Deadline Reminder

A quick reminder for those of you who are still working on your college applications over break... don't forget to watch your deadlines! We received an e-mail warning from Common App alerting us to the fact that during peak times the processing time for payments when submitting an application through their site is up to 2 days! That means that there is a potential for a significant delay which could make your application late (and therefore not accepted by the college). So, if you are looking at a January 1st deadline or a January 3rd deadline, I would strongly recommend that you plan on being done with your essays a few days in advance so that you can get it submitted and your fees paid well in advance of the last minute rush.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I know that everyone does not celebrate Christmas, but either way, I hope that you have a wonderful day today surrounded by the people who mean the most in your life.

I am in Kentucky with my sister's family. My sister, brother-in-law and I just finished wrapping the gifts and putting them out under the tree. My niece and nephew (Carly and Colton) are *SO* excited for Christmas. I can honestly say that their excitement is contagious and I am thrilled to be able to spend the holiday with them. I don't know if it is snowing in Columbus, but it is snowing here and it looks beautiful. An added Christmas gift for all of us who were hoping for a white Christmas! :-)

This Christmas I hope you will be thankful for all that you have received and find joy in giving to others. I have so much to be grateful for this year - my family, friends, and the students with whom I work with each day. Thanks for being a special part of my life. I hope you have a relaxing and memorable Christmas!

Winter Break

I don't know about you, but I am relieved that we have reached winter break! I do find it a bit scary that we are nearly 1/2 way through the school year though. Does it seem to be flying past for you too? I hope you have plans to relax and enjoy the upcoming days off. Currently I am a bit stressed that I am not done with my shopping, Christmas cards or wrapping gifts.

Friday ended up being a little bit crazy for me so I didn't have time to blog and wish you all the best for the holidays. I hope you enjoy it with your family and are safe throughout the break. Also, as you have probably figured out, I will blog a couple of times over the holidays, but not every day - as this is a vacation for me too. :-) Looking forward to hearing all about your holiday fun after we get back to school. Again, have a great break!

Staying Organized

I admit it... I am a list maker. I have lists for just about everything you could imagine. I created a list of things I *MUST* accomplish before we leave on break (only 2 more days!) - not to mention the list I already have at school of the "other" things I need to do. I also have a list of things to do while in Kentucky visiting my sister's family over Christmas, a list of "to do's" for the remainder of break when I am back at home, lists for other upcoming school related projects, and even a list for "when I have time." So, sadly, I guess I could probably benefit from having a list of all of my lists. :-)

The reason that I am mentioning it, is that lists work for me, but everyone needs some sort of a system to help keep your thoughts organized. It is much more difficult and demanding to try to hold something in your head than it is to refer back to it on paper. I heard once that your head is a good place to have ideas not to hold ideas and I believe that makes sense. It doesn't require a lot of time, but the payoffs are large as long as you stick with it. Personally, I love being able to cross something off my list knowing that I had achieved a goal - no matter how small.

As you start thinking about the end of the semester, please work on staying focused and organized. What do you need to do to make sure that you end this quarter successfuly? What about preparing for exams? There is still plenty of time left to make improvements, but you need to start now. If lists are not your way to stay organized, that is OK, but find a system that works and use it.

News and Updates

A few different pieces of information for you tonight...

- For those of you who took the PSAT earlier this fall, your results are in! You can now pick up your scores and the test booklet from the secretaries in the front of the counseling center. As a "short-cut" method for getting a guesstimate on how the scores compare to actual SAT scores, add a 0 to the end of each score. So, for example, if you scored a 50 on the math section, you could predict that you'd score somewhere in the vicinity of 500 on that section of the actual SAT. This is certainly not a guarantee nor a definite, but it can give you a rule of thumb. The most important thing for you to do with your results is to use it to go back and figure out what you did or did not understand. This includes figuring out areas of weakness and identifying any concepts that you might want/ need to brush up on. You should also use your scores to go back and determine if there are particular styles of questions that you did not understand or that you tended to get wrong. Be sure to read through the results information and if you have any questions, feel free to stop in and see me.

- For the parents... on Thursday, December 16th at 7:30pm there will be a presentation in the WKHS Auditorium on "Parenthood: Strategies for Saving your Sanity" by Dr. Mike Thomson. Dr. Mike spoke with the staff today after school and he was a very entertaining and engaging speaker with a lot of good reminders. I realize that this is a very busy time of year and so the thought of adding one more thing to your to-do list is probably very overwhelming, but I strongly encourage all of the parents to consider attending his presentation. The strategies he discusses are important for helping each student develop skills that will benefit them for the remainder of their lives. I hope you will try to make time in your schedule for this presentation.

- Interim grades were due last Friday and so all of your grades should be updated on e-Sembler. Please be sure to double check how you are currently doing in your classes. Remember, after this week you will have 2 weeks remaining in this quarter when we return after break followed by exams to close out the 1st semester. I hope you are making every effort to keep your grades where they need to be or, if they are not where you wanted them, that you are working with your teachers or the academic assistants to come up with a plan for how you will make changes to improve your academic standing. Remember, if you don't do something different, your results will remain the same.

- Tomorrow you will be on a short homeroom schedule where you will receive the exam schedule. Don't forget, as you receive your exam schedule and we approach winter break, that this is a great time to get a jump start on studying for your exams!

It's hard to believe we are almost half-way through the year!

College Admissions Decisions

This week many students across the country (and at WKHS) who applied to colleges under the Early Decision and Early Action plans will be receiving their admissions decisions. Plus, all of the students who applied to schools with rolling admissions are continuing to hear back from the colleges about their admissions status. This can be a very stressful time for high school seniors - family, friends, and other people who hear that you are a senior automatically ask, "Where are you going to college" and so when you are waiting for or receiving your admissions decision it can be a bit overwhelming. I wanted to remind you that it is important to find a balance between hopes and expectations. Not only is this important when you are waiting for your own admissions decisions, but it is also essential that you keep in mind that your friends are facing the same worries. While it is normal to be curious to find out if someone in your class was accepted to a particular college, please remember that it could be very hard for your friend to announce to everyone that they had not been accepted. As a general rule, allow your friends and classmates to inform you of their admissions decisions on their own rather than asking them if they have heard yet. Trust me, if they receive acceptances they are going to share the good news in their own time. This is also a good time for me to remind all of you that we track the college decisions - so as you hear back from your schools, please stop in and share the update with me too.

PLAN Test Results

The PLAN Test results from November have arrived and are available for students to pick up in the Counseling Center. Remember, the PLAN Test is the practice ACT and it has a lot of great information about careers so be sure to check that out to see where your interests and abilities are for various future fields. The score report sheets contain a wealth of information on them if you take the time to actually read them. Additional information is also available on their website and if you have any questions about your results, feel free to stop in and see me.

Financial Aid

Today I attended a financial aid conference that is presented to counselors each year by the Ohio Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. It was a long meeting and, at times, financial aid can kind of make your head hurt, but it is so important and I learn more about it each year. I am going to try to give you some of the basic information that I think is most important for you to know about at this point. (If you make it all the way to the end you will also see that we have 2 opportunities coming up for you - 1 will give you a ton more information about financial aid and the other is a chance to actually get free help filling out your FAFSA form... so hang in there and try to read through the whole post - or at least make sure your parents see this one.) :-)

Most students will need to fill out the FAFSA form (FAFSA stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid) and it is essential to meet the deadlines established by your colleges of choice to determine what amount of aid they can offer. (Many deadlines will be as early as February 15th.) So this is definitely something that you can not put off once we hit the first of the year. Completing the FAFSA form is different than the process for filling out the college applications in that you are literally completing this one form and then you list all of the colleges where you have applied on the form and when you hit submit the information is transmitted to the financial aid offices of all of the schools. So, when you are looking at the financial aid deadlines for your schools, please keep in mind that whatever the earliest deadline is for any of the colleges, this is really your deadline for your FAFSA to be completed for all of your schools.

There are some people who will automatically assume that they do not qualify for financial aid and it is important not to make assumptions and to read the fine print from the colleges carefully as there are some colleges that won't offer any financial packages (including merit scholarships) without having a FAFSA on file. Specific questions about each college's requirements and deadlines should be addressed to the financial aid offices at each respective college.

The way financial need is determined is taking the “Cost of Attendance” (which includes tuition, fees, room, board, books, and other miscellaneous expenses) and then subtracting from that the “Expected Family Contribution” and the remaining difference is what is known as your “Financial Need.”

The financial aid administrators reminded us that it is very common that people do not agree with their Estimated Family Contribution, but it is calculated based upon a specific formula that is the same for everyone, so it is fair across the board.

For what it is worth, it is also important to know that it depends upon each school as to whether they guarantee to meet your entire financial need with a financial aid offer. You can usually find this information on the college financial aid website.

If you are a freshman, sophomore, junior, or the parent of a student in one of these grades, you may be interested in using the FAFSA4caster which provides an estimated Expected Family Contribution to give you an idea of what you might qualify for regarding federal aid including grants.

When you are completing the FAFSA application, please remember that this is a FREE application – do not pay to have someone help you fill it out as there are plenty of opportunities to get free assistance to complete it if you need it. You will also want to make sure that you are using the correct website – http://www.fafsa.gov/ – (do not use .com as that is a site that has a fee.)

You can request your PIN number now, but please make sure you save it and keep it in a safe place for future use as this will be your permanent PIN number. Parents, you will also need your own PIN number unless you have one that you have utilized with older students as it is the same PIN number for all of your children.

When you are filling out the FAFSA form please pay attention to who they are asking for information about – the beginning of the form is all about the student and later it is about the parents. This can be confusing if your parents are helping you fill out the form because it says “you and your” so sometimes parents will accidentally put their information in rather than putting in the student information.

If your parents are divorced, you will use the parent with whom you live with the majority of the time. You fill out the form based upon your “household” so anyone living in that household and under that roof are included in your FAFSA. So, for example, if your parents are divorced and you live with your mom who is remarried then your FAFSA application will include the information from your mom and your step-dad.

Please remember that you cannot fill out your FAFSA forms until after January 1st. You will need your tax information as well as the tax information from your parents. If you cannot get the tax information completed early enough to meet the deadlines from the colleges, then be sure to use estimated numbers because you must meet the deadlines established for each college and then go back and revise the information once you have the actual data.

To help you with the college financial aid process we will have a Financial Aid Meeting for students and parents at 7:00pm at WKHS on Tuesday, January 11th.

There is also an event known as “College Goal Sunday” which is Sunday, February 13th at 2:00pm where financial aid administrators will provide free expert help in completing the FAFSA forms. To find locations and to register you can visit http://www.ohiocollegegoalsunday.org/.

Tomorrow's School Schedule

Just a quick (last minute) heads up that you have an assembly schedule tomorrow. There will be a presentation on Healthy Choices from Dr. Mike Thompson. I have never heard him speak, but those who have say that he is a great speaker so hopefully it will be fun and informative! Unfortunately, I will not be able to be at school for his presentation, so you'll have to stop by and let me know how the assembly was. I am out tomorrow until sometime around 6th period in order to attend a meeting on College Financial Aid.

Here is tomorrow's bell schedule:
1st: 7:45 - 8:27
2nd: 8:32 - 9:14
3rd: 9:19 - 11:09 (You will have class and the 45 minute presentation during 3rd period)
4th: 11:14 - 11:57
5th: 12:02 - 12:44
6th: 12:49 - 1:31
7th: 1:36 - 2:18
8th: 2:23 - 3:05

Be patient and try not to panic

Let me start off by acknowledging that I am *NOT* the most patient person on the planet!

I know that it can be frustrating waiting for something to happen. Waiting to hear news. Waiting for the next phase of your life. Waiting... waiting... and still more waiting.
But the reality is you need to be patient.

Right now colleges are completely overwhelmed and back-logged with applications that they have been receiving. For example, this weekend we received a notice from Miami saying that they are running one to two weeks behind on getting everything processed and updated in their computer. They were sending that notice to us because they are also automatically generating letters that they are sending home to students to remind you that you need to send your transcript and test scores and a recommendation letter. People tend to panic when they see that notice and want to send the materials again. Colleges do not want that happening as it will simply back up their system even more. Miami is NOT the only one in this situation - this is a very common occurance at this time of year, but it does create a lot of panic in homes of seniors across the country!

Try to be patient and do not panic. If you get one of these letters (from any college) take a moment and double check - did you submit a transcript request for this particular school? Did you request to have your official test results sent to the college from the ACT/ SAT websites? Did your teachers complete their recommendation letters? There are times when transcripts will sit in our office for several days because of missing items such as recommendation letters. (I can assure you though that I only have 2 transcripts in my office at this time and both students have been notified as they require recommendation letters from me and I do not have any of their forms or information to draft the letters.) So, although this is not the case at this time, it is still an important reminder to make sure that all of the components of your application are submitted to the counseling office so that we can mail the transcripts. If your transcript was mailed within the last 2-3 weeks, then take a deep breath and relax knowing that it is likely just because their system is backed up. Continue double checking on the college website (most, like Miami, will give you access to see your application status) and see if they have everything. If you are nearing the end of the 3rd week and they still don't have all of your items, then you can give them a call to double check. Chances are they just haven't made it there and into their system yet, but there are times where things get lost in the mail or filed in the wrong area. If items need to be sent again then we will work on taking care of that, but first make sure that they really are missing it.

As always, swing by my office to see me if you have any questions. Also, don't forget that you have a late start day tomorrow! I'm so jealous! We have meetings while you get to sleep in... :-)

College Seminar for Students with Disabilities

On Tuesday, December 7th from 5:30 - 7:30pm there will be a free College Night Seminar for Students with Disabilities and their Parents. A panel of representatives from college offices of disability services will share their insights and information to help guide you in your college search and selection process as well as what to expect in college.

Questions that will be addressed include:

- What happens to my IEP when I go to college?

- Will my professors know I have a disability?

- Do I still need to take the ACT and/or SAT?

- Will I have a tutor to help me with homework?

- Will I get a copy of notes?

- Will I get extended time on tests?

- How do I find out what the college offers?

This seminar will be held in the Upper Arlington High School Auditorium located at 1650 Ridgeview Rd., Upper Arlington, OH 43221 (This seminar is sponsored by Worthington, Westerville, Upper Arlington and Grandview schools.)

Application Reality Check

I was out sick again today, but am finally starting to feel as if I am rejoining the land of the living and even have part of my voice back! I will be at school tomorrow so if you have needed something this week, please plan on stopping by my office tomorrow.

I am anxious to get back and catch up with you on how things are going, how your thanksgiving was, and, for the seniors, how the application process is moving along. I anticipate that there will be quite a stack of transcript release forms waiting for me since all applications with a January deadline were due to our office by yesterday. So, let's do a quick reality check on where you should be for the application process (if you are a senior)...

- Your transcript release form and any required paperwork that needs to be submitted to the college should have been turned in to Mrs. Hoyt (registrar) in the counseling center

- If your college forms required a recommendation letter then you should have turned in the parent brag sheet and counselor recommendation supplement forms to me by now. (I have the rec letters written for everyone who had submitted their paperwork prior to Thanksgiving.)

- If your college applications require a teacher recommendation letter then you should have asked your teacher for a rec letter and provided them a resume or the recommendation request form with information sheet completed.

- If you are still working with January or February deadlines then you should be working on editing the drafts of your essays to perfect them before the deadline.

Hopefully that falls in line with where you are in the application process... and it is even better if you are ahead of the game and have submitted your paperwork in advance or already submitted your applications! Some of you have started hearing back from your colleges, don't forget that we are tracking that information, so please keep me posted as you receive the college admissions decisions from each school.