No kidding. That is what a lot of people seem to believe, and that is precisely why your credit
score matters. While you are in school it is important to begin establishing a positive
credit history. The good news is that every student begins with a blank slate, which
means that your credit rating is yours to build or destroy.
Your Credit Score Is
A Character Witness
You begin establishing credit as soon as you use a credit card, take out a loan,
pay utilities, or buy a car. Throughout this process, lenders, in good faith, give
you funding in anticipation of seeing a return with interest on their loan. When
you accept money from a lender, you become a business partner and your contract
is composed of monthly payments. By not making payments, you breech the established
contract and lose the trust of your business partner.
A Measure of Responsibility
A good credit rating says a lot about you. In addition to showing that you pay your
bills in a consistent and timely manner, it says that you care enough to do so.
A person with a good credit score is concerned about their future and attempting
to make decisions that will attest to their level of responsibility.
An Indication of Self-Control
Managing your credit is not easy. College students, for the most part, are big spenders.
Advertising companies market their products directly at college age students, and
the credit card companies put up the cash so that they can make purchases. Building
and maintaining a healthy credit score is especially difficult during these years,
but if you are able to do so it indicates that you are a young adult with incredible
self-control and that you can be trusted in the future.
A Peek Into the Future
Your credit rating is a number that weighs in on your habits. Typically, one late
bill or missed payment will not leave an irreparable dent in your credit score.
Several late payments, on the other hand, will. In turn, a poor credit score shows
that you have established a history of late or missed payments. A lender looking
at such a report will expect that these habits will continue into the future.
ACT, Inc., the college admissions testing company, has agreed to pay out $16 million to 65,728 California students with disabilities to settle a class-action lawsuit. The class-action federal lawsuit filed in California in 2018 alleged that ACT, Inc. violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and California's Unruh Civil Rights Act by disclosing test-takers' disability status to colleges and scholarship organizations on score reports, and denied certain examinees with disabilities an equal opportunity to participate in its Educational Opportunity Service. [...]
In response to the coronavirus pandemic and the way it has made it harder than ever to take the SAT and ACT, many colleges and universities, from large state universities to small liberal arts colleges, have announced that their admissions for next year’s Class of 2025 will be test-optional. Test-optional admissions mean that schools won’t require a submission of a standardized test score as part of the admissions process. But how will admissions officials judge applicants without a score? Will a student who doesn’t submit a standardized test score be penalized in any way? And will a student who does submit a score be chosen over one who doesn’t? [...]
Getting a college degree is part of the American Dream. College graduates generally earn more money and have a better quality of life. So it’s not surprising that students from immigrant families or who are immigrants themselves are making up an increasingly larger percentage of associate’s, bachelors and masters-seeking students in America. [...]
