Part 1 - Net Price Calculator Spreadsheet
Problem Statement:
For this project the first part was to make a spreadsheet that would consist of fake students applying to colleges in 2015. This spreadsheet would include the price amounts it would cost for them to go to college depending on income, family size, taxes income, etc. The whole class got in partnerships and got to creating their "person", which should be at least a bit realistic, we would then present this at our college senior night to parents.
Process:
The process for this part was actually a lot of fun because you got to create your own person and in a way gamble with their life, but it was also very time consuming and even annoying. It made it a lot more real that we would be needed to apply to college and for some financial aid sooner than later.
Other's Processes:
We all did this together, I will link the spreadsheet we all worked on here.
That's the name of the fake student I created along with my two peers.
Solution:
The final solution I think would have been the final spreadsheet, linked right above.
Problem Evaluation:
I think this problem was a bit of a drag, it was just taking a long time and going through the motions of finding out the amount for money "you and your parents", using the fake student's information. It was very interesting to see the differences in money, in comparison to all the schools and the students.
Self-Assessment:
I think I did very well and really pushed through because in the end the product was really good but the actual process was a bit slow for my liking. I really like the fact that it was something that I will be using and will be able to show for my parents, as well as even explain to my parents how these loans are given and why.
Senior Night:
We had a senior night in order to be able to talk to our parents a bit about what we're doing in class and show them the variety of amounts that our fake students got for financial aid, tuition, etc. We also got to talk about college deadlines and implement the idea of college being very near a little more.
Part 2 - Loans: How much will college ACTUALLY cost?
Problem Statement:
Our problem gave us the challenge to create a calculator that would find out total loan amounts for students and parents as well as monthly payments for each of the loans. This calculator would have to be created from scratch with Google Spreadsheets, working out our formulas and making sure they fit together to get the right outcome.
Process:
At first it was easy to come up with the first couple of formulas especially because they didn't have to connect to something more complex. For example, the first formula we came up with made us find the amount that the parents and the student would borrow per year, so you could just find the formula for one and change certain amounts to make it accurate for the 4 years, I tried doing the fifth year but I do not know if I got it completely right.
These are the formulas I used for the first year, for both parents and the student:
Later on, it got a bit more complicated because we had to use different formulas together to get something more complex. The PMT, which calculates the periodic payment for an annuity investment based on constant-amount periodic payments and a constant interest rate. This one was a bit harder to do on our won but with the help of Kirby we got it right away. I decided to extend the formula through some cells to be able to remember what goes into the function itself but I could've easily done it without having to write it our but I figured it could help me in the long run.
These are the formulas I used for the first year, for both parents and the student:
Later on, it got a bit more complicated because we had to use different formulas together to get something more complex. The PMT, which calculates the periodic payment for an annuity investment based on constant-amount periodic payments and a constant interest rate. This one was a bit harder to do on our won but with the help of Kirby we got it right away. I decided to extend the formula through some cells to be able to remember what goes into the function itself but I could've easily done it without having to write it our but I figured it could help me in the long run.
Other's Process:
I honestly didn't get to see much of other's process because I got really into my spreadsheets and really trying to figure out the equations and making them work rather than paying too much attention to other's. But from what I did see there was a lot of struggle and trial and error kind of feel to this part of the project. I think it was a safe strategy to just keep trying until you got it and finally realized it was something very simple.
Solution:
The solution for this part of the project would be our loan calculators, which I just kept together with every piece of the project. It should be linked here, feel free to go on it if you're like to actually use it. If not, there's a picture right here on what a part of it looks like.
Problem Evaluation:
I think this was my favorite part of the project, over the last one at least. I liked working with the spreadsheets and really finding out what every formula could do. I learned a lot about how loans actually work, even if I'm not exactly an expert yet, I know more than I did before this. Overall, I think that using the spreadsheets was fun and really interesting, it gave us a skill that we might need in the future as well and gave us something to show and be proud of as well.
Self-Assessment:
I think that I did really good with this part because I got really into it and tried to even make it organized and that it was up to par for my standards. I really liked learning more about the spreadsheets and how to use them and found myself really enjoying myself in this part, making it easy to really try my best and accomplish everything.
Part 3 - Mathematical Modeling: Return on Investment
Problem Statement:
We were to compare two courses in life, financially, represent the difference in "total amount made in my lifetime" based on those two paths and make a presentation for our parents.
Process:
I went through the process of creating the spreadsheet and then making a graph through there. I chose 3 pathways instead because I am interested in both law and medicine and I would like to compare them to a career that doesn't necessarily need college.
I then made my actual presentation and made sure to include different pieces of the previous spreadsheets made, in order to show my work and how I got the results I did. I made sure to keep my presentation, linked here, simple but effective so that it'd be easy to understand yet filled with information.
I then made my actual presentation and made sure to include different pieces of the previous spreadsheets made, in order to show my work and how I got the results I did. I made sure to keep my presentation, linked here, simple but effective so that it'd be easy to understand yet filled with information.
Other's Process:
We all worked on this part of the project individually.
Solution:
My solution would be my spreadsheets and graph. They're very clear and show the huge differences between every path and the variety of processes that it take to obtain loans for both you and your parents. As you can see below I chose the career paths I'm still debating on; medicine and law, as well as a waitress as you do not need college for that.
Problem Evaluation:
This part of the project was a bit stressful because talking about money to your parents is always a bit hard, especially when you're physically seeing how much money you're going to have to spend in order to attend the college you want. Overall, I think that even though it was a bit difficult to start and end it was very helpful and really made us understand what's going on with our future and money.
Self-Assessment:
I don't really like to talk about money to my parents and I think it stresses me out more than them when we do but I liked being able to have a serious conversation with them. I think I did very well and my parents took it really well too, it was very causal and smooth and I'm glad I was able to keep them updated with what's happening in my school life.
Parent Presentation
My parent presentation went very well in my opinion, I got to really one-on-one talk to my mom and explain to her everything that had been going through my head with the costs, loans, and colleges in general. Even though my presentation was made in English I did talk to my mom entirely in Spanish but found it to be a great way to visually show her what I was talking about as well as a great guide to keep the conversation. I'm glad that I got to explain this to my mom because my dad pretty much understands loans and the costs of college and why they're there because he attended college, on the other hand my mom didn't making her just as confused as I was at the beginning of this project. I feel that both my mom and I have abetter understanding of what's heading our way and we're able to have smoother conversations about everything too!
Edits
- I went back in and added pictures even though most of my evidence was linked in order to make my blog more appealing to the reader.
- I went more in depth with what the problems were and my solutions.
- I fixed any grammar errors.
- I also organized in a better way in order for the audience to actually be able to go through and read our project from start to finish.