 Hi everyone, we're going to get started. So first I want to thank all of you for coming, this is so exciting for us as a counseling department to have you in person, it feels really, really, really good so I hope the night isn't too stressful. So thank you again. I also want to give a very special thanks to ACMI, they are volunteering their time here tonight to record our presentation so just a little plug for them if your student is interested in creating, producing, recording, any videos for school or town have them contact ACMI for volunteer opportunities and we are so grateful that they're they were able to make this happen for us so thank you ACMI. So I'm going to leave this slide up a little longer than I normally would because we've had some changes in our department this year and of course the pink sheet that we made 300 copies of is wrong so we're all adjusting all right so your pink sheet actually has the counselor breakdown and in the packet you also have this slide all right so I'm so sorry about the pink sheet but I promise you anyone that had Ryan Cox now has Amy Lyons and I will introduce her in one second and you will be in great hands for the letters of recommendation so please don't worry all right all right so I have the counselor standing here Carolyn rest she has the beginning I'm sorry I'm gonna move this thing here she has the beginning of the alphabet a through C-A-R-A next is myself Danielle Rakowski C-I-F-O these are last names in case you didn't know Kathy Hirsch has F-R-A-N to K-E-N and Benson last names L-E to N-E-G Karen Gottscheller N-I-R to S-C-H-I and then Amy Lyons S-T-E to Z Matt Rewain is also new to us this year we were so fortunate to have extra staff added to our counseling staff and why I saved him for last is because he has a variety of letters C-A-R-M to C-H-U-N K-E-R to L-A-S-P S-C-H-O to S-T-A all right I quit now I'm done no it's very complicated and we also have a wonderful graduate intern with us this year she's an Arlington high former grad Sophia Shavs and I won't forget anything else I promise all right so I'm just gonna start with opening remarks just give you a little bit of information and then we're gonna hopefully stick to the 6 30 to 8 p.m. and we're gonna do question and answer from 8 to 8 30 and we're really gonna try to finish right at 8 30 so you guys can all get on with your lives after tonight so one of our biggest messages as a department is to keep options open we really talked to the students about that trying to give them a really good message about that very important counselors are here to help through the entire process they're here to help the students one-on-one in groups and we're also here to help you so please always feel free to reach out if you have any questions we offer senior seminars throughout the next two weeks and then this year we're gonna try something new through the month of October during X-Block which is Tuesdays about 2 10 we have guided seminars so we're gonna do some seminars on college app working on college apps on resume writing activity writing and then just like the nitty gritty of the entire process so we're gonna give the seniors a little extra hand-holding in addition to the on PSAT day which is October 12th we're gonna open up time all the counselors are gonna be available for seniors to come in and we're gonna help them with their college applications so a lot of extra time this year to work with seniors after our seminars we work with students individually one-on-one as many times as they need we'll answer all questions and do the A to Z for the whole entire college application process we will have coffee hours tomorrow morning I think it's like 9 to 945 the zoom links not that you can click on it from your paper presentation but I will have the slides posted to the school counseling website under announcement so you can click on the live link there and like I said it's tomorrow morning 9 to 945 and on the next slide you'll be able to see who's meeting with who also one other thing at the end of the packet there's a QR code if you could just scan that when you get around to it we'd like to keep attendance for who is here tonight so last and most important is parents you need to play a supportive role very important but the students your students should drive the process all right so support is great but don't do it for them coffee links which I said is in your packet but I'll also post this presentation and I'm going to bring up Miss Benson she will continue from here to talk about school counseling supports and more thank you so much for braving the weather today I'm Miss Benson I'm gonna talk briefly about what supports are offered in the school counseling office one thing that we really ask students to do is continually check the student count the student counseling website we try and distill the most important information for the school counseling website there we really do get that they have a lot of different ways in which they can get information so the school counseling website is not only a great resource for them but also for you Mr. Kowski at the top of every month sends via email a school counseling newsletter it is jam packed with fantastic information so much like Dr. Jangers back to school letter this letter Mr. Kowski tries to kind of brief you on the most important issues of that month so you can imagine the fall is really going to be deadline driven as far as application issues this spring she's really going to incorporate information about scholarships so please if you can play pay close attention to your emails especially this fall when it's really mission critical to make sure we're not missing any deadlines we also have a departmental Google classroom that we try and keep as brief as possible but also list listing only the important items we know that your student has Google classrooms for all their academic subjects so we thought it would be helpful for them to see everything they need in a school counseling department Google classroom we'll also post announcements about our group senior seminars as well as the mini workshops that we're offering in October there so rest assured your students will get information in several different electronic formats I think our biggest challenge is how do we reach that because we know that most of them are doing you know like the smallest you know tweeting or Instagram or whatever we're not doing Instagram but we're trying to stay relevant and while also being concise the location of our offices has been a bit of a challenge because we are located on the like the furthest away it's a good like seven-minute walk so it's not the most centrally located right now for students we're near we're located near the back of the football fields or where people park but your students are used to it it's also across from the AHS nurses office so many of them have have found us plenty in the last 12 months so this is where we'll be for the duration of their time here at AHS finally I think it's really important we feel it's really important to mention there's social and emotional support here in the school we are the first line of defense as your student school counselor but there's also school social workers here so if you have a concern about your student please don't hesitate to reach out to us and we will assess the situation and figure out how best to support them here this is really dry I'm going to breeze through it this is a review of the graduation requirements a hundred and six credits by the end of senior year oh PS by the way this is for the state of Massachusetts it's not to something AHS manufactured four years of English three years of math every school counselor on the stage has recommended your student to take four years of math the state requires three but any public college or university here in the state of Massachusetts requires four three years of science three years of social studies US history one and two modern world two years of a world language many students take three and even four one year of a fine or performing art five courses of wellness and PE for the MCAS we of course noticed a typo at six in your packet the paper packet it's wrong on this slide it's correct that your student has to pass the ELA and the math the science was waved because in spring 2020 due to the pandemic your student wasn't able to sit for the science MCAS okay and then 40 hours of community service your students are well aware of where they need to log those that's in Naviance in a system called x2 ball if they have any questions or concerns they come down and talk to us and we show them where it is so even though today is there tonight is very college application heavy we really want you to know that we discussed a full array of post-secondary options with students here at AHS yes the majority of students graduate from here and attend a four-year college or university and we also have students who we support applications to two-year colleges middle sex bunker Hill I worked with student just today who is going to be doing a gap year next year so we talked about the implications of that what does that look like as far as which schools will allow you to defer let's talk about some gap year fairs or what your what your goal is so that is definitely in our wheelhouse and we're happy to talk to you or your student about that some students are interested in the PG here maybe they need one more year or want an additional year of high school that may sound crazy but there are some students who want another year that's great we can strategize with them about how we've worked with other students who had similar interests technical trade schools last year I had a student who was interested in plumbing I have a student from a few years ago who also did Peterson's in electrical so this is not although it may not be the majority of students here this is certainly things that were well aware of and we can help guide your student if that's their path the military that is also an option students can go into the reserves or they can join a selective service bunch that is their interest and we can help support them getting more information about that and certainly the world of work right maybe they have a part-time job in high school that they really enjoy or they're not quite sure what they want to do and they're not ready to make that jump to commit to college or or anything else totally fine we'll talk about what's a good trajectory for the work you're in or how do you get to that job that you're interested in the bottom line with this slide is there is no one-size-fits-all we are here to really make a tailored post-secondary plan for your student so when we're talking about you know what that post-secondary plan is the the term the right fit comes to mind and there's some things we like to just kind of talk about with our students and with our families it's really important to remain student-centered what's the perfect fit for you might not be the perfect fit for your student and oftentimes kind of what informs like the parents idea of what the fit is can be what their experience was so we kind of joke in my household I went to a big 10 University I'm from Wisconsin I went to University of Wisconsin so like we play the fight song on Saturdays and the football game and you know we've like indoctrinated our child well she you know is going to end up at like a teeny tiny school and you know what that is okay maybe she's gotten her fill of Bucky Badger which is totally our fault so I'm gonna have to check myself it's not about me and the Wisconsin fight song so keep that in mind when you're talking to your student about you know what is it that they're interested in the focus is on them really also academic offerings what are they interested in does that school have courses in your students major that's a good thing I mean it sounds so basic but it's important to check right also does it have academic course offerings in courses that they're interested in because what they say they want in October fall 2022 maybe totally different in March 2023 and that's okay we just want to make sure that the courses and the opportunities at that school or at that job or at that gap year can bridge a wide array of interests financial need is really important we will always talk about financial safety's as well as other academic safety's academic support programs what's the tutoring services like there if you have a student on a 504 and IP what is the academic support look like at that school that's important stuff to ask on tours it's important stuff to sniff out on the website also what about job placement we all know about our local Northeastern and our co-op program it's known for it what about the other universities just great questions to think about when you're touring or talking to your student so how do you get to know like what's the right fit for your student this there's nothing like boots on the ground on a college campus tour for the last three years colleges have really had to pivot right because for a while they had to say no no no no visitors we will you can join us virtually in a virtual open house you can take a virtual tour we will hold virtual info sessions the good news is there was some pluses to that side of the pandemic because people could tour UCLA from the comforts of Mass Ave right and not be missing out on anything because nobody could go so we would still suggest you take advantage of the online offerings you know whether that be you want to check out MassArt and you want to find out about how to submit a good portfolio well guess what they're running an info session in three weeks get in front of your computer you know so you can leverage both and we would encourage you to do that another great thing about Arlington High School is every day we have cops coming to the building it's it's a tough building to come into because it's it's confusing so we're trying to help them find the right room and the students getting to the right room as well but this is a great opportunity this fall the admissions reps who come here are the readers for AHS what that means is they're getting a personal interaction with that person who's looking over their information so we would encourage your students not to go to every college they're interested in just because they'd miss a ton of class but maybe pick the most important ones and sign up on Naviance and attended and it just continued to explore the websites and if that college offers an interview we would say go for it or at least think about it creating a balance list we recommend anywhere between six and eight college applications that may sound bananas it may sound like a lot some families think it's too little our experience has been the college application process takes time and your student is still a student here at AHS in you know the fall is busy for them so you want to distill that list as much as you can to anywhere around that six and eight mark if it's going north of eight then pick up the phone or shoot your school counselor and email so we can chat about it so we can talk you know what's what's going on how can we help we also talk to your students about reaches realistics and like these so reach sound a reach or a stretch it is what it sounds like their academic credentials might be a little bit less than what that school is looking for right and a likely means it's a good match right that they're right on the bottom here as far as you know what that school typically accepts and then a safety is their qualifications exceed that schools you know average admittance how do you find out where you fall in this we use two tools we use the websites and the emails that we get from the college admissions office and we also use Naviance which can be a good gauge about where that is in addition to just these academic reaches and safeties and and likelies we also pull in as I mentioned before a financial safety is because we know that it's important to keep the cost of college in mind regardless of what your list looks like so we're always going to talk to your student about taking a look at schools that might fit that financial safety profile as well I think Miss West is next thank you go through and review the entire application process and all of the factors so it might be a little overwhelming but we're going to try to get through everything and make it as clear as possible so first of all just it's very important for students to research their deadlines and all the program components that go along with what schools they're applying to so different requirements vary by school and by program so for example some schools may require an earlier application such as a nursing program fine arts and you know maybe performing arts would want an audition or portfolio so it just depends and it's really important to just stay organized and for students to really keep all of that information in a way that they can you know have it at their fingertips and in open a manner that works for them because there are a lot of deadlines to pay attention to and just important that deadlines are deadlines so students should just make sure to try to you know stay organized and beat the deadlines just here we have a few of the really important websites that students will be using throughout this time so obviously the school counseling site which has a lot of information about the whole process Naviance students have accounts and also the common app so we're going to help students in the group seminars that are coming up in the next couple of weeks and they're going to help we're going to help them match their accounts so everything is electronic in the process of the applications and the common app is a universal application site that over 1,000 colleges accept so more and more each year are climbing on and and taking the common app and so it really streamlines the whole process for students so that they're not having to go to every single individual colleges website and they can just add their colleges to the common app site and apply that way so some colleges don't accept it and then they do have to apply through their website but the majority of schools do accept it and that's something that we're going to help them with to match up their accounts some students may have already done that so we also help them set up counts if they don't have one already also fee waivers are available for students if they need them and they actually request that through the common app so we can show them that as well so this next this next slide goes over some of the different admissions plans and I'm sure maybe some of you if you've done this before you've seen some of these different terms and they can get very confusing so I'm going to go over some of these and basically the regular decision is your standard regular time frame where students usually apply around January 1st or 15th and they hear back usually by April 1st and then they need to decide by May 1st that's the reply date that they have to decide by so early action there's a there's several different types of early plans and they can get a little confusing early action is a non binding admissions plan that many colleges do have and students usually apply around November 1st November 15th sometimes in December depending on the school they still do have until May to make their decision so this could be a really good plan for some students if their schools offer it especially if they're organized they have everything ready to go they want an answer earlier because they usually hear probably by the end of December in most cases and also if they have a solid transcript going into it and I'll talk more about that so that's still a non binding plan that let's apply it earlier and get an answer earlier so that can be helpful for students this next one the restrictive early action so it depends on the college's specific policy on what the restrictions are but basically it's it's an early plan it's non binding and then has certain restrictions so for example a student or a plan might say that they can apply to other early action schools but they cannot apply to an early decision program if they're doing this regular I'm sorry restrictive early action so it really does depend on the college so you don't need to memorize this now early decision is a binding plan so this is the one that differs and it really has to be done under careful consideration because this is really a big family decision where the student and family need to be on board and it really it involves you know student being 100% sure this is their top choice of school and that if accepted so they're signing an agreement the family the counselor and the students sign saying that the student will attend if they're accepted and that they have to withdraw all of their other applications so it is a big you know it's a big consideration and students on the one hand it can give them a competitive edge because it does show that they're committed to the school and that they really do want to go there but on the other hand it doesn't let them compare financial packages and you know changing their minds and things like that so that's something that's you know a big decision and we talk about that with students and we always do have students who decide to do this but there's definitely you know careful consideration for that and also just to say that I'll get to that in a second but the deposit deadline is a little bit earlier than May so they would have to deposit earlier it's usually the same as the early program so it just depends on the school but usually in December I would say so it's kind of the same thing except it is binding that's the difference and so just to and you know I'm sure there'll be lots of questions about that plan as well so priority is another is another deadline or another plan that you may see schools have and basically it depends on the school but sometimes they have a date by which if students apply they'll get consideration for merit scholarships or they might get a preference you know preference will be given to applications received by January 1st or December 1st or something like that so it just really depends on the school and what they offer you know for example many nursing programs are due for students before the regular college of that school so it's just something to think about and just to check sometimes you may see rolling applications which means that colleges accept applications as students complete them and submit them and then they process them so there's not really a date but they do continuously on an ongoing basis review applications and then give a decision so in those cases it's usually best not to wait too long because spots can fill up but just to keep them in the same timeframe as the other applications so that's something else you might see and overall you know it's very important and we help students with this but that they that they apply under the plan that will make their application it's best so for example if the student maybe needs their first quarter of senior year to really improve their grades get their GPA up it might be best to wait until the regular timeframe because it just gives them more grades to come in more of a chance to prepare whereas a student might be ready to go they have strong grades they want to apply early and get that in sometimes students apply to some schools early it doesn't have to be all or nothing so that can be really helpful too and we'll help them when we meet individually to do what's best for them so this is a really important slide and this is something that we make sure students are aware of it's going to be posted to our Google classroom and it's on the website and we're also going to go over it in our seminars so this is the transcript to request deadlines so you can see it's about three weeks prior to a college deadline is when we require students to make their request for their transcripts in Naviance so this is very very important and I think there's always confusion because we deal with it every year but students must make the request in Naviance for us counselors to know to send the transcript to colleges so a student could be working on something in the common app or in the college's own application and submit it but then if they never requested the transcript through Naviance from us then we wouldn't know that they applied so that's really the only way that we'll know and we teach them how to do this we give them directions we make sure that they know but it's really important that they match their accounts and that they're actually requesting the transcript so we send because you know the three weeks we need the time to compile and write our recommendation letter the school report form the school profile along with the transcript so for us to get all that together we do want to have a little bit of time so it's a very important and we go over this a lot with them and so we're going to go through all of the different factors considered in the admissions process so we'll start with the transcript and it's so students will get their transcripts in the seminars that we're having to review in case they have any questions and only the final grades for each year of completed school goes on the transcript so right now they're just going to see 9th 10th and 11th grade final grades as well as the GPA which is going to be cumulative through 11th grade the end of 11th grade and the GPA is also in aviance they're most up to date GPA so as the senior year grades come in each quarter they get posted and we send first term grades to colleges and second term and then we send the final transcript with the final grades to the college that the student will be attending so we only send the third term grades if the college specifically requires it but we don't automatically send that like we do the others and both the weighted and unweighted GPAs appear on the transcript so the weighted is out of a 5.25 and the unweighted is out of a 4.3 but many times colleges do recalculate the GPA based on their own formula so for example UMass the UMass system all of the colleges they they recalculate the GPA to standardize it so they do that also it's important to note that only the classes from Arlington High School are factored into the GPA so if a student transferred in from another call or from another high school those grades and classes go on the transcript that we have but they don't get factored into the GPA and we make that clear on the transcript for colleges to see but colleges of course still will see the grades and will be able to recalculate things if that's what they do so they'll see everything it just doesn't actually get factored into our GPA and I think that's oh and just another note we go over this as well when we give our directions to students but in the common app when students are filling that out and they have to report their GPA they would put that they're they want their weighted GPA that that that's what we use a weighted GPA even colleges do see both they see both on the transcript but they would put weighted GPA out of a 5.0 scale even though ours is 5.25 but we use the that's what we say 5.0 because they don't have the 5.25 so I know some people always have questions on that so let's and to continue with the transcript so what colleges are looking for are really the strength of the students courses and if they're challenging themselves appropriately also if they are showing upward trends and trajectory so their grades are improving and maintaining their grades and not declining of course we know especially with the past few years that there's extenuating circumstances and students definitely have a chance to explain anything that may have impacted their their record in the application and that's what we go into this later in the presentation but counselors as well are able to do this in the recommendation letter so students and counselors can explain things that may have you know impacted negatively the students transcript and I may have said this but early applications will only have the final grades through junior year when they initially apply and then as the first term grades come out in November then we send them along to the college but regular applications they will have the first term grades available at the start so that's what I was saying about applying when the application will be at best for the student also we'll be the GPAs get updated after the first semester so when we send mid-year grades they'll have the updated GPA okay and then we send the mid-year grades so I think that finishes it up with the transcripts well I'll pass it to Karen for the standardized tests I'm going to talk about a really fun part of the application process our standardized testing so these are the different ways that we can submit scores that students submit their scores there are schools that are test optional and thanks to COVID many more schools over 1700 additional schools than prior to COVID have gone test optional so students who maybe aren't the strongest test takers are in a really good spot to have that as one less component of their application process test blind there are some schools that accept scores in their application system but they're test blind they don't look at them at all so you can submit them they won't use them to factor into their decision process in any way colleges really do take a holistic approach to reviewing student applications they look at everything that we send everything that the students fill out and submit and test scores have become a thing that colleges are able to make a really valuable decision about a student's acceptance based on the other factors that they're submitting so the test scores as much as they're they're very important to some schools and they're still important if a student is in a higher range of what the school has typically accepted it's really not a factor that if a student decides not to submit them it will not hurt their application so we want students to really use their time filling out applications on all of those components where they can show their strengths if they haven't had the opportunity to take the SATs or ACTs or their scores weren't where they could be in terms of the number so there's a few different standardized tests that students can take the SAT is the the most common and one that us you know on the East Coast is has been the most popular over the years we do offer the SAT here at Arlington High School tomorrow is the deadline for the October test so it's kind of the final day for a late registration fee that is still available September 20th is the last day to register with a late fee for the October test there are additional tests throughout the year there's also the ACT what happened many years ago is that a hundred percent of colleges will accept the SAT or ACT and the big difference is that they're scored differently and the ACT has that science component that a lot of students do really well on if science is a subject that they're strong in it's a choice if there's no right or wrong or one that's better than the other but what's interesting is when students do take both of them there are score comparison charts and sometimes they do score higher on one over the other based on comparison so so it's interesting to compare those numbers but we know with limitations in test opportunities over the past few years not every student has had a chance to take one or more standardized tests the for students whose language is not their first language is not English they may also need to submit either a TOEFL or additional English proficiency test results so that's something really important it depends on the school so if if the student has been educated in the United States or in English in an English speaking program their entirety of their education they might be waived the requirement to take the TOEFL but there's other ways to show English proficiency for students who are maybe multilingual or English was not their first language AP exams come up in May many of you if you have a a child at the high school who is taking APs this year you'll see the test dates come out there there may and sometimes into the beginning of June but May is a big month. Those AP exam scores are typically not sent as part of the application process. What happens with the AP scores is that once a student is accepted to a university they have committed to that school then you work with the school to determine if they will accept test scores towards something some of them waive a prerequisite for a higher level course some will put it on the college transcript and use it as college credit so different ways that they can accept those AP scores for different things. Test optional schools are listed on a website fairtest.org. Fairtest.org existed again before COVID but they do have a section that incorporated all of the schools that decided to do away with the requirement for standardized tests throughout the pandemic and again like the applications students can qualify for fee waivers for this so please contact your counselor and we can help students with fee waivers for the SAT, ACT The next are how scores are sent to schools and the different ways of kind of picking and choosing what gets sent to the colleges so score choice. Score choice is where you take the dates so let's say an October test date and you submit the scores just for the October test date versus the last spring's March test date but maybe a student did better in March than they did in October they want to send the March test so that's score choice. Super score is where you can pick and choose within different test dates sections that give the highest total score. Not every school will do score choice or super score the SAT cumulative scores so what you want to do is when you submit the scores all of these scores get sent directly from the testing organization so through collegeboard.org or through ACT. It will actually when you choose the school to send the scores to it will let you know what the school prefers so most schools are going to request all of the scores from every test session that a student sat for so that's really important to check there are some that allow you to choose one over the other but a lot of them just want all of the test results so they can see sort of how the student has done over time which is is important to know if a student does really well on one section and not well on the other they can't take it a second time and try to go for the opposite to balance it out because that school might look for all of the scores and and see that there's a big discrepancy there so it's important just to for students to do their best on all their test sessions. Again the sending the scores you'll go directly to the testing organization. The AP scores are self-reported in some application systems. They're also within the application and this is important to note when a student is filling out the common app there is a section where they can put their standardized test score if the student is choosing to not submit the score they're going test optional they should leave that blank because if it gets submitted to a school on accident that is not test blind that school will see the score. We have had students make that mistake they can contact the school and say are you able to get rid of my score in the system and not use it towards you know considering my application for admission but they do have those numbers so be really careful about what gets input into those standard the common app and standardized application programs to make sure that things aren't submitted that shouldn't be and again most of the schools are going to require the actual test score from the testing organization just to verify those numbers but there are some schools that will only take that self-reported score and those are other things that we as we work with students on their application timeline and different components those are all things that we also talked to them about. So moving on from standardized tests we have lots of writing that goes into the application so the essay is a really important piece of the application that's where the student gets to write a wonderful creative piece about themselves to share part of their character something interesting about themselves to the school that's probably not noted elsewhere it might be mentioned briefly in their activity section it might be something that's mentioned in there but to be able to write a whole essay is really powerful it shows them as a real person and it really gives the the college admissions representative some depth to who the student is. A lot of our English classes have been working on these essay drafts between the end of junior year into senior year we as school counselors review essays with students and so there's there's lots of support for getting people to review and give feedback and help students to finalize their essays before they are placed into their applications and submitted. The essay the main essay there are different topics to choose from and then there's an open topic so it's a 650 word maximum when you paste it into the common app it actually cuts off at 650 so it's 651 words and that last word is really powerful that will not it will make sense so it's just something important for students to keep in mind is that word counts. And then there's supplements as part of the application so the supplements are additional questions that are specific to each individual college that the student is applying to. So in the common app there's the one main essay that gets sent to all colleges and then each individual school will have some questions that are specific to their school. A lot of them ask something called why it's known as a why us question. It's really asking the student to say why are you applying to our school what is it about us that you know you're considering. And so that's something that it should take some thought it doesn't need to be that creative writing piece like the full essay but it should be something very specific about that school. So I encourage students to do research on something about the school really like what it is that they love about it why they feel that they are a good fit and why they feel that the school is a good fit for them. So really putting into perspective something that they really feel passionate about in terms of applying and possibly attending that school in the future. Each college is different so there are also additional writing requirements that may be in the the writing section of the common app for each school. Some colleges put really obscure creative questions in there and the students are like I don't know why they would ask that and it's really just to see you know some creativity and open-mindedness of the student and some are asking pretty straightforward what do you want your major to be do you plan on living on campus things like that. So it's just really important to take time to look through those for students to answer them fully and to make sure that the the responses are clear in what the applicant wants the college to know about them. There was a question added not too long ago specific to COVID and how the pandemic has affected a student. This is in an additional information section of the application so it's a completely different section of the common app than the standard essay writing piece. It is optional and I stress that it's optional because we really encourage students to only write this essay topic or to answer this essay topic. If their family has truly undergone something really exceptional over the past couple of years we all got stuck at home with our family and we all couldn't go on vacations and trips and things like that so we really want it to be something that is going to add value to their application so the college knows that that student was impacted by the pandemic in a really powerful way. So we encourage students to ask us as counselors if it's something that they should or should not include and we can talk through with them on whether that's a question that is appropriate to answer or something that might not add value. So it's really important just to make sure that value is being added to the application and moving on from writing about COVID and passing it on to Kathy to talk about letters of recommendation. Thank you. When I'm Kathy Hirsch again thanks for sticking with us we're getting there we're almost to the end of this information but it's all important for you to hear. So I'm going to start with some more factors considered in the admission process beginning with teacher recommendations. You may recall last winter and spring we asked the students to ask two teachers to write recommendations for college for them. If a student didn't do that last spring it's okay we can coach them through the process now but basically the teacher recommendation is going to focus on the teacher's observation of that student in their class so they're quite specific. We ask students to consider that when deciding which teachers to ask to write the letters it doesn't mean that you know a student is interested in humanities will only ask humanities teachers to write the letter but students you know sometimes had an experience where they worked really hard and improved in a class and that might be a good choice to ask that teacher. It doesn't have to be a class where they were a straight-A student by any stretch of the imagination. We're going to ask the students this fall check in with the teachers that they already asked last spring hopefully again thanking them for agreeing to write the letter. At that time hopefully the student will let the teacher know that they completed the teacher recommendation questionnaire in Naviance. That's a piece that the teacher uses when they're writing the letter. It asks the student to reflect on specific components of the class for that teacher and when they do check in with the teacher they're going to let them know you know my first deadline coming up is November 15th. Again we're looking for that similar time frame that we're asking for for the transfer recommendation request so a good three weeks in advance of expecting something to be written and then the teacher will the student will invite the teacher through Naviance to upload the letter. The teacher will be able to see all of the transfer request and upcoming deadlines for the student there and then the teacher will submit the letter directly to colleges through Naviance. So teachers are the only people who see the letters, the counselors don't see the letters, the students don't the parents and guardians don't see those letters and you know the confidentiality there is really driven by what the colleges are asking for and they want to know that these letters are written in confidence so that they're a true assessment of the student. One small piece is we ask that students do not invite Arlington High School teachers to write letters through the common application. There'll be a component on the common application about recommenders. Students don't input Arlington High teachers there. We're going to handle that through the Naviance process. So we also have counselor letters of recommendation. This is a little less stress for the students. We don't ask them to come to us to request that we write the letter it's assumed that we will write the letter for the student however when we meet with the student individually after we have the group seminars we'll be talking to them about you know what they might like that letter to look like. The counselor letter is a broader overview of the student and it will take a different focus for each student. So maybe there's a student who had a great deal of improvement over the last four years in high school. We really want to highlight that for that student. There could be a student who as Karen mentioned had extenuating circumstances over the past four years that we were going to want to highlight that in the letter. But we do ask the students to each complete a questionnaire in Naviance which is a much broader questionnaire than what we're asking them to do for the teachers. And I think it helps the student to reflect about themselves and their high school experience as well as their future goals and we find it really useful when we're writing the letters to include some of that information. We also ask the students to give us a resume and there is a resume function in Naviance that students can use and we'll show them that last winter. We'll show them again in the seminars. But if your student wrote a resume in another in another format maybe a more creative I had a really beautiful one from an art student once. As long as they forward it to us it's okay it doesn't have to be through the Naviance program but we would like to see a resume to make sure we can give you know a nice a nicely rounded picture of the student to the college when we're writing the letter. Additionally so each student has a Naviance account and each parent or guardian may have an account if you would like to have one. If you don't have one yet and you want one you can email your student's counselor and we can activate that for you. And within the parent account a Naviance you could complete something called the parent or guardian response form. It's not required but again it's helpful and it also asks you to talk about the student from your perspective of course you know a lot more about them than anyone so sometimes your insights are really valuable when we're writing those letters as well. So we have teacher recommendations counselor recommendations and then often students will ask us about outside recommenders. One thing to note is that some schools are limiting how many letters of recommendation they'll accept not only read but accept. You can see that in Naviance when you look into this specific college after requesting transcripts so some schools will take an unlimited number some schools will only take one some will only take two. So we want to be careful that the letters that hold the most weight are the letters that are read by each of the schools that the student applies to. So more is not necessarily better when it comes to letters of recommendation. If a student has an outside recommender who they feel really knows them well and in a way that is going to be portrayed differently than the teacher or the counselor then consider one outside recommender. It could be someone who taught them music lessons for a long number of years or a coach in a sport that they excelled in or a supervisor at a job where they did really they worked really hard through the pandemic or volunteer work. This is not we're not saying all students should be asking for outside recommenders. These are just some guidelines to consider if your student is thinking about asking someone from the outside. If the outside recommender is not affiliated with Arlington High School not a teacher here then you can invite them through the common application but if it's anyone with an Arlington email do not invite them through the common application. Other factors considered in the admission process. So you know I look at the process it's two-sided and it's it's similar on each side. The student is trying to learn as much as they can about the college and find the best fit for them and the college is looking to learn as much as they can about each student to find the best fit of students for their campus to meet their own institutional goals. So extracurricular activities is a way that can help on both sides. So students are asked to list their extracurricular activities in the common application under the activity section. There's a space for 10 activities there and they're asked to sort them in order of importance to the student. Again this is more a case of quality versus quantity. If you have a very active student some students have been involved with multiple things they're able to fill 10 spaces easily about with meaningful activity then that's great. Other students may have put all of their energy in in one specific area or one or two and they look at the list and they think oh gosh I don't have you know 10 things to list. It's more about thinking about you know how that student is being portrayed to someone who doesn't know them how they can get to know them better and that's really colleges do value students who spend more time doing fewer things and really you know take a deeper dive into into the activities they're involved with. So don't feel worried about that or we encourage the students not to feel less than because maybe their list isn't as long as someone else's but there's maybe more meaningful than the student who has the longer list. Just keep that in mind. That said it is time to brag include honors and activities students ask us questions all the time well with that award I got an English class in 10th grade does that really count I don't know yes everything counts so any kind of award or honor put it down there be proud of the things that you've done and if there are questions about that we're here to help with it. If the student is super involved and 10 spots isn't going to do it there are additional things that the the student wants the college to know about them they do have the option of adding additional information to the common application under the additional information section and actually uploading a formal resume. I wouldn't encourage a student to upload a resume that's just a reiteration of everything they already listed under the 10 activities but if there's something about that resume that's going to speak to the college it's going to really help them get to know the student better they do have the option to upload the resume. Demonstrated interest this is an interesting topic some some colleges not all consider the level of student engagement with the college when they're reviewing applications. They might track points of contact the student has had with the college including things like visits to campus virtual information sessions college fare visits was mentioned earlier the college representatives who are coming to our lincoln high school if the student takes time to go to that meeting for schools that they're interested in you know those are sometimes large groups of a school like northeastern university is going to have a large number of students turn out for that it would be more like a lecture kind of situation but oftentimes the smaller schools will have fewer students and it becomes a conversation in almost a mini sort of interview scenario so connections can be made when students are doing that we have had students go back and contact the college rep they met at our lincoln high school after being put on a wait list for a school and actually got an action out of that and at a diving level admitted to the school so don't underestimate the importance of making contact of demonstrating that you're interested in a school and why some schools have said they track how many emails students open that are sent by the college it's getting a little it's getting to be a little bit much here but just just to give the general get the gist that they are they're watching and colleges are trying to recruit students who really want to be with them boston university to give an example this was before the pandemic however at that time one of the the rep came here and said you know five a student from arlington who's applying to boston university and has not come to campus for a tour or an information session then that's that's a question mark for them now i would have a response to that saying you know there may be other ways that student has experienced boston university but in the mind of that admissions representative it seemed like the students not that interested if they don't take the five mile train ride to go go for an info session at the again like i said it's all back to finding the right fit from the college side and the student side okay interviews this is just another opportunity for students to distinguish themselves so some colleges offer interview opportunities a chance for a student to tell their story to what could be an alumni representative that lives in the area or an admissions representative who's actually reading applications so an interview is not necessarily for everyone it's got to be a student who feels comfortable talking about themselves we can offer a little bit of coaching along those lines if they need it but colleges you can check on the college website the admissions page website to see if they offer interviews some schools harvard has been requiring interviews of our students for a few years they'll contact us for every applicant and ask to help set up interviews for them so interviews could be informational where it's just a chance for the student to learn more about the school it's also a chance to demonstrate interest and they could be evaluative meaning they'll be a write-up from the interview that will go become a part of the student's application and considered when they're making an admission decision so of course we want students to be prepared when they go to interviews happy to help with that students who are applying for fine and performing arts programs may be required to do prescreenings auditions or provide portfolios to schools these deadlines come up quick so if they haven't been researched yet now is the time to research requirements and deadlines for any of those programs and i'm going to turn it over to matt ruane next my name is matt ruane i have that interesting senior caseload that kind of looks like i can't pick my students but i'm going to pick up with the competitiveness of college majors basically for students who are looking to apply to a specific major or program within a university whether that be a nursing program computer science business it can often be more challenging to get accepted just because of the popularity and the pure numbers they have a lot of applicants in competitive majors and only a limited number of spots so whenever you're visiting college campuses or attending college information sessions be sure to ask about the competitiveness of certain majors particularly the ones that your students interested in just because that can be helpful in determining whether that program's a reach a target or a safety for your student similarly the naviance for anyone who's been utilizing naviance they have the standards for each college average accepted sat score average accepted gpa those standards are reflective of the college and not the individual specific majors so just know that the more competitive majors those standards are probably a little bit higher than what you're seeing on naviance okay and all this information is just to encourage you and your student to be strategic about which majors they're choosing i mean first and foremost if this is what they're interested in and this is what they're passionate about then absolutely that's what they should pursue but for the students who are a little less certain you know undecided you know being strategic about the majors can be helpful and certainly any college that allows you to have a backup major listed then certainly put in a backup just to increase that chance of of being accepted um so special circumstances we've hit on this a couple times tonight here's just some more information on it the admissions teams will consider special circumstances on a case-to-case basis okay and by special circumstances we're talking about you know any major challenge or obstacle or you know events that prevented a student from performing at their typical level okay so well all of our students were impacted by the recent pandemic the special circumstances is really for students who have more to tell or more to explain you know why did you miss a significant number of days or freshman year why did your grades drop towards the end of sophomore year you know that's what we're looking for in in the special circumstances again there's sections in the comment app and the additional information where students can can write their piece tell their story there's also interviews for students who are more comfortable having that conversation it can be very beneficial for them to tell their story you know kind of control that narrative then leaving it up to the admissions team to to assume and then also too we have our counselor recommendation letters where we too can address any special circumstances for students so the ncwa eligibility center some of you may remember this as the the old clearing house okay so for students who are interested in playing college athletics at the division one or division two level so not d3 d1 or d2 okay they need to register and be cleared by the ncwa the eligibility center is an organization within the ncwa that determines the academic eligibility and amateur status for d1 and d2 athletes which we've included the link up here but you can simply just google ncwa eligibility center and that's the first link that pops up as well transcripts and standardized testing is required so if your student again is pursuing this have them reach out to us for a transcript but they themselves are going to have to send their sat scores to be cleared and at this point most students who are looking into division one division two eligibility you know probably should have started talking to coaches at this point if not that should be their first step they should probably talk to their coach and let them know that this is something that they're interested in so just to shift gears a little bit financial aid and scholarships okay so in terms of financial aid some schools are knee blind which means that a student's ability to pay for their education is not a factor when admissions is making their decisions okay other schools are need aware which means that they examine a student's financial need during that time of admission okay as you guys know tuitions vary from school to school it's certainly something that you know we want our students to take note of as they're creating their college lists and we also encourage our families to have discussions with their students to talk about which colleges may be more of a financial hardship and which ones may be less of a financial hardship just so students you know have that information prior to applying to colleges you know similarly when you're visiting colleges going to information sessions you know asking those questions to admission reps you know people who work at the college to find out information that's always a good idea because in each college state region there's usually some financial aid components that you know they put together some programs that they might know about that we don't know about that they can clue you in on for instance here in massachusetts we have the tuition break created by the new england board of higher education we have the the mass transfer program the a to b degree which i'll get into in a second but this is just to say we understand that this is a financial investment a huge financial investment and there's a lot of ways to save money and we just want to make sure that you guys are included into them so we can help make this you know a more affordable and more comfortable process for you all right so as i just mentioned the tuition break this program provides significant tuition savings to residents of the six new england states when they enroll in out of state public colleges and universities within new england and pursue approved programs okay so to clarify that statement it's basically saying that if you guys have a student who's interested in attending a massachusetts public school okay and they have a particular program that they're interested in pursuing but they can't seem to find that program in the massachusetts state public schools if they see that new hampshire has it or that main has it they can enroll in that university at a reduced price which is great mass transfer program the a to b map okay this is where students start off going to a community college okay earning their associates degree and then they're able to transfer to a UMass school or a state university to finish their bachelors okay this is great for students who you know certainly are looking to save money but also for students who might not be ready to make that four-year commitment to college after they graduate they might want to start with two and go from there okay now for students who do that you know there's great financial benefits and if they have a 3.0 or higher gpa they can save even more money thanks to the commonwealth commitment okay so again these links are here you guys can further explore that but this kind of segue is perfectly into our financial aid night so october 3rd we're going to be hosting a financial aid night here okay it's very very informative very helpful especially for those of you who are going through this process for the first time okay we'll cover the FAFSA which is the free application for federal student aid all right the FAFSA is this giant pool of federal funds that opens on october 1st but that pool is not bottomless so we encourage you guys to start your applications in october november as opposed to waiting until january february just to give you a kid a better chance you know at earning more dollars the css profile is another great way to save money a lot of private institutions use the css profile some even requiring which is great if you fill out that css profile which you can find on the college board again it just helps colleges understand your financial aid need and you know to the best of their ability they're able to give back okay the only thing is if you don't fill out the profile they're unable to help you so the FAFSA and the css profile are definitely two areas where you can save with financial aid now the financial aid piece kind of goes hand in hand with the application okay just think of financial aid as this fall going up into the application deadlines and then afterwards you know that's more so when you'll see scholarships come into place okay two of the more popular scholarships the Stanley Copleck and the Abigail Adams these are merit-based mcast scholarships that are based off 10th grade mcast scores so for the math and english section the Stanley Copleck if your student qualified he'll receive a notification and they'll be able to apply for that and the Abigail Adams is automatically applied to students who qualified for that and these are for massachusetts public institutions only all right scholarships again you're going to hear us talk more and more about Naviance it's just kind of where we anchor a lot of our our general information including scholarships under the scholarships tab you'll see a number of private scholarships eventually there's going to be even more you know it's still early in the year our town scholarships are going to come around please please please encourage your students to apply for the town scholarships which happens right around the turn of first semester to second semester we have a lot of money and we know how hard these kids work and we just want to make sure that you know they're the benefactors of all this money and then finally the last plug MIFA the gurus massachusetts educational financing authority i mean they're the experts when it comes to financial aid for for massachusetts residents students they are not only great in how much knowledge they have but they are amazing in how they communicate it you know for lack of a better term there's a lot of hand holding a lot of simplifying again especially for you though for those folks who are going through this for the first time their website has information webinars they even do one-on-one calls so you'll learn a lot more about them as well at the financial aid night but one last plug financial aid night 10 3 6 30 here all right so i'm going to be passing it over to miss lions who's going to be talking about sorry miss rickowski who's going to be talking about roles and responsibilities thank you we're almost done i promise okay so i'm just going to give a really really quick summary so someone said earlier if you need an account each student can have multiple parent guardian accounts so just send us an email and we can always release that to you so quickly naviance roles so students parents guardians have access to research colleges on naviance we used it last year a ton with the juniors i know there are some new seniors here hopefully they've had some naviance experience but if not we'll we'll work through it rep visits have been mentioned several times we have over 150 coming we kindly ask that the students please sign up on their naviance account in addition if we make any changes to locations which happened so far this week in today's monday we've had a bunch of location changes because you know we're under construction and fighting for space in this building is really difficult so if your student is signing up for visits please ask them to check the location i would say about 90 percent of them are in person and about 10 percent of them are virtual and if it's virtual the student just finds a place to go and log into the zoom link that they're sent through naviance once again naviance also we use it to compare data to determine if schools are retrialistic safety schools we ask students parent guardian teachers to use all of the forms and naviance the parent response form the counselor recommendation form and the teacher forms teacher surveys we also ask for a resume but if a student doesn't use naviance that's okay but naviance does have a great resume feature we ask students to request teacher letters of recommendation in naviance as well as requesting transcripts and i'm just going to say that again because i know miss rest said it students must request through naviance we are not mind readers so without that we don't send them okay and the biggest i think best most important feature is to track application deadlines and status so through naviance students can see exactly when college deadlines are they can see when the counselor says teachers send the wrecks okay so a high school senior myself who's interested in musical theater so in the process with my failure you know just just all the things you're going through as well so my topic is apopolite yes i'm making it less stressful how do you make it less stressful and so when i thought about it i said how do you make anything less stressful and i don't know if people have ideas but when i think about it i was nervous tonight to speak in front of you guys it's been a while since i've been in such a you know kind of like a bigger room and bigger audience it's different talking to kids sometimes i don't know anybody else get nervous in front of large groups speaking in front of large groups yeah let's see a show he ends and the rest of you are professional actors all right so to make it less stressful you make it manageable you stay positive so for tonight you know when i'm nervous about speaking i thought how do i make it more manageable i plan on what i'm going to say i think about it i stay positive how do i do that this is a great opportunity to connect and share helpful information so those are you know to connect that how do you make the college process less stressful so i came up with the kind of a to make it up pop but it's not epic so if you write on your little sheet e p o c k and a little positive these are my little i didn't put on the slide because i knew i didn't want to mess up the slide you know but so e evaluate the factors right what are the factors everybody went through those in terms of cost programs i'm just gonna put my little sheet here location so that's the e plan and prepare we talked about deadlines we talked about requirements we talked about you know not leaving yourself in a panic having you know that three-week turnaround time for for transcripts so plan and prepare um organized is the o and my daughter she does a spreadsheet college spreadsheet she has all the requirements and deadlines and whatever else she has prescreens and things like that because she's into musical theater so we have we have organized spreadsheet communicate we communicate with each other at home with our students of counselors we're here to help with any questions and the k is keep it positive because we want to remind ourselves this exciting time of opportunity you know just to keep that focus we just i was talking to somebody earlier right before the program started and we were talking about the spirited conversation about the essay so you know keeping that positive what can you know telling our students what can you do right now don't get stressed take it one step at a time you know so now i'll go through some of the do's and the don'ts but i think you guys kind of know them in a way already um so communicate with your counselor again we're here to help have a balance college list somebody already kind of went through that in terms of balancing it in terms of like not having too many competitive schools and are too many safety schools or you know that mid-range just to have a variety okay balance list um deadlines obviously keeping those organized i said the spreadsheet is a excellent way to do that um having the applications ready even though you're applying for early admission or early decision uh early you know action or early decision because you don't want to leave yourself in that panic and then it gets you know that positive energy is you know challenged right and then um the do's also attend the visits and be prepared to you know bring some questions to ask questions okay some of the don'ts there don't be in way and keep on calling the college right and for our decision every every week don't wait until the last minute um don't wait to apply for financial aid and don't do your your students essay i did go to um UNC we visited UNC over the summer and the admissions person said the main thing we want to know from your essay what is meaningful what is unique what is important to you and guess who the expert is for that the student right not not us so those are the don'ts but i think you guys know about and these so it's a team effort we all have different responsibilities right and we do this together we're here for support so you take your students to colleges visits um you complete the forms on naviance to give us a lot of information and feedback you also are responsible for the the FAFSA and the css profile um talk conversations at home about financing the schools our responsibilities which was you know meeting students we're starting this week and next week and doing senior seminars so we meet with seniors and groups and individually we we you know someone else talked about we we not only do the college process but we do all you know encompass all the post-secondary planning process to support them we write the letters of recommendation i know you know i knew this year but i will i will get every ounce of feedback from the student and from you guys to represent the students in the in the best way possible the school report this the other information that's included in the application so it tells about our school or any other information that the common application asks for and then we also touch on you know some of the the financial um you know conversations about the financial obligations and then the teachers are responsible for their recommendation and that's it i was trying to back over to mr. coates it's 801 or one minute late so we have 29 minutes for questions but we don't have to stay for all 29 all right so i'm going to start with the first question raise your hand if i said i don't even know if the question okay it's just kind of a statement raise your hand if you've been through this process before okay everyone look around oh wait keep your hands up if you've been through report okay now ready put your hands down let's do it the other way raise your hand if you've never been through this process before wow okay so check it out everyone everyone's stressed cool all right so i'm going to try to answer as many questions as possible but i did get three questions while we were sitting here so i'm going to do those first all right the first one can colleges see how many other colleges students have applied to the answer is no okay second question if a student has a new school counselor how does college rec letter writing work since new counselor doesn't know students well okay so i'm just going to address it right now all right so we have two new counselors this year like i said earlier all right they're both awesome they have experience um they work very well with students they will get on it right away make meetings with students um get to know them a little bit they also have extensive notes from the counselor that the student is coming from okay so we will work with the two new counselors give our feedback um we also ask the student to fill out the council recommendation form which we mentioned several times and we're asking parents to please fill out your form that gives counselor more information and more help when writing your letter okay i wanted to address that right away because i know two sevenths of you are thinking that right now and then next question is it a good idea to apply it early before deadlines or does it not matter well so there's two answers to that question one it doesn't really matter a deadline is a deadline for applications okay we suggest students beat the deadlines don't meet the deadlines so we highly recommend if you have a november first set a goal in your brain of october 25th or whatever it is that works for the student and the family pick that and try to stick to that that's the first part of my answer the second part of my answer has to do with financial aid don't wait until the deadline okay very very very important piece if you're really if financial aid's a huge part of everything for you for the package for the puzzle um it the application opens after october 1st this year get on it okay you do not have to wait and you should not wait until the college application deadline okay those are the three questions submitted to me before so i wanted to answer those first go ahead all right so it's kind of like a flip flop back and forth question if a student wants to apply early action early decision and they change their mind and change it to a regular decision what should you do and then the other part of it is if a student says no i'm applying regular and then decides to apply early at last minute well um we kindly ask that students give us a three week kind of time frame to get all the documents put together so the student plans on applying early action or early decision obviously the sooner the better and if we get it done and they decide that they have a regular deadline instead of early then that was just more work for us in the beginning but we'll get over it no it's okay then all the stuff will be all done for regular deadlines where it becomes tricky is if a student tells us they're not applying early and it's Christmas excuse me it's winter vacation and all sudden we get an email over break we cannot guarantee that that transcript and letter is going to be there by let's say january 1st so we really kindly ask that students really think through the process whether they're going to apply early or regular we're all a great team so we are flexible okay we know things change we're not super sticklers but you know early action early decision is a very high powered fast moving time frame for us like we're cranking in october because you know we have about 50 to 60 percent of our class senior class that applies to early action or early decision so we're on the move and we're really busy so if early action early decision is really on their radar we really need to know relatively early did i answer your question okay okay all right right behind you and pink kind of that's a great question does early action have a higher acceptance rate so it's um it's a very hard answer to give you a yes or no it's college specific some early action school sometimes if it's safety sometimes they might have a higher acceptance rate but for the most part my answer would be look at the college specific websites to see what their acceptance rates are for early action early decision regular decision early decision much of the time has a higher acceptance rate but think really carefully about whether or not the student should apply early decision because you know it's binding so early decision i would give you more of a definitive yes answer on a higher acceptance rate for many schools early action it really depends we we do say to some students you know hey those that looks like a safety school to you know for you and if you want to get it out of the way and just get an admissions decision back a little earlier than early action maybe the way to go but i can tell you from the past two years with COVID early action has really shifted more and more students applied early action which made the acceptance rate go down a little bit so some of our what used to be safety schools we're not going to be recommending them as safeties this year so there really has been a shift like schools such as UVM or UMass Amherst you know they had quite a huge dramatic actually increase of early action applicants which made the pool more selective okay so additional writing i'll call it supplemental stuff okay so there's the common the common app has supplemental essays that come with the actual specific school it's on the common app but then and then there's the COVID supplemental writing that's in the common app okay and some schools are non-common app might have some extra like questions and such but for the most part the extra supplemental essays are within the common app under the specific college the student is applying to right behind you yeah that they may not be as amenable to provide you know the kind of scholarship that you're looking for is that true so the question is with early decision does the i'll call it the financial aid package slash scholarships change or is it less likely for you to get as much you know so i want to break that down in a couple ways one there's some early applications priority applications that are not binding that have scholarships i'm just going to pick BU as an example because it's down the road but BU has the december 1st deadline only for like the presidential scholarship okay so that's one one way so you have priority which might include college specific scholarships you have early decision that students are applying to they are not going to see the full financial aid package when they get their acceptance so that's the trick with early decision you have to really be 110 percent positive that financially you can afford the school and 110 percent positive that you want to attend that school because you do not see the full package of what they're going to offer you so that's that's where it's a little catchy um for the kids that are possibly thinking about doing a gap year that maybe they still want to go to a four-year college but want to take that year off is it better for them to apply and get accepted and defer than it is to not apply and then go back to it can you speak to that absolutely so gap year what's the process so we have probably two percent of less or less students apply to do a gap year at least for the past couple years we'll see how it how it shifts but we highly recommend students go through the same application process whether they're taking a gap year or applying to go to college right after high school and it's truly for convenience right letters of recommendation transcripts college app help and most schools allow the student to defer which means you pay the deposit and the student has a year to do their gap program and then they just start up to start up at a specific school a year later so we do highly recommend it there are some students that apply get in put a deposit down do a gap year change their mind and don't want to go to that specific school which is fine you just lose your deposit and students have to do the whole application process again sometimes that may there may be a perk there maybe the gap year program was so rewarding that it might look great to some colleges that the student didn't get into to begin with you know there's different different ways to look at it but if anyone student in here wants to take a gap year next year we do highly recommend they do the entire process with their peers so 20 years i've been here and that's the first time i've had that question that's awesome okay so the question is so i'm going to ask wait before i tell you the question i'm going to ask you a question are you looking at that data on the college specific website or a naviance i guess it really doesn't matter but i'm just curious count some more okay okay so the question is how important is that number uh that percentage of students that that retain at that specific school so um you know some so naviance has data where it says uh let's just pretend 60 percent are accepted 50 percent graduate in four years 20 percent graduate in six years you know there's a bunch of different information when you look at that the school the college itself puts that information in naviance or on these on these websites um i think it scares some people because they think wow only 50 graduate from these schools but um i think as long as the student does their ample research on the specific college and it has the programs they're looking for and the majors and all the opportunities there then it sounds like a great fit to me i wouldn't totally take those numbers into the decision making process that's a great question do you guys have anything you want to add to that look at naviance together because sometimes that something that factors into that number is um if it's a school where there's a heavy transfer population you know kids transferring in transferring out but i do think it's an important point of data isn't it more of a commuter school do you know what i mean like what's the culture can your students sink in there and feel like they're part of something is it a ghost town on the weekend it's kind of all part of that like fit it's it's such a great question though if it's a low graduation number not that you would hinge like mr kowski says everything on it but it's like a data point why is it low why is it low and is it i mean this is i don't know how you define this information but is it um you know certain majors where kids just students aren't you know continuing whether is it a change of like mine or is it a student just not doing their really good research whether or not they want a large school or a small school or you know it's really you know i see the at much larger school i see that the graduation rate is is lower you know is it because the population is larger i don't know it's it's a really i appreciate the question though thank you um so the question is about in school college rep visits so i'm going to give you a quick overview um we have about 150 reps coming to the school this fall um we counselors not so much teachers know we counselors think it's a great program all right so for the most part it's the admissions representatives that review your students application okay so they come here they meet with students sometimes it might be a one-on-one that's awesome right the student gets to connect with the admissions person other times it might be a couple kids and we might have i'd say no more than i don't know 10 students umass amherst we have the whole school now but it's really um you know i think they're very valuable unfortunately these absences are not excused okay so each student is given six absences per quarter on the seventh they get what's called an f a which is just a failure due to attendance so our guidance is really the students should pick and choose the schools they really that are important to them don't just go hang out with your friends pick the school that you really like go sign up through naviance go to the rep meet them if you can't stay the whole time try to make a connection if not it's okay um we do feel it is an excellent way for students to find out more about it about the schools the teachers sometimes do give pushback our message is very clear do not miss a test don't miss a major project don't miss a quiz if you're part of a group presentation don't miss that we're very very very clear with the students but it is something really beneficial to to the students so if a student has a conflict and they can't attend and they really like the school like miss her said earlier in her presentation contact and interest is very important so if the student has a second and they can write an email we can give them the name of the rep it's in ambiance too but they can send them an email sorry I wasn't able to attend you know thank you can you send me any information you know just of course you they could schmooze with the reps way in the back I think a black shirt I think okay so question either or what if they're interviewing and meeting the rep here our message is unfortunately with the competitive times the more interests the better right but we also don't want to pressure the students and make them crazy do this do that do this do that so if the student is interviewing and they have a major class conflict and they can't attend then don't attend the rep visit here you know that's the other option too students not all schools do interviews but if the school does interviews and they want to do that as well they could do an interview or rep visit or whatever it is but just we we ask students to demonstrate interest we do a lot of that and we try to save you money too while you're at it we're like look you're costing your parents over a thousand bucks an application fee so just cut it out no we really really really try I mean we really see a trend towards 10 schools nine 10 schools is really what we're seeing over the past couple of years the number of schools has really increased not just because some schools gave out free waivers also the SAT ACT waiver like that the test optional has created this like yuck I don't know like we're really trying to say hey look like stop applying to so many because the more you apply to obviously more money but the more supplemental essays you write have to write the more stress you have so we really try to help them with a well-balanced list I sometimes will say oh that doesn't meet your criteria just chop it off you know but a good a good six six to ten we say but I think nine or ten is more realistic you know three reaches three matches three safety schools so 16 to 18 maybe pull straws I don't know they really need to reduce that it's it's quite a large number of applications so we think right now is the perfect time for a semi final list not a final list because there are students that are still adding colleges by you know close to January 1st but the semi final list is really most important at this time and I want to reiterate the early deadlines are what's really important so if a student has a certain number of early schools they definitely want to apply to it's much easier to do it that way and then add or take off later but the semi finalist is really the key at this point if a student has no schools on their list it's time for them to head and they're thinking about applying to college is definitely time to start adding some to their list sorry I'll just go back to start here for third row point so are there any here or you're ready to go? yes so I was going to send that out in my October newsletter college fairs there's two coming up that I know of and they're in person on October 6th in Peabody they have a college fair and on the same day October 6th Cambridge maybe but I'm going to put it out I have it on my desk to send it out so October 6th there's two local fairs that have you know over a hundred something schools going to the fairs we can't host because as you can see we only have one third of a school right now so but maybe in the future if you have any younger students coming they're in the evening the other thing is there's a virtual college there's virtual college fairs too that students can still participate in and that's in the newsletter too like the you'll see like the NACAC fairs and stuff like that that will be there so I'll have a little college fair thing so I'm gonna go right behind you okay so the senior seminars seem very important and I just want to make sure that my title sums up for one or how does that work like yeah because there's not a lot of free periods or so are they even class to come so senior seminars guess what they are excused absences so all of your students should come we send out emails to all the seniors we're starting matter of fact tomorrow one of the counselors is starting their groups the rest of us are going through all of this week and next week by the end of next week your student should have had their seminar plus their transcript in their hand so if they tell you they don't have it they're lying okay so so we'll be giving them a transcript and they have their seminars so all the counselors reach out to the students they should have their seminar by the end of the week well I should send this week sorry the end of next week okay and then one other quick question um college board if you are if your student is thinking of submitting scores how like if we have you know three weeks for the transcript how much time you need on those college board scores in order for them to get in on time so college board on their website says two or four weeks but I'm going to tell you differently um I would say as close to the deadline it doesn't matter if you have a November 1st send the scores November 1st I mean get it done early so take it off the list but there's really no sweat in getting that in as long as it's sent by the deadline I think there was yep question right behind you guys I'm just curious it seems like a ton of effort goes into all of this and after 20 years you've seen a lot of mistakes and a lot of success and I'm just wondering what your analysis is for or what you would recommend to parents most about finding a fit and and just what are the biggest mistakes parents make wow what I can talk for five hours actually I mean I'm a parent of three kids and I make mistakes all the time um but question is what are the mistakes mistakes parents make I'll give you a couple and maybe the other counselors would love to give some too this is actually fun okay no parents listen I can tell you right now just like I think Amy might have said it don't write your students essay I guarantee you the college knows okay do not fill out their application the college knows I'm telling you you'd be so surprised I have students in my office all the time like oh what do your parents do because one of the questions is like mother's placement employment or what you know I don't know well it's right here on the application they have no idea what year did my parents graduate from college oh I don't know if they went to college well they did because they have a master's degree all right so so let them take control of their application and then the other thing is parents take a step back okay because your students are so stressed right now and after the next two weeks after we get a hold of them forget about it no seriously they they're very very stressed for a lot of reasons senior year it's like a psychological moment developmental milestone they're moving on they're scared to move on really it's it's so important for you to take a step back let them have their tantrums let them go crazy all right and like I said when I first open just be a supportive role to them okay pick maybe one day a week or whatever works for your family and say hey can we meet on Sunday night to talk about your college applications or Monday night if you want to ruin your week whatever it is sit with them listen okay listen to what they have to say if they're asking for your help to fill out the application sit next to them let them do the typing even though they're probably gonna annoy you okay and just be there as a support what happens is we hear from so many students that my parents are you know they won't stop and they won't leave me alone and you know I can't take it and they lose themselves okay so just pick a time that works for your family and and go from it that way now you don't have to take my advice we just on our end we just hear the kids bitching and mumbling all the time and crying so you know take it how whatever works for your family all right but that's my that's my biggest advice those are the biggest parenting mistakes that we feel and trust me for those kids that are super stressed we have supports okay the counselors social workers we have whatever we can do to help your students feel better about this crazy process and one more thing about parenting mistakes scholarships okay so many students don't know what their parents financial like financials are so students feel we don't need to fill out scholarships we're okay my parents are going to pay for it I miss that and the other but that's something that when the students really get done with the application process they're done they're spent they don't want to spend another second filling out an application well this is where you start to nag okay and you start to say please fill out these scholarships this that and the other treat it like the application process maybe once a week sit down talk to them you know I in the newsletter we send out information of when all these start come out which by the way isn't till like January so don't ask me until that okay so the scholarships come out January February March but that's a big parenting mistake is not realizing that how much money is given last year we gave out $460,000 okay just to the seniors so it's a lot of money and people who apply to those scholarships they get them it's not just some national scholarship that goes into a crazy database all right so a good parenting thing is to really kind of make sure they stay in the loop and one more parent thing if possible if you can okay do not shoot daggers at me really try to take on the financial aid process yourself take that burden away from the student because they already have so much on their plate if you can't do it I'm not talking about scholarships I'm talking about the financial aid forms if you can't do it there are supports out there to give you free assistance with your financial aid packages okay and we'll send out all of those resources it's like Matt said twice come to financial aid night very important thank you for that parenting question I love that question that's great go ahead so I'm sorry to end this night on such a bummer question about rejections it's 8 30 I'll give you one more minute okay so rejections right we all have rejections students all have rejections question is how do we pro-tariff students with rejections so one we sit down with all the students and look at their college lists to make sure it's well balanced okay do you like your safeties do you like your matches do you like your reaches okay yes yes yes just understand that these are reaches because you're underneath the you know whatever whatever college is looking for so really we want to balance the list that they like every single school so the rejections don't come as hard okay so well balanced list is the key where it becomes really hard as if a student applies to 10 reaches and one safety and they hate their safety that's a big problem okay so that's where parents can come in that's where the counselors come in we look at the list and we make sure so sometimes your kids might come home students might call and say god my counselor is so mean she told me I'm not going to get into any of my colleges okay just know it's not to hurt them it's really to help right to just say look we need to find a much more balanced list okay so we work with the students we work with the students we are we have conversations with them students and one more thing about that is financial safeties when students are looking at at schools they should have financial safety because we have more and more students every year saying I got into my top choice school and I can't go because we can't afford it okay so definitely have that conversation and did you want to say something oh don't focus on one or two schools as the end all the uh I need to be a broad list there needs to be a range of schools and don't allow auntie sue or grandma to give the child the feeling that they're gonna their worth is going to be judged based on their number of acceptances they get or rejections or to grant the school grandpa went to so means to really be student centered with the goal of finding the best fit for the student and keep it there and try to keep all of our other ways that we parents and family members like to intervene and and sort of impose our feelings or our prior experiences on our students and keep it about the student thank you okay so on that note very quick wrap up coffee hours tomorrow morning by counselors okay the links I will tonight post the this presentation so you have the active links school counseling website under announcements okay so the links for the coffee I will be there as well as this presentation tonight ACMI will send us this recording if you want to watch this awesome night again we'll be posting this recording on the school counseling website and feel free to reach out to your students counselor anytime okay at all we're more than happy with you and we're hoping that you signed in so you could have used the qr code on your in your packet or up here or whatever but thank you guys so much for coming appreciate it