It's not as fun as the game called Life!
Our second daughter, H, is a Senior at OUR LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL (OLHS) and this means pursuing her college options. The Senior Year is a bit schizophrenic - it is the capstone year to put the finishing touches on your High School Life and it is also the time to get ready for the great beyond.
The College Counselors at OLHS put on a Senior Night and invited parents to attend to find out all about the process and paying for college. They suggested a few helpful ideas.
Scholarships.
Apply for a lot of scholarships - about 60 to 80 - they suggested. Pay attention to the small scholarships that hand out only $250.00 to $1,000.00. Often they get fewer applicants as people apply for the larger scholarships. If you apply to 80 scholarships you may get ten to sixteen of them.
Visit the Campuses
Different campuses attract different students. It helps to get a feel for different experiences that each campus offers. Some students will prefer small classes. Some will be fine with large classes.
Can you get in?
Primarily schools look at a grid of intersecting GPA and ACT scores (at least here out West) to determine acceptance. That's not to say that is all they look at in the decision process. The other "stuff" helps like extracurricular activities, a compelling life story, and great personal essays but more often it helps on the margins. Meaning that if the admissions department has to choose between two candidates, or if an applicant is just shy of "acceptance by grid" then the other factors can make all the difference.
The Application
October, they say, is College Application month and each week there are suggestions what to do to get things ready so that by Thanksgiving our birds are in the air, while we are carving a different bird.
No comments:
Post a Comment