Monday, November 2, 2009

College Planning for the Week of 11/2/09

College Night for Juniors and Parents - Choose the date you want to attend - either Wednesday November 4th at 7:00 or Thursday November 5th at 7:00 in the Hawk's Nest. The agenda will include all the must-know information for juniors launching the college planning process. We'll talk about testing, characteristics of colleges, types of colleges, how to search for colleges and when to visit. Juniors are expected to attend one of the evenings. Please let me know which evening you are planning to attend.

Upcoming CollegeWeekLive College Fairs - Virtual college fairs will continue all year with the World's Largest Online College Fair – CollegeWeekLive Fall, November 4-7. To learn more, visit collegeweeklive.com.

The good news we rarely hear - Tired of the media reports about how hard it is to get into college? The National Association for College Admissions Counseling released their 2009 report regarding the state of college admissions, stating that “. . . the average acceptance rate across all four-year institutions in the US is approximately two-thirds (67 percent)." We hear about the most selective colleges all the time but remember that there are only 135 colleges out of 2000 that accept less than 50% of their applicants.

Colleges Visiting TMS - A full list of the colleges currently scheduled to visit as well as a list of a few Open House events and local information sessions are posted on the Family Connection site. Here are the colleges scheduled to visit us in the next two weeks. Please add your name to the sign up sheet on my door and get the permission of your teacher to attend.
  • McDaniel College - Monday 11/2 at 8:30
  • University of Oregon - Wednesday 11/4 at 10:15
  • Mitchell College - Monday 11/9 at 11:00
College of the Week - Situated on a scenic hilltop in Westminster, Maryland, the McDaniel College campus is just a short distance from Baltimore and Washington, DC. The academic environment provides 1,700 students an expansive range of intellectual and practical experiences so that they can debate, defend and articulate their ideas with clarity, and explore issues with a multicultural, global and flexible perspective. Academic, athletic and social opportunities abound in which students can explore, test their potential, and realize their leadership skills over four years. McDaniel is one of the college profiled in Colleges That Change Lives.

Do you know? - "Liberal arts college" is a term used to describe the most general and common form of higher education. At a liberal arts college you are typically encouraged to explore many subject areas including humanities (English, languages, art, philosophy), the social sciences (psychology, history, political science etc) and the "hard" sciences (biology, math, geology). Although some liberal arts colleges also offer majors such as business and engineering, a purely liberal arts college would not. Liberal arts colleges tend to focus their attention on educating undergraduates seeking a bachelors degree rather than on graduate students seeking master's degrees. Liberal arts college particularly value the development of critical thinking and reasoning, writing skills and research ability over the skills associated with one specific occupation.

My Schedule this Week - I'll be on campus Monday 8-4:30, Wednesday 10-9 and Thursday 10-9.
FOR SENIORS

Only you can send your test scores to your colleges - Even when you enter your test scores on an application, the college expects you to have the College Board or the ACT send official score reports to them. You'll need to sign back into your College Board/ACT account and may have to pay additional fees to do this. This is the most common missing piece of an application, causing delays in reading and processing your application. When sending SAT scores to colleges, avoid "Score Choice" and send all your scores since many colleges will take your best score for each section, regardless of sitting.

A good essay on essays - Check it out.

Application Help on Wednesday 2:35-4:00 - I'll bring some food, you bring your college stuff and we'll work on whatever is your top priority. Don't know what to do first? No problem - we'll figure it out.

What's all this email from CSU campuses?
If you have submitted your CSU applications, you are probably getting lot of email about your application. Read these messages carefully and set up your student accounts. This is the only way the campuses will communicate with you and the only way you'll know if they need anything from you, like a transcript. If you need help managing this, enlist aid from a parent or come see me!

The two most important questions you should be able to answer! Know what the most frequently asked questions are in an interview?
Why are you applying to Ideal U? and..........
What is important to you?
Need help with your answers? Stop by or schedule time with me and I'll be happy to help you.

SAT/ACT Registration Deadlines - If you need to take or retake the SAT, SAT Subject Tests or ACT this fall, the registration deadlines are approaching. The late registration deadline for the December 5th SAT or SAT Subject Tests is 11/12. To register go to wwwcollegeboard.com. The regular registration deadline for the December 12th ACT is 11/6 and you can register at www.actstudent.org.

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Susan Gotshall-Maxon
College Counselor

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