Many of the seniors have heard back from many of their first-choice colleges about admission. Many of those decisions were probably not what was hoped for. A college acceptance does not define you. This decision may also be the first time that you were told that you could not do something. The question is, what are you going to do about it? Will you linger over this decision which was entirely out of your control or will you move on? If you have the credentials to apply to a highly selective college that means you are probably going to be successful regardless of where you go. You have to trust yourself to be awesome. Will you be more driven or a better student at College A than you would at College B? I hope not. I hope you will be great regardless of where you attend. Studies show that if you have the grades and scores to apply to a highly selective school, but don't go,  you will earn the same amount of money ten years after graduation as others who attended those selective locations. (https://www.nber.org/papers/w7322 )

Anyway, I am happy for those of you who have been accepted into your dream school. I am also happy for those of you who were able to apply to your dream school but maybe did not get accepted. All of you will pave your own path and make your own success. Grit and determination go a long way and I am confidant that you will achieve whatever you set your heart on.
These articles may help : https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/12/does-it-matter-where-you-go-college/577816/ 
https://grownandflown.com/rejected-dream-school-now-here/ 

I LOVE application season!

Essays, transcripts, recommendations, applications, more essays, scholarships, deadlines, decisions, majors, testing, apprehension, confidence, rankings... isn't that fun?! As much as I love the beginning of the school year because it is application season, having gone through it twice now as a parent I totally understand how you all feel...anxious! But do you know what? I will all work out. Seniors, if you follow your heart and listen to that voice of reason in your head that sounds strangely like your parents you are going to be fine.

Follow the process, obey the rules and trust yourself to make the right choice. Yes, some of you will not get into the school of your dreams and that will hurt. Some of you will get into the school of your dreams and that will be great. Either way, the college you attend will not create your success for you. If you work hard, look for opportunities, pursue activities like internships, co-ops and study abroad, and create relationships with your peers and faculty, you will be successful.Those pursuits should not change regardless of the college. Trust yourself to do what you need to do to become successful and you will. A college can't make you work hard, only you can.

So with that being said, I am always happy and willing to help in any way that you feel you need help. I can review your essays, help you look for best-fit colleges, discuss majors and more. Just asking for help is already putting you a path of self-advocacy which is so important in college. Even with so many people around you cheering you on, the decisions you make will truly only affect one person, yourself.

Enjoy the process, enjoy senior year and this time next year most of you will be sitting in a dorm room trying to figure out what happened to the time. Your parents already are.

When to test.

Many families ask the question of when is the best time to start taking standardized college admission tests, the ACT and SAT. There is no correct answer for all students. I feel if you are a good student and tests do not bother you an earlier test late sophomore or early junior year would be great. If you are anxious about the test, maybe you should wait, practice often, and feel very prepared before you take it.

Most colleges only want your best scores and don't care how many times you take a test. Some colleges also super-score the tests which means they take the highest sub-scores from multiple sittings and create a higher composite score. Ask colleges that you are interested in if they do this.
ACT and College Board both offer free test-prep on their websites if that is something that you feel you want or need.

Remember that the test is just one part of the entire application. Your GPA and the college prep classes you take are more important. There are many colleges that are test-optional and do not require that you send in a test score. Here is a list of those colleges.

Here is a full list of the testing dates for the 2018-2019 school year.

Standardized College Testing Dates for 2018-2019

ACT- www.act.org

Test Date	Registration Deadline	Late Registration (Extra Fee)
September 8, 2018	August 10, 2018	August 11-26, 2018
October 27, 2018	September 28, 2018	September 29- October 14, 2018
December 8, 2018	November 2, 2018	November 3-19, 2018
February 9, 2019	January 11, 2019	January 12- 18, 2019
April 13, 2019	March 8, 2019	March 9-15, 2019
June 8, 2019	May 3, 2019	May 4-10, 2019
July 13, 2019	June 14, 2019	June 15-14, 2019

SAT- www.collegeboard.org

Test Date	Subject Tests Available	Registration Deadline	Late Registration (Extra fee)
August 25, 2018	Yes	July 27, 2018	August 15, 3018
October 6, 2018	Yes	September 7, 2018	September 26, 2018
November 3, 2018	Yes	October 5, 2018	October 24, 2018
December 1, 2018	Yes	November 2, 2018	November 20, 2018
March 9, 2019	No	February 8, 2019	February 27, 2019
May 4, 2019	Yes	April 5, 2019	April 24, 2019
June 1, 2019	Yes	May 3, 2019	May 22, 2019

Rankings and Selectivity

College Rankings- Do you know what they mean?

As you research colleges, one of the pieces of information that most confuses students and parents is rankings. Rankings can be very misleading since not all “Best” lists are created the same. You have to ask about the methodology behind the rankings to understand if it is a good ranking for you to consider. There are many entities that rank and they are all published. Here is a great list of the rankings and how they come up with their lists: NACAC Methodology.

Let’s use Northwestern as an example. Great university probably on many lists and ranked highly. The class of 2022 had 40,420 applications to fill 1,925 seats. They admitted 8% of the applicants but half of them were Early Decision applicants. Last year’s applicants had a range of 1420-1540 SAT and a 32-34 ACT. I will assume that this year’s numbers will be similar. So over 40,400 kids with fantastic scores and grades apply and about 37,000 of them get denied. These types of applicants are more than just scores as you can see from this cool profile from Washington University in St. Louis.

I do not think that those 37,000 students will be unsuccessful in life by not going to Northwestern. In fact, college acceptances are lower across the nation due to more students applying to more colleges than ever thanks to the Common App and the Coalition App. Not every student who wants to go to a “Ranked” college will get in to that college.

Please do not get hung up on the name or the rank of a college before you research it. Success is determined by your hard work and reputation. Does that mean you should never apply to a highly ranked and competitive school? Of course not. Could attending a certain college get you a first job or interview, of course.  But remember that over 90% of applicants don’t seem to be getting into some of these colleges.  College fit is much more than a name or reputation.  Fit includes many factors like cost, population of undergrads, class size, retention and graduation rates, location, opportunity, major, career outcomes, internships, employment rates and don’t forget your gut feelings.

I like to compare colleges to pizza. Most people like pizza, but there are many different toppings, sauces and crusts to fit what you like best. College is similar. You may want to go to college but your toppings will probably be different than someone else’s.

College Visit Tips

There are particular types of colleges in every state. There are the large, public universities, the small to mid-sized privates, highly selective colleges and various combinations of each of those. There are urban campuses, suburban campuses and rural campuses again, in every state. What I am getting at is if you have no idea what you want, stay close to home and try out a few different schools before you travel too far. Once you start to narrow down what you like about these different types, then start expanding your range away from home.

Regardless of where you are visiting, here are some tips and questions to get the most out of your time on campus.

·               Take the official tour and attend the presentation (sign up online ahead of time)
·         Eat in one of the cafeterias
·         Arrive EARLY as parking is usually not close to where you are meeting
·         Meet with an advisor in your major if they are available
·         If you don’t have a major, ask about how they advise their undecided students
·         Look at the students walking around; are they in groups talking or by themselves
·         Ask what the largest classes on campus are and how many of those you may have
·         Check out the surrounding area outside of the campus to see what there is to do
·         Don’t eliminate a college too quickly until you give it time to process
·         Take notes and pictures because if you visit a few in a week they may get mixed up in your head
·         Fit is a combination of things, just not how pretty the campus is so keep in mind, cost, distance,           class size major and career advising and placement

If you are going to drive for more than an hour you should probably try to visit more than one college. Pull up Google maps and type in universities OR colleges and a list in the area you are searching will pop up. Have fun road tripping!

College Board has a good page of ideas about the college visit as well and you can see it here.

Congratulations to the Class of 2018 on a successful Decision Day Celebration! Enjoy the pictures!
I had a great time helping them these last few years!

It is HARD to get SCHOLARSHIPS!

Scholarships may be harder than college applications to find, complete and win. You can start looking at any age so here are some tips:

 Finding Scholarships and Helpful Hints

1. It is hard to find and earn FREE money

2. E-mail address- you may want to create a scholarship e-mail or be really good at putting your messages into folders

3. Set aside a time to apply for scholarship applications. I think one day a week, for one hour and fill out at least one application.

4. Use other area high schools’ websites to search as well.

5. The college you will be attending has many private and endowed scholarships. Find them and apply for them.

6. Use Naviance

7. Keep at it all year

8. Finding scholarships does not end once you enter college, there is much money out there once you are in a major and for different activities that you may want to do

1. Cappex https://www.cappex.com/scholarships/

2. College Board https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/scholarship-search

3. Fastweb www.fastweb.com

4. FinAid! http://www.finaid.org/

5. Naviance

6. Raise Me https://www.raise.me/

7. Scholarship Experts https://www.unigo.com/scholarships#/fromscholarshipexperts

8. Scholarships.com https://www.scholarships.com/

9. StudentScholarships.org https://www.studentscholarships.org/

10. Zinch/ Chegg http://www.chegg.com/

11. Unigo https://www.unigo.com/

12. Niche https://www.niche.com/

13. Collegenet.com https://www.collegenet.com/elect/app/app

14. Petersons https://www.petersons.com/college-search/scholarship-search.aspx#/sweeps-modal

15. Career One Stop https://www.careeronestop.org/Toolkit/Training/find-scholarships.aspx

16. ISAC http://www.isac.org/students/during-college/types-of-financial-aid/scholarships/index.html

17. College Xpress http://www.collegexpress.com/scholarships/search

18. Scholar Snapp: https://www.scholarsnapp.org/