to drive 12 hours or take a flight to get to and from campus. Adding more anxiety to my decision was the fact that there were just a handful of students from Indiana at my university, none of whom I'd met before starting classes there. My close friends from high school had chosen colleges and universities all over the country, none of which were located anywhere near the school I planned to attend.

While at first this new phase in my life seemed practically terrifying, I soon learned to look at it as an exciting new challenge and opportunity for growth. My family was there to love and support me as always, although I learned to substitute breakfasts with my mom and movies with my sister for Skype chats, lengthy emails, and care packages. Although I missed seeing them everyday, we valued the time we had together over breaks, making the most of the days or weeks that I was back home. I was probably MORE in tune with my friends' lives while we were away at school-- constantly posting Facebook messages and photos, sending text messages, and using our "free nights and weekends" cell phone plans to update each other on the past Saturday's fun.

Of course, I made new friends while away at college, too. I joined clubs, a sports team, and a sorority, bonded with the people living in my freshman dorm, and really hit it off with students within my major. I wasn't replacing my old friends, but rather making new connections as I grew and developed throughout my time in college. I came to learn that the test of a true friendship was being able to have fun together after spending time apart; summers with my "high school friends" were just like old times, and going back to college after breaks, my "Bucknell friends" and I picked up right where we'd left off. It felt great knowing that I had groups of people who supported and loved me in both places!

If the thought of coming out to Valpo from wherever you live still seems a little daunting, take these things into account:

• -Valpo has an amazing break schedule, including a 4-day Fall Break in October, a week long Thanksgiving Break in November, a 3-4 week Winter Break (depending on your finals schedule), a 2-week Spring Break in March, and a 3-day Easter Break in April. That gives you plenty of time to take trips throughout the semester to visit family and friends.
• -Going away to college is an excellent opportunity to learn about yourself in a new situation. Becoming more independent, forming new relationships, and pushing out of your comfort zone are great skills to develop!
• -There are Valpo students from nearly every state, and over 40 countries on campus. Everyone is learning to adjust to a new environment when they arrive at VU, so you won't be alone!
  
• -Valpo is located 1 hour southeast of Chicago, giving easy access to airports, train stations, and bus stations for travel to and from home.
  

If you'd like to hear more about my experiences going to college far from home, or if you want to talk to one of our Valpo students about their VU experience, and the welcome they received upon their arrival freshman year-- just let me know! As always, best of luck in your college search... keep up the awesome work!

-Laura@Valpo