 So, welcome to Senior Parent Night. I'm curious by a show of hands, how many of you have been through this whole process before? So raise your hand, now everyone turn around and look at your neighbors. All right, now put your hands down. How many of you have not been through this process before? Raise your hand. Wow. All right, so you're not on your own, some of you have been through it, some of you haven't, so at least you can always ask your neighbor if you have some questions. So I want to thank all of you for joining us tonight on especially a very hot night. So we're going to try to make it very quick just so we don't all, you know, get very sweaty. So tonight you're going to learn something special about each one of the counselors so you'll get to know us a little bit better. So I'm going to start with myself. My name is Danielle Rakowski. I've been a counselor for 20 years. I've been here at Arlington High for 17 years. I grew up on the West Coast in Las Vegas and it was obviously 120 degrees every day. And I went to University of Buffalo for college. My parents shipped me there to make me suffer through negative 120 in October when it snowed six feet. I was fortunate enough to have a scholarship. I was a Division I tennis player. So that's kind of how I ended up on the East Coast. This year I've taken on the role of lead college counselor and will be sending you important updates through the entire school year. I'm hoping that all of you can hold your questions to the end. We'll have a Q&A session. I want to let you know that tonight we have ACMI here taping us. So because we have such a great unique opportunity, we're hoping we can save the questions to the end. So if anybody on the outside is watching the presentation and if they want, they can go right to the end to hear the questions and answers. I would like to quickly introduce all the counselors so they can give a very quick wave. First I want to introduce Sarah Bird. I believe she's sitting somewhere in the back. She's waving. She is our director of counseling and social emotional learning. We have Carolyn Lichter. She has last names that begin with A to C-O-L. Myself, Danielle, I have C-O-M to H-A-N. Kathy Hirsch is the other lead counselor for social emotional. And she has H-A-O to L-A. Ann Benson, L-E to O apostrophe. Lester Eggelson, O-A to S-I-M. And new to our department, Ryan Cox has S-I-N to Z. When they stand up, they will be sharing some information about themselves. So the main focus tonight is going to be on the actual college application process. You have the slides tonight, so please, like I said, take notes on the slides, write down your questions, and we will go over them at the end. I will try to answer as many questions as possible. So to give you our timeline, we start tonight with you. We have senior parent night. Tomorrow during X-Block, we put it out there for all the seniors to come down here again for a very similar presentation that we're giving you. We're going to do two big groups. We're going to do tomorrow X-Block. So when you go home, make sure you remind your student. And then we're going to have one on October 8th for those students that can't or couldn't make it to tomorrow. So we will go over information with them. From there, we will also have open lab time available to all seniors certain Tuesdays in October during X-Block. So we can help with common applications. We can help with anything that they need help with with the process. We will also have small group seminars with individual students' counselors. And we will also have individual appointments. So we will meet with our students once 10 times, 100 times, as much as they need throughout the whole process. One of our main messages is the importance of keeping options open. It's a very stressful time for seniors. There are so many options, opportunities out there. So when we work with students, we really try to stress that. We help the students through the entire process. And when you have questions, you can feel free to reach out to us. You can email, you can call us. You should be playing a supportive role, but students should really drive the process. So it's not your applications to fill out. It's your students' application. But be there as a supportive person to help them through this entire stressful time. October 16th is, we call it the PSAT day, but it's actually a morning where we reserve the computer lab for seniors to come in. And it's a very successful morning. We are, all the counselors are in there. We help the students fill out their applications, maybe look over their resume, anything that they need help with, with the entire process. And it's about 8.30 to 11.30 in the morning. It's an excuse day for seniors. So they can either use it to visit a college. They can come in to work with us on applications. They can stay home and work on their applications. But just know that's a day for seniors to hopefully get some help or make good progress with the application package. And our big message is really to keep calm and carry on. It's a very, very, very hard time in the fall with academics and getting all the pieces of paper together. So before I pass along the mic, the one thing I have to say is that the admissions, in general, admissions to the colleges and universities, very unpredictable, very subjective, and it's qualitative, not quantitative. We're gonna go through today, many of the factors of the process. And like I said before, please hold your questions to the end, and we will do a question and answer session. I'm going to bring up Carolyn Lichter. I'm sorry, Ann Benson. I already screwed up, okay. My name is Ann Benson. I think the part that stressed us out the most about tonight was sharing a fun fact about ourselves. My name, or I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, if you can't hear my twang. I was in Milwaukee just yesterday, so I went to the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Most of my professional career was spent in higher education. I worked at Boston University where I did admissions, academic advising, and financial aid, and then worked at Cornell for a brief period of time doing admissions. Fun fact, I usually just say I'm from Wisconsin, and that usually gets a couple yucks. So without further ado, I'm gonna keep this really brief. Many of you are already well-versed in the graduation requirements. If your student wasn't meeting a graduation requirement, we would have reached out to you and your student. 106 credits total by the end of senior year, four years of English, three years of math. Important to note that Massachusetts State Schools want four years of math. This is a message your student has heard every year since they started here. Three years of science, three years of social studies. This is modern world history, US1, US2. Then we have many wonderful history electives. Two years of a foreign language, one year of fine arts, five courses of PE. If you're a Massachusetts resident, you know about the MCAS, they have to pass ELA, math, and science, and 40 hours of community service. If some of you are sitting in the auditorium and maybe you have a student who transferred in, it's 10 hours of community service per year as a student here at AHS. If you have any questions about the requirements or you have any concerns about your student, don't hesitate to speak with your school counselor at the end of the presentation. Post-secondary options. Before I talk about two year, four year, I just wanted to kind of set the stage, if you will, about what we do as a department in preparation for talking about two year college, four year college gap year. So for the last four years, we've been working with students helping them explore their post-secondary options. As early as freshman year, AHS students are asked to take surveys on Naviance to help them learn more about their learning styles and possible career interests. So there's really been momentum in figuring this out since they walked in the door here. In ninth grade and freshman seminar, they all received Naviance accounts. They take their first two surveys, the multiple intelligence advantage and the learning style inventory. So we're just trying to queue them up for thinking about how do I learn, how do I think, what am I interested in? So the goal is just to really help them examine how they learn. Can they identify if they're interested in math or science or is French poetry something they might want to further explore? In tenth grade, in sophomore seminar, we dive deeper into career exploration with things called the career interest profiler and do what you are surveys. These are surveys that help identify possible career interests. Like many things, we're dealing with 15 year olds. This is often more art than science. We're just hoping things start to percolate and maybe we can have a discussion about what they can be interested in. What they may be interested in sophomore year may be different junior and senior year, but it's just an opportunity to kind of take their pulse on something that they may be interested in going into a career or studying further in college. Junior seminar, we take a much deeper dive into Naviance because now we're really gonna take it out for a spin. We're gonna talk to juniors about how do you research college opportunities, summer enrichment programs. It's much more in depth, kind of setting the table for senior year, prepping them for things that they should be thinking about over the summer. And obviously this year, you're all sitting in the auditorium, we're meeting with your students over the next few weeks and all throughout the fall. We focus on the college application process, really drilling down to finding that elusive, what's the right fit for your student. We also talk about local organizations like Year Up, Employment Opportunities, Gap Years, and Military Effects if they show an interest in that. So just to give you a few statistics from the class of 2019, so the students that just graduated. 89.3% went to four-year college. 4.5 two-year colleges, 1.2 Gap Years, a little under two for workforce and college prep. We have about 1.2 undecided and 0.6, although I'm not quite sure how that student was 0.6, he was on my caseload, military. But that's okay. So you can see Arlington High School, it is heavily weighted towards second year, two-year college and four-year college, but we have a range of students that hit every bullet point here on this slide, which is really exciting for us as counselors and really important and inclusive, which is why we talk about all of these options in our senior seminars. So what, I'm sure you're wondering, what does Ms. Benson mean by the right fit? It's such a difficult thing to conceptualize. I don't know if any of you have taken college tours and you've walked to college campus. If you can get kind of that sense from your student about, oh, wow, maybe they're enjoying this tour more than they like the other tour or maybe they're actually asking questions. We talk to students about finding the right fit and we talk about academic offerings. It can be as basic as does this college have the right degree program for your student. What's the campus life like? We often recommend, look around, see if the kids on campus that are there, do they look happy? Do they have school pride? Are they wearing like their University of Wisconsin Madison T-shirts or the BU T-shirts or name the university? How are they interacting with their university on campus? Do they have study abroad programs that your student is interested in? I have a student right now in my caseload who's really interested in ROTC so that helped narrow that student's interest as far as which schools they're looking at. You also want to, ideally if possible, you want to be boots on the ground for a college campus visit that really allows a student to get a viewpoint that one can only get when you're on that campus. My next question would be if I were in your shoes, what if my student wants to look at like schools in California or Nevada, far away, we don't have the ability to get there? No stress. There are amazing virtual tours online. We show kids where they are, you can watch, is it as good as being on campus? No, but you can still get to California through the internet with a virtual tour. You can also attend admissions webinars which are really helpful. So we really recommend, you know, if you can make the visit, great. If you can't, we'll strategize with you about getting to know that campus in a different way. Another really important thing for you to understand is every day here in the guidance conference room or the school counseling conference room is there are college reps. I think today we had like four. So your student can get in front of, often times, the person who's reading for that university. How do you find out about who's coming, what college is coming? In Naviance, your student can sign up for whatever college is here that day. They're here all fall. So it's a great opportunity for your student to meet people and ask as many questions as they'd like about a certain university. Creating a balanced list, we are often asked how many colleges should my student apply? When I was applying to schools, it was like three. And I was hoping, you know, my parents were probably hoping I'd be applying to two. Nowadays, it's much different. The birth of the Common App where it has made applying to colleges a lot more accessible. Students apply to many more. So here at AHS, the averages are anywhere between six and 10 colleges. Research, we use Naviance as a major tool to help students better understand what their chances are for admission at a school and research that school. I'm sure you've heard the terms reach, realistic, match, and likely, and safety. And we go over this with the students thoroughly in our senior seminars. Reach is something, it's very common sense, it's something a student is not likely to get into. Maybe their GPA and standardized test scores might not measure up to the typical applicant who's accepted. Realistic match, the student meets the criteria for the school. You're in that GPA standardized test range. And then a likely or a safety, you exceed those qualifications. So you're not just meeting them, you're exceeding them. And we're gonna work with your student to develop a well-balanced list. We never want there to be too many reaches or too many safeties or too many likely's. We like a good mix of all three of these admissions options. And now I'm gonna turn it over to Carolyn Lichter who's gonna talk about the application process. Thanks. Hi everyone. I'm Carolyn Lichter and this is my 10th year in the counseling department here. I was at the Odyssey Middle School for two years before that. And I actually, so I went to Boston University and I majored in business administration and marketing. And I worked in that field in a marketing agency for a little while before I realized that I really wanted to be in a helping profession. So I went back to school and here I am as a school counselor, very much enjoying it. So let's see, so in talking about the application process, deadlines are very, very important. So a deadline is a deadline. And we always remind students that they should research the deadlines in Naviance when they're doing their research for their colleges, but they should absolutely confirm with the college websites. As there is a lot of variability in programs and their requirements and their certain components, for example, if there's a audition required or a portfolio, sometimes certain majors have earlier deadlines, such as nursing or physical therapy. Some engineering programs may have earlier deadlines as well, so it's really important to be confirming with the actual college websites. And there is actually an application tracker that we included in the packets that you can look at. So students can use that just to keep track of every single component, financial, all the different recommendations, different pieces of the application, so that is in there. And many of your students may have already signed up for their common application account. So the Common App is a universal application that about 900 colleges accept, and it makes the process very streamlined. So we always recommend when a college does accept the Common App to use the Common Application. So when a student, when a school doesn't use the Common App, then students can apply on the college's own website. And there are some other different types of collective websites that schools use, but really the Common App is the biggest one, and that's what we're gonna help students set up in our senior groups if they haven't already started with that. And let's see here. So everything is electronic now. So even a lot of portfolio submissions or recordings or things like that, everything is really online. So students can access everything and they connect their Naviance account to their Common App account, which we're gonna go into a little bit later. And let's see. So we put some very important websites on this presentation. So obviously the school counseling site, which has a wealth of information about deadlines, updates, lots of resources about the whole process, scholarships, financial aid, other resources, certain types of different groups of colleges and things like that. We have Naviance, which you should all have an account as well, and if you don't, you can contact your student's counselor and we can get that set up for you. And then of course the Common App and fee waivers are available for students on free and reduced lunch so they can come see us if they have any questions about that. And so now just to go over some of these terms, which can be very, very confusing and people always have a lot of questions on these. So these are the different admissions plans and I'll just run through them. So early action is what you hear a lot of students talking about when they say they're going to apply early. So that's generally around November 1st, November 15th deadlines, and it's a non-binding admissions plan where a student can apply early, get everything in, they get an answer earlier, but it's not binding so they're not committing to that particular school. They still have the time to weigh their options and all their considerations and they would not have to put down a deposit or tell the school of their decision until the typical, the May 1st deadline. So early action can be beneficial and I'm gonna talk a little bit about that, but that's something that we as the counselors can help students decide if that's the right fit for them. Restrictive early action is basically still a non-binding plan but it has certain restrictions associated with it and it varies by college on their policy. So for example, some may say that they can apply to other schools early action but they cannot apply early decision, which is the next one, which is a binding plan. So you would wanna look and see that particular college's policy on that. Early decision is the plan that is binding, so it's still that November 1st, November 15th deadline and it is a binding plan. So you as the parent or guardian, the student and the counselor, we all would sign an agreement saying that if the student is accepted then they will attend that school. So obviously that is a big family decision and it has obviously financial considerations and it has to be a student's absolute number one choice. So that's something that we definitely have a number of students to do that each year but that's not the norm or the typical thing but it absolutely can be a good fit for some students. So priority, so that is a, some schools have priority deadlines to be considered for certain merit scholarships offered by that particular school. Also sometimes a college may waive an application fee if they apply by a certain date or deadline. In their senior seminars, which will be starting this week and like I said, only the final grades will show on the transcript from freshman through junior year and then senior year will be broken down quarter by quarter. So both weighted and unweighted GPAs are found at the bottom of the transcript which we're gonna remind students about. The weighted GPA is out of a 5.25 and the unweighted is out of a 4.3. So keep in mind that a lot of colleges do recalculate the GPA based on their own formula. So for example, the Massachusetts state system, they recalculate all the GPAs to standardize it. So a lot of colleges do do that and also important to note is only HS classes are factored into the GPA. So while, so for example, if a student transferred in from another high school, those grades and the courses would be on the Arlington transcript but they will not be factored into the GPA. So a college will see the grades and can recalculate that but it wouldn't be an hour GPA. And we do not rank, so we don't have a rank or a decil system and there are 333 students in the senior class this year and they'll need that information for their common application. And just one other thing is that there are many factors considered to colleges and it really does, it varies by college and by program on how much weight they give to each factor. So we're gonna be going through everything at this point. So for the transcript, something that colleges are looking at are the strength of the curriculum. So did a student challenge themselves appropriately? Did they take on challenging, more challenging courses over the years if possible? Did they maintain their grades? Did they have improvement in grades, not declining grades? Early applications, like I said, will only have final grades through junior year and then we'll send the first term grades and then regular applications will include first term grades from senior year. So we send out mid-year grades automatically after second term closes as well. We don't send third term grades unless a college specifically requests that. And then we do send the final transcript with just the final senior year grades to the college that the student is attending. So we'll do that automatically. So Les will now continue with the standardized tests. Good evening, folks. Thanks for hanging in with us this evening. I'm Les Eggleston. I've been here for six years now and I've also been a counselor for 20 years now. I've been at two other schools. I originally hail from White Plains, New York and went to Dartmouth College and Hanover, New Hampshire. And I guess my fun fact would be that about a mile away in West Medford my mom grew up, even though I grew up in New York and things seemed to come full circle and here I am right here before you today. I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about standardized tests and the most popular ones are right here before you. The SATs, the SAT subject tests, ACT, AP, and the TOEFL are the main ones that I'm gonna talk about. So for the SAT registration is through the same way that you would send your scores later on. It's through the College Board website. Hopefully by now many students have already taken at least one exam. We typically recommend that students take at least two times, some take at three. But beyond that, we wouldn't recommend taking it anymore unless they've done some substantial prep in the areas of weakness because only by doing that are you gonna get any significant changes in the scores. The test is not meant to be aced in any way whatsoever, but to highlight your strengths and to show that to the colleges when that opportunity comes up. In terms of subject tests, there are only a few schools when you're looking at over 3,500 four-year universities or colleges, there are only about 200 or less that would require a subject test at this point. So as you do your research, find out if it makes sense for your student to be taking the test at this time or whether that's something that they can forego to focus on other areas to highlight as they prepare their package. The ACT is less known to many people, but believe it or not, it's very popular throughout the United States. Many students are taking that in lieu of the exam while others are taking it in addition to see if there's any way that they can boost their scores and again show the better self in another method of testing. That sign up for that exam can be through the ACT website at actstudent.org. And we do not offer that particular exam administration here at Arlington High School, but there are many local high schools that offer that exam right around the corner from Waltham to Belmont, et cetera. And that information is available on the website. SATs used to be out of 1600, then out of 2400, now back to 1600. So that number right now is 1600 with the SA being a separate score at this time and the ACT score is out of 36. The TOEFL, we have small population of students who English is not their first language. Again, it's meant to give opportunities to show the strengths and the mastery that they've developed since the time that they've been here with us. And there's a small population that would benefit from taking this exam. And if we feel like there are students that would benefit from that, we try and recommend it. And there's a separate process for registration for that as well. That's a computer-based test, which is awesome because there are more opportunities for students to take the exam throughout the year if necessary. APs, many of you are familiar with that exam. They are subject-based as well. You may have students that are currently taking their first APs this year. There are other students that may have taken an AP last year. Those exams are taken in May. Scores typically come out in early July. And then it's up to the student to decide if it makes sense for them to take those tests and share them with the colleges. We don't share them with the colleges. The College Board won't share them with the colleges unless the student and family decide that that's something that is important. Typically, we wouldn't recommend sharing them at this point if the student hasn't achieved some form of mastery and that is in the form of score of three or higher. And then the colleges are left to decide if they're gonna award general college credit or advancement through a particular subject area to a higher level, meaning from freshman English 101 to English 202 or some fashion like that. This year, I've been asked to note if you do have a child who is taking the APs this year. The registration process has moved up significantly. We typically used to wait to around the January, February time period for that, but that's moved up through the decision of the College Board to sometime beginning next month. And we'll be letting you know about that information through the students AP classes as well as through the publications through the school counseling department. A growing number of schools are becoming test optional, which is great. One of the first ones to do that was some of our state universities and colleges, for example, UMass Lowell. And the great thing about that is they're looking at other factors and don't wanna penalize students who don't necessarily excel at taking a standardized test. You can practice, practice, practice, but at the end of the day, some people are better at things than other. I personally prefer small group presentations and here we are in an auditorium given large group presentations, but you kinda do the best of what you got and that's what the colleges are trying to acknowledge and also reward students for those things that they wanna put this best self forward in. There are different test prep options, hundreds, particularly in Massachusetts, right down the road from us. It's all a family decision. We make the information available on our websites and through our seminars and as you do your research and talk to folks and talk to your child, whether they want an individual experience or whether they want something more group orientated or classroom orientated, we have those opportunities available in and around here. One of the most cost effective ways to prepare for the exams are through the Arlington Community Education here at the high school. Students have the opportunity to sit for a class in either the math or the English or both depending on what their needs are at this time. Fee waivers, fee waivers are available to students. If your student took the PSATs last year and received a fee waiver, the college board should automatically be offering fee waivers for the SAT. If they're not, excuse me, if they're not, your child should feel free to come forward and ask for their counselor to provide them with a fee waiver and we'd be happy to provide it. Again, it's a way to reach out to students to get them the information they need and not feel disadvantaged by this process because they get pretty costly pretty quickly as you advance through this process in the senior year. Going back to the APs, I just want to note that there's no need to send AP scores to all the colleges that your child may be applying to. If your student decides that, you know what, I have a better shot at getting rewarded for the hard work I put in at just my top choice school or just at my safety school, save the money, send it to those schools and they will decide, not necessarily during the admission process, but later on what type of credit that student will be awarded. Again, you're talking about $100 exams, you're talking about more money to release the scores, strategically plan how you're gonna go about this process and it'll work out for you pretty well. Another thing to note regarding the fee waivers, the child doesn't necessarily have to have applied for a fee waiver or be on a free and reduced lunch list here at Arlington High School. Circumstances change within each family and we want you to know that we're willing to listen and provide appropriate documentation if needed to provide you with the assistance through this process. We'll talk to you briefly about score choice. This is specific to the college board in that raise your hand if you heard about score choice as it pertains to the SAT, a handful of folks. Okay, so score choice is something that the college board came up with where again they wanna try to reward the students who are master test takers and if they decide that on a particular date, a particular time, they've done really well on an exam and that's the only one they wanna send out to put forth their best self, then they have the opportunity to select that one test date and submit those scores to colleges. If for some reason students do well on a particular subject test, they don't have to release all of their subject tests to a particular college, they can again choose a specific subject test submitted to a college to show their mastery of that material and they too can check out that box in terms of the application process. They don't have to submit it to every single school every single day. Super score, many people have heard about this. To clarify, not every school is required to go by this policy, but many schools do because they acknowledge the fact that the test is not something that typically a student would master on a one shot deal. Super score would be the opportunity for the students to test multiple times, say for example, your student takes the test, say a month ago, does really well, but wants to take the test again. Next time up, they knock it out of the park, they go up say 80 points on the English section, but uh-oh, they did maybe minus 10 points on the math section. They can submit all of their scores the college will take into consideration the highest of the scores and average to come up with the highest score for the student as they review the application. Scores must be sent from the ACT or the SAT or the Pearson website. I think that's the one for TOEFL. Don't quote me on that. And the websites for those releasing those scores are down there in the bottom. It's pretty much the same websites that you would use if you were to register for the exam, easy in, easy out, pay their fees and they submit them to the colleges on your behalf. You want to allow just like with the transcripts a few weeks lead time for those scores to go out because these are national organizations and it does take a little bit of time, although they are sent electronically for them to process your request and then get it to the schools. I think that's it for now. Next up we have Ryan Cox. Hi everyone, I'm Ryan Cox. I'm the new guy in town. Fun fact for me, I actually, I've been working in the field for, this is my 12th year, I spent the last 11 at Waltham High School, but I actually graduated from Arlington many years ago at this point. So it's good to be back here. And for me, I attended Providence College. I made that decision for two reasons. One, they had a team in the big east, basketball team in the big east and number two, it looked good on the white board that my history teacher allowed students to write their name in the college they were attending. So I thought it looked better. I felt like I was trying to keep up with the Joneses. I wanted to look good. I didn't really know anything about the school. I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. When I got on campus, I was in for a rude awakening. The transition for me was challenging. So when we were talking about a lot of the factors that will help students get into college, I always try to come at it with the lens that it's not just about getting in, that's just the beginning of the journey. It's also about being happy and being successful at the place that the student ends up choosing. So I'm gonna talk about a few of those as well. So very excited to be here. A few of these factors, the grades and the test scores that the previous two presenters talked about are very important. There are also a lot of other ways that students can put forward their best application. What we're talking about here is how can the student present themselves in a way that best encapsulates what they're good at, where their strengths are and what kind of student is gonna be coming to campus. One of the ways that they can do that is through the essay. When we talk about the essay, I'm usually referring to the Common Application Essay, there are six prompts that students can choose from and if none of those kind of rings true to the student, there's a seventh option where they can pick their own topic. So the essay is really important because it allows the student to come out of that application. When someone's sitting there reading sometimes multiple essays and applications in a given day, the student wants to have themselves kind of come out to that reader, leave the reader with a positive impression and a lasting impression of the applicant. And the essay is a great way to do that. Something I like to point out is this really comes down to, I think sometimes students will ask, well, what do you think college reps are looking for? What's gonna be the topic they wanna see? What do they wanna see me write about? And my answer is always be yourself. You're putting yourself forward and you don't know who is gonna be reading that application, you don't know what they're gonna be looking for, what kind of biases they may have. So you're gonna put your best self forward that you're most proud of in that essay. If you're funny, be funny. If you're academically curious, demonstrate that in the essay. If you're a deep thinker or if there are things that you're passionate about, have that come across in the essay. In most cases, there's gonna be multiple people actually looking at an application. And if you have multiple people reading that same essay, they're all gonna be looking at it with a different lens. So just be true to yourself, the student needs to be true to themselves and put forward their strongest essay. Our website has a ton of tips that you can look at at the School Counseling website. Students are also gonna have opportunities in senior English class to talk about the essay, to frame it, to draft it, to get some feedback from teachers. So there will be opportunities for them to get some support throughout the process. I do wanna say, I think it sometimes is easy to leave this to the end. I think it's the hardest part of the application. It's an awkward, it's a 650 word limit. So that can be an awkward essay, the formatting is different for students. So it's something they can tend to push off when really the sooner they start to get those drafts together, the sooner they get some feedback on their topics, you know, the better position they are to put forward a strong essay. In addition to the regular essay or the general essay, you're gonna have some schools require supplemental essays and those generally fall into the category of either why us in the creative essay. So the why us essay is really the school is asking the student to show how they will fit into that given college campus, what are their values, their mission statements, how does that student fit into that. It's also a way for the college to see if the student has done some research, right? Like this is really important. Some of these supplemental essays are just as important and should be taken just as seriously as the main essay. Because it's very specific to the college, the college wants to know that the student has kind of done their homework leading up to writing that essay. The creative question is really just that. It's meant to be more of a fun approach to writing. It gives students an opportunity to get a different side of themselves out to the college. I think a recent one I saw from Smith College was pick a title of a song that you think encapsulates your personality and tell us why. So a lot of kids can have fun with that type of question. So a lot of the recommendations, this is a very busy slide. I'm not gonna go bullet by bullet because I'll get myself caught up. I also apologize, my allergies are killing me so I'll try not to lose my voice. Ultimately last spring, I was recommended that students in their junior year reach out to some teachers to write recommendations. Typically it's gonna be one or two classroom teachers from one of the five core subject areas unless a student is applying specifically to like a performing arts or a fine arts program. They may wanna have a specialist teacher write a recommendation. If the student has not talked to a teacher yet or secured a couple of recommendations, that's okay. For those students that are applying during regular decision in January and February, they have plenty of time to go track down some teachers and make sure they have that taken care of. If the student does not have teachers kind of in line to write the recommendations and they're planning on applying during the early deadlines, that's something they wanna get on ASAP. Yeah, there is some time limit there so we wanna make sure that we're being respectful to the teachers and give them the teachers time to write a thoughtful recommendation. So as we get back to, now we're back in the fall, we wanna recommend that kids check in, touch base with their teachers. If they talk to them last spring, this follow up just makes sure that the teacher is still anticipating writing that recommendation. Once they have the teachers identified, they wanna officially request that they send their recommendation through Naviance. They wanna fill out the teacher request questionnaire which is also found in Naviance so that the teacher has that information while they're writing the rec. In addition, going back to the timeline that Ms. Lichter had posted, we wanna make sure that students are reaching out to teachers at least three weeks before their first deadline. All right, so in person, via email, both, however they wanna do it, make sure that they're letting that teacher know, hey, I have deadlines coming up, make sure that the teacher has plenty of time to write that recommendation. We ask that for any AHS staff member that's writing a recommendation that the student does not request that through the Common App. The Common App has nothing to see to recommendations here at Arlington that's all handled through Naviance. So that can actually throw a wrench in the process and kinda hold things up. So they do not do anything with recommendations through the Common App, it's all through Naviance. And we'll review that with them as well. Another thing to keep in mind with recommendations is different schools have different requirements for how many recommendations they'll accept. Some want one, they'll take up to two, some will take two and will not read any more than that, some will read a bunch. So every school is different. Sorry, I hope I don't run out of water. Broke my train of thought there, I apologize. Just be aware of what each school's policy is on the number of recommendations that they'll take. There are students who have the opportunity to ask people outside of Arlington to write a recommendation. I would recommend that they talk to their counselor to make sure it's an appropriate person to have write the recommendation. It's appropriate to send to colleges. We don't wanna overwhelm college admissions offices with too many recommendations. They have a ton of things that they're going through and reading through. It really needs to be an appropriate person or highlight something special in that student to make it worthwhile in sending. In addition to the teacher recs, the counselors are gonna be automatically sending recommendations to students applying to four-year colleges. They don't need to ask us if we'll do it. We're gonna do it regardless. We do ask that there are three components that they take care of in order for us to write a strong rec. We want them to take care of the council recommendation form in Naviance. We want them to complete a resume. They can use a template that's provided in Naviance or they can give us, each council may be different but they could also submit their own personal template that they put together for a resume to allow us to see their outside involvement. And then the last piece would be the parent response form which is also in Naviance and I think we may point that out later on in the presentation. Those three things allow us to write a strong recommendation for the student and make sure that we get all pieces of information that we need. As for curricular activities, another way for the student to come out of the application. You know, they're more than test scores. They are more than grades. How they spend their time outside of the six hours at Arlington High School is really what college is looking for. I don't think colleges are gonna give preference to one type of activity versus another. They do wanna see that the student is doing something with their time. That could be clubs, sports, music, performance. Could be work. It could be family responsibilities that they have. Students are gonna have the opportunity to list up to 10 activities on the Common Application and they can also rank those activities in terms of what's most important to them, which they see as most valuable to them so that students have that ability in the Common App for those students that have done a million things and they can't fit into 10 spots. They have the ability to add some additional pieces in the additional information part of the Common Application. They can also, a lot of colleges are now allowing students to upload a resume in another section of the application that allows them to make sure that everything is being captured. Let's see. I got reinforcements in my water. Thank you. Demonstrated interest. This is where I think it's kind of, there's two pieces to the demonstrated interest. You wanna show the college that you're interested in the school, that you've done your research, that you really do wanna potentially attend this college if they let you in, you know, if myself, Ms. Rakowski have very similar academic profiles but she's been on campus three times, she's interviewed, she's come and met with the college representative when they come here to Arlington. She's more likely to get the admission because the likelihood of her going on campus and accepting that, you know, end enrolling in the school is higher in the college's eyes. So there's a piece where you wanna show the college that you're into them and that, you know, that you've done your research. The other piece is coming back to the fit, right? So there's no harm in doing the extra research. You know, it also helps the student. The student gets a sense of I really do like this. I like the way they run their classes. I like to vibe on campus. I like the way that they kind of sell their curriculum. I like the way that they, the types of classes they have us take. Those are all things that the student can walk away from these types of activities I'm feeling good about. Right, and the sneaky one about emails. It's kind of creepy, but they can, you know, that the colleges can, they can check how many times a student has opened an email that they've sent out. This is not universal across all colleges, but it's something that there's a school you know you're applying to and you get an email from them. Be safe, open it up, like on a link it's inside it. And just again, just showing that you are interested in that school. Okay. And just to point out that if it's a school that is close to Arlington, it's within the student's best interest to make sure they get on campus at least once. Colleges are gonna expect if they can reasonably get there, that they've come to campus, they've done some sort of activity on campus. Otherwise it may, it may, you know, raise a question mark for that, for that college. And the last piece for me, in terms of talking about the factors is the interview. You know, the interview is not all schools offer them, but if some schools require them, and other schools will say that they recommend it, or that it's optional, if it's a college that the student is interested in and they allow or they provide the opportunity to interview, students should do it. They really should. I mean, it's a chance again for them to get themselves off of that page, off of that application and get their personality and their character out in front of that, the college representative. You know, it's a really good opportunity for the student to also learn and ask questions about the school. In some cases it's gonna be with an admission representative, in some cases it might be an alumni that's gonna vary by school, but students should take advantage of it if it's offered. For students that are applying to a specialized program, usually that's gonna be in the fine arts, performing arts, they may require, as part of the application, a portfolio of works so that the student can demonstrate their strength in that given area. It's gonna be less traditional in terms of how the applicant is evaluated by the admission staff. So there are, just to pay attention to those, if there's particular majors like that, that the student is staying on top of what those additional or alternate criteria might be. And as always staying on top of the requirements and the deadlines is ultra important throughout this whole process. I think I'm turning it over to Ms. Hirsch. Hi, my name is Kathy Hirsch and I am in my 17th year here at Arlington High School. One of my fun facts is that Danielle and I actually started the same day together 17 years ago, so it's great to have been working together for that long. I'm originally from a small town called Barrington, Rhode Island, one of the greatest places around. If you're looking for a good day trip, I can give you some recommendations in Rhode Island. I attended the University of New Hampshire as an undergrad. A piece that I remember about my college application process was going for the interview, which I really was not prepared for. I was with a friend who was going there for swimming, I said, sure, I'll go for an interview too. The person who interviewed me talked about his experience studying a domestic study away at San Diego State University. He was volunteering for admissions and I thought those are two things that really appealed to me. So I ended up enrolling there. I worked in the admissions office as an undergraduate. I studied for a semester at San Diego State University, so don't underestimate the importance of making connections and talking to people and reaching out through the process, and it can be a great self-discovery process. And I would also like to share in the vein of reassuring all of you that my two children have graduated from this high school. They and their friends have had to come back and say how well-prepared they were for the work in college and how happy they are that they found the right fit in their school. So there's a great deal of hope that this time next year you'll be feeling really good about where your kids land and you'll have a lot more downtime to enjoy. Okay, so factors considered in the admission process. Lester is gonna show you a little bit about Naviance and hopefully some of you have your own accounts already, but Naviance is a great tool for using statistics for Arlington High School graduates in terms of grade point averages and standardized test scores and the results with college applications to specific universities. What tools like that don't factor in is the competitiveness of specific programs within colleges and universities. So you need to be careful about that. So you may be looking at UMass Amherst and say I feel like I'm solidly in the middle range of students who've been admitted to that university, except if your child is applying for the nursing program which accepts a very small number of students every year and has much higher criteria for admission than the general pool. So that's something that's important to be aware of and something that's great to ask questions about when you're visiting colleges and you go to those information sessions. So we listed some of the programs that typically have a more selective criteria but that really varies from school to school. So you wanna do your research there about those programs. Also on the applications you'll notice that most schools will allow a first and second choice major program for students to select. So I recommend whenever you can to list a second choice major. There are times where maybe the student doesn't meet the criteria for that more selective first choice major but they would be admissible under another program. And so rather than cutting off that option early in the fall you may say, well if they don't get in for physical therapy they definitely don't wanna go to Boston University anyway. Sometimes students, more than sometimes factors that are important to them early in the process are different than factors that become important when they're making the final decision. So I encourage you to keep your options open to the extent possible in the process and why not put that second choice major? You can always turn the offer down later in the process. Factors considered in the admission process special circumstances. Who would we be if we weren't here to help students who have special circumstances? So this is the reason a lot of us got into this field to begin with. So even on the admission side they want to hear about special circumstances that students may have experienced. And there is an opportunity for students to communicate some of that information maybe through the essay, maybe through the additional information section of the common application. Maybe through an interview that they have with an alumni or a person in the admission office. And then as counselors we will each write an individual, a customized letter for each student. So those letters take different shape depending on each student. If there is a student for whom the special circumstances are an important part of their profile then that's a place that we can focus on explaining those circumstances in the process. So when we sit down to talk with the students individually that's a great opportunity for them to let us know. Sometimes sadly we learn things that the students have been living with for a long time and they didn't feel comfortable or that it was important enough to bring it forward until we bring it up through the college application process. But we're happy to write about those circumstances. Also in the common application there's a section that we alluded to earlier for students to list activities. And the common application has added a new category in their dropdown menu this year to reflect responsibilities at home which is really great for students who may have limited ability to get involved with all the great things that many of our students are able to participate in because they're doing childcare or taking care of a parent or an elder in their family. So we need to let students know that the things that they do like such as those activities that I just mentioned are important in this process too. And we and the college is value hearing about them. Anyone out there have a prospective college athlete in their house? Not too many, okay. So for students who are strong athletes and are interested in pursuing participation of the division one or division two level in college they will need to create an account through the NCAA eligibility center. Once they create that account they're gonna give us permission to upload their high school transcript to the account and the student will be responsible for sending their standardized test scores to the clearing house. So the eligibility center is the organization within the NCAA that determines academic eligibility for participation for all division one and division two athletes. So for a student who was not vetted through the NCAA eligibility center will not be allowed to walk onto a practice field for division one or two team when they enter college. So this is something they can talk to their counselors about. We added this slide, which is probably hard to see but sort of as a reminder that there are many factors all of which we have cited considered in the admission process. And although this is taken from a small sample of schools from 2017, we thought it might be helpful for you to see there are some factors that have a higher level of importance than others for different schools in the process. So that said, the important thing there is for different schools. So as you're visiting these schools they're gonna let you know what they really value and what they're looking for in a candidate. Our recommendation is that you control what you can in the process. So there are institutional priorities set by individual colleges and universities that we have no control over whether or not we meet some of those priorities. But students do have control over being thoughtful in the application that they complete, writing a thoughtful essay, making sure that their documents are sent in on time and whatnot. And this just gives sort of a general overview of how different factors may play into the decision making. Financial aid and scholarships, everybody's favorite part. One thing we like to bring up is need blind versus need aware admissions. So the cost of college ranges from college and university institution to institution in how the financial aid process is used also varies from school to school. So I would say the majority of colleges and universities adhere to a standard known as need blind admissions, meaning they'll review the criteria for the student who's applying based on the strengths of their application and the financial aid and scholarship piece comes after that. So they're admitting students regardless of whether or not they're applying for financial aid in regardless of the level of need they may have. There is also a process known as need aware admissions and I think schools are not quite as forthcoming about this part of the process and it's really sometimes even unclear within the university year to year where they fall on this continuum. So a need aware admissions school is a school that might at some point in the process consider whether or not the student has applied for financial assistance and what the level of need may be for that student when they're making an admission decision. Most schools who employ some form of need aware admissions, it's usually for sort of borderline decisions that they're making toward the end of the admission process. So maybe that final, final pool that they're trying to distinguish who they're gonna be able to admit and not, there may be some awareness of the level of need for the students before they make a decision. That said, today we had the Boston University representative here and BU recently came out and said that they're gonna be meeting 100% of financial need for all admitted applicants. Side fun fact, Ann and I both worked in the financial aid office at Boston University in a prior life so we are very interested in following these trends. So I was curious, how is that decision to fund all of these students gonna play into admissions? And they're not quite sure but they did, the representative did say that they've been need aware in that final pool of applicants actually for several years, so it's interesting. What she also said was she encourages people to apply for financial assistance if you think you need it. So there's no point in gaming the system not applying for financial aid because you think it will give you a leg up to get into the university if you're not gonna be able to afford to go to the university without the financial aid. There's a lot to consider there but just to give you some idea, those are some of the things that are going on in the college side. I mentioned that the cost of attendance varies from school to school so you wanna be aware of that as well and we encourage in addition to balancing the list with retrialistic and safety schools, I encourage students to have a conversation at home about how the cost of college may factor into their selection process and consider adding a couple of schools that give a little bit of variety based on cost. So the truth is if a higher cost school, if the financial aid package works out well, the school with the higher price tag initially might become more affordable than the lower cost school. So it's not time to rule out schools on the basis of cost but it is a good idea to rule in a school or two in case the financial aid does not pan out the way you hope it will so that you have a lower cost option to work with. Asking questions about college scholarships and the financial aid process when visiting schools is a great thing to do and also sort of keeping an eye on the whole financial aid and scholarship process is a great job for parents in this process. I think often parents feel a little bit left out or lost when the student does not want you looking over their shoulder at their essay or taking a look when they're filling out the application but I can assure you that the students will be relieved that someone else is gonna worry about the financial aid deadlines and making sure that the applications get submitted on time. Another program that's out there that can help with the cost of college is called Tuition Break sponsored by the New England Board of Higher Education and we put the website here. This is a program that allows, within New England, for a resident of Massachusetts, if there's a program that's not offered by a university, a state university in Massachusetts but is offered at a New England state university outside of Massachusetts, you can apply through this program for discounted tuition at the out-of-state university. So it's a great thing to look at. It could save you several thousand dollars at a higher cost state university. Sometimes, honestly, sometimes the students, they know the primary area they're interested in studying but they're still exploring other things. Maybe one of these programs can be added on to what they're looking into studying while they're at the school if it's gonna save several thousand dollars while they're there. So it's a great resource to look into. Each college will have their own requirements for applications and deadlines. Again, this is a great thing for parents to start keeping track of. What applications are required and what is the earliest deadline that you have to complete it by? So the FAFSA, which is the free application for federal student aid, will be required by every college and university if you're interested in pursuing need-based financial aid. That application becomes available online, October 1st, and they'll be asking for you to use your 2018 federal tax information. So you should have that complete hopefully at this time and it's actually not that bad to sit down and fill it out. Some schools require a second application to capture more information about your family's financial strength and ability to pay. And that would be the CSS profile that is accessed through the college board. And then there are some college-specific applications, I think less of that now, but there could be some schools out there that have their own homegrown financial aid application. There are also specific applications for some merit scholarships on some university websites. So Boston University is one of those. So sometimes it takes a little digging to uncover those. So you wanna make sure you're checking to see if there's this trustee scholarship at Boston University that requires a special application and an earlier deadline. You're not necessarily gonna know about that unless you go explore the website to see what's there. A couple of scholarship opportunities, the Coplick and the Adams, are based on MCAS results. And these are tuition waivers at state universities within Massachusetts. So in the spring, we sent out notifications to students, juniors, who are eligible to apply for the Stanley Coplick scholarship. They would have had to earn one advanced and two proficient scores on their MCAS. And then they're invited to apply by submitting qualifying advanced placement and or SAT subject test scores. The Adams scholarship is also a tuition waiver. It has a lower GPA in order to maintain the scholarship while you're in school. But the Adams would be offered to the top 25% of our MCAS scores within this senior class. Again, having to earn one advanced and two scores of proficient, but score within the top 25% among their peers. And there's not a second step application for that. That's an automatic scholarship if they fall within that range. It's pretty competitive at Arlington High because our students perform so well on the MCAS exams. So it's nice that the Coplick is there as an opportunity for those who fall below the top 25%. We have on the Arlington High School website a scholarship database. So there are need-based financial aid offered by financial aid offices. They'll also take a look at merit aid that they can offer with their institutional funds. And then there are all sorts of outside scholarships that you can identify and apply for on the basis of all different kinds of things. It could be family need. It could be special talent that the student has. It could be based on a hobby, all sorts of things out there. So we have a scholarship database on our website where we've collected information about community and private scholarships. And then there are also links to search engines like FastWeb if you wanna spend some time searching for outside scholarships on your own. In the winter, the Arlington Community Scholars application will come out. I think some students are intimidated by this. We encourage all of our seniors who are planning to go to college to fill out the community scholarship application. We have a very generous community in Arlington and you'd be amazed by how much money students are offered through our local community scholarships, but they need to fill out that application to be considered. And then finally, we will sponsor our annual financial aid night, October 7th at 7 p.m. in this room. Has anyone come in the past to that night? Okay, so we have Kevin Fudge returning who works in the field in Boston. Believe it or not, he makes it an enjoyable presentation. He's probably the best financial aid speaker I've ever seen. He makes it fun and it's informative. So please join us for that. And I also encourage you to ask your kids to join you if they're willing. Kevin's approach is really about being a wise consumer with decision-making around college. So it's a great message for the students to hear as well. On that note, Lester is gonna come back and help us out with Naviance information. Okay, just bear with me for a minute while I get a little bit set up. I've already decided I'm going to move through this very quickly because we're getting late in the night and we want to allow as much time as possible for questions. So we're gonna be working in the labs a lot with your students around various facets of Naviance, but they've also had a lot of exposure to it as Anne mentioned in the past. So they're pretty knowledgeable about how to get around various aspects and we'll continue to work with them as they hone in on the three major parts that they need to see at this point. If you have questions about Naviance, you can email or call us at any time. I'm happy to sit with people and geek out on Naviance at any point. It's a very powerful system and there's so much to it that we really only touch the surface when we work with your students. Real quick, there are basically three main areas that you're gonna want to make sure your student hits as they go through. The first one is matching their common application so that it talks to Naviance when they get to that point. Obviously, the first thing you wanna do is set up a common application account. Then the next thing you're gonna wanna do is go to the colleges I am applying to field and then the big red box is gonna come up. All you have to do is click on match and then that will help by asking two or three questions about the student and date of birth, full name and they will link the two together. If there are any issues, feel free to contact us. We'll help you, but by and large, students are very successful in this very easy step, but it's critical in our ability to submit information to the colleges that accept the common application for teachers to be able to submit information to the colleges that the students want them to. If the student does not have colleges on their list on the common application that they're looking to apply to and have asked for transcripts for on the Naviance side, then there will be issues. So you wanna make sure that the list of colleges in Naviance match the common app. And for those schools that don't accept the common app, don't worry, we still have the ability to submit stuff electronically to those schools as well. It's just not directly tied to the common application. The second thing your child should be very aware of is the ability to request transcripts. And that's done again through the same link. So colleges I am applying to and then manage transcripts. So you click there, you get to the screen. Typically there's a plus sign in the right-hand corner where they just click and add to school. The keys there are to make sure that you put in the appropriate deadlines for those institutions. The type of application, be it early action, priority, regular decision, rolling, and then click done and then there's a transcript of all the schools that the student has applied to. And then you can monitor the status of those materials coming from the high school as it moves across the process as you see there. And last but not least is how to request letters of recommendation from teachers. For this one, go to colleges, colleges home, scroll down, scroll down, scroll down until you reach the apply to colleges and letters of recommendation right here. Oh, I got kicked out. And then there'll be a drop-down field for each of the teachers here at Arlington High School and you just select the teacher, let them know that you want them to write a letter of recommendation either for a specific school or for all the schools on your student's list and then hit submit. That sends a notification to the teachers. Like we indicated before, you wanna follow up to make sure that everything is straight and that the teachers are aware of the earliest application deadline. But again, the students can follow that process along as well. If for some reason you have any questions about adding those three steps, if you go to the home screen in Naviance, scroll all the way down to the bottom, there are how-to videos on those three steps that are a minute and a half each that can walk you through the process or feel free to contact us as well. And I'm gonna turn it over to Danielle. All right, I'm gonna bust through the end here. So basically just to wrap up admissions process from the college side. All pieces of the application are joined together in the admissions office. So through Naviance and Common App and the application, the transcripts are linked. The only things and the recommendations, the only things coming from the outside are the SAT or ACT scores. And the financial aid application will be linked as well. So the college needs time to process the applications. So we recommend the student to do that. We recommend the student checks periodically with colleges on the status of the application. Sometimes you'll get postcards, emails, annoying messages, things that are like transcripts missing, the application's missing, don't panic. All right, everything does come together and it does take a little bit of time. If it's taking longer than normal and that student can feel free to email or call the admissions office to check in. So making it less stressful. My first piece of advice is just to try and keep things in perspective. We recommend students adhere to deadlines and stay organized. We ask for communication with us. If there's any questions, concerns, parents, please check the newsletter. Lots of information will be sent out. We also suggest having a balanced list, balanced list, very important. We want students to feel good and like their reach realistic and safety schools. We wanna make sure students have all applications ready, whether ED, EA, pending the results of applying early so they have the next batch of applications ready to go if they need to do that. We recommend they attend rep visits and information sessions. They should be prepared. Maybe look up the college, have a question or two prepared. And students should not feel like a failure if they don't get into their top choice. The don'ts. We recommend them not to contact colleges for their decisions. Don't wait until last minute. And definitely not to wait to apply for financial aid because once that money is gone, it's gone. And please do not complete your student's application and essay for them. Colleges do know that. Quick little summary, just for a responsibilities checklist. As parents, just visit schools if you can with your student, complete the parent response form on Naviance, fill out your part of the financial aid forms and definitely have an open conversation with your student about financing college. For our responsibilities, we are here to help the whole process. We meet with seniors and groups individually. We assist with the entire post-secondary planning process. We write and submit letters of rec. We submit the secondary school report form, the school profile and transcripts. And we also have an open conversation with them if they wanna talk to us about financing. Teacher responsibilities to write and submit letters of recommendation. And one last thing that we ask students to do is to kindly write thank you notes to teachers, counselors for writing their recommendations. It takes a good hour or two or more per student to write letters. And it's not in teachers' contracts, they do it out of the goodness of their heart. So we think that feel it's something important they should do. You're probably all very happy, it's the last slide. All right, so just a reminder, I'm gonna post the presentation from tonight on the school counselor website. And very quickly, the white packet that you have just to go over very quick. The first sheet after the agenda is a quick how to apply to college's list. It basically takes the parts of the application package, breaks it down with what needs to be done by section. On the back are directions to completing the common app and matching their actual common app to Naviance. The second sheet is a graphic how to apply to college. We feel it's very important because many students get confused with all the different parts. So we hope with this visual in the packet, it's more clear. Of course, there still will be a lot of questions. The next page is the college application tracker that we've referred to a few times. I have sent it electronically to all the students in the senior class. So they just really need to make a copy of the document and they can use it electronically and they can actually see it, okay? It's not really tiny and they can fill in whatever they'd like. The next page is the transcripts, request deadlines, directions on how to request transcripts through Naviance, SAT dates, deadlines, and ACT dates and deadlines. So I would like to open up this time for any general questions. Once we're done with questions, we're basically, the counselors are gonna go to certain areas of the auditorium if you'd like to meet them. So I'll open up to any questions, a lot of information. So the question is, if someone asks an outside of Arlington High recommender, how do you link that together with your application? How does it join at the college side? So basically if it's a non Arlington High staff member, we suggest that the student puts their contact information into the common app. The common app will send an email to that particular person and they will send a letter through the common app. If the school is a non common application school, for the most part that letter needs to be stuffed in an envelope with the address on it and stamped. But that's slim pickings, that isn't too many schools. Yep, question is, if it's someone at a specific college, yes you can put in their contact information, common app sends an automated generated email and then that's how they submit their recommendation. When is the deadline for first term? I believe November 5th, 3rd, anyone know? The first term grades will not be on the transcripts for early decision, early action for November 1st and may or may not be on the transcripts for November 15th. But as soon as those grades are stored, we send the first term grades automatically to those early colleges that they apply to. So no matter what, the first term grades are sent. So the question is, how many years of data do we have showing a Naviance in the scattergrams or when we're comparing Arlington students, except they're Arlington students, we have about four to five years of data at this point. So we can adjust that if needed. So what is the advantage of applying early decision? Well, I would say one advantage to many schools, not all schools, is a higher percentage of accepted students, okay? Early decision is also a perk for a family or a student that can 110% pay the college tuition. And if they are looking for a specific program or a school that they definitely wanna go to. So there's definitely a specific criteria for applying ED. If financial reasons prohibit that, then early decision is not really the way to go. So is it harder to get in early action? My answer is changing, so I think it's shifting a bit. There are some schools, I could say in the local area, that seem to be more competitive with the early action deadline. So like Steve over here is saying, I wanna put you on the spot, there may be some advantages to applying to a safety school that a student really could see themselves going to, a student really likes that school. There could be an advantage if they meet or above the admissions criteria. That might be a way to go, but sometimes with the more competitive schools, early action might be a little bit more difficult to get into. And that's a conversation that the students have with us one-on-one when they say, oh, I wanna apply to Northeastern and UMass Amherst Early, we'll talk through, is this, is your application at its best? Does it make most sense to apply early action? So that is a great question. What does the deadline include? Is it the whole entire package? So the deadline, the firm deadline is for the student's application. The application, let's just say, has to be in by 11.59 p.m. that day or 5 p.m. that day. You have to look at the specific college website about the deadline. There are some schools that are very concrete. All documents, scores, application, transcripts, recommendations has to be in by the date. And then there are other schools that will say deadline November 1st will accept transcripts letters by November 15th, okay? So, but that's specific to each school, so I don't wanna give you like a concrete answer, but what we say to the students is, a deadline is a deadline. You get everything in by the deadline, no matter what. And the teachers and the counselors, we meet and beat the deadlines, okay? So, applying early decision, you're pretty much agreeing to, you know, you're able to pay that sticker price. You still apply for financial aid. Some schools might say, we might be able to give you this amount of money, but the financial aid package does not come back that early to know exactly what you're gonna get. So, you're pretty much signing a contract that you're applying there, no matter what the financial situation is. Well, not that you're applying, but you're paying them. So, any other questions? It's great. Well, thank you so much. We're just gonna, if you wanna say hello to your students counselor in the back left corner, myself and Ms. Lichter in the back right, Ms. Hirsh and Ms. Benson, and Mr. Eggleston and Mr. Cox will be right here. Thank you so much for bearing with us on this very hot night. Thank you.