Transcript Request Reminder

Seniors, as you are working on your college applications there are forms you will need to have submitted by the counselors. We need to remind you that you need to submit the forms to us as soon as possible, but at least 1 week ahead of the deadline.

There are 2 pieces you will need to submit if you are applying via Common App.

1. The Common Application Counselor Form. This is in the Recommenders and FERPA section of the application. You will fill out the form and invite your counselor. Be sure to spell your counselor's name and email address accurately.
2. The Transcript Request Form. This is found on the Counselor Website. When you go to www.wkhscounselors.com go down near the bottom to the "Find it Fast" area and select the transcript request option. You will need to fill out the transcript request form for each of the colleges where you are going to apply so that we have the authorization to send your transcript to each of the colleges where you are applying.

If you have questions or need help finding the forms, please come see us and we will help you with it.

We want to emphasize the importance of making sure that you request those forms a week in advance. This is always important to make sure that we get all of the forms processed in a timely manner, but it is even more important this year because November 1st falls on a weekend. So we need to have time so that we can make sure that we have processed everything before your application deadlines

AP Exam Registration

By now, all students enrolled in an AP class should have “joined” the AP course online to be able to access resources from the CollegeBoard throughout the year. You will need your CollegeBoard account information to login and join the AP classes you are taking. (If you have taken the PSAT, SAT, or AP Exams in the past then you already have a CollegeBoard Account.)

If you have a CollegeBoard account, it is important to use that account (and not to create a new one) as your scores from previous CollegeBoard assessments (PSAT, SAT, AP exams) are linked to your account. If you already have established a CollegeBoard account, please visit myap.collegeboard.org and make certain that you can log in. If you have forgotten your password, you may call 1-888-225-5427 or email apstudents@info.collegeboard.org for assistance.

If you have not already established a CollegeBoard student account, please sign up by going to myap.collegeboard.org. Make sure you write down and save your log-in information for future reference. Remember, when you are setting up your CollegeBoard account, you do NOT want to use your school email account as your wscloud account.

If you have questions, about establishing your account or linking it to the AP resources, please contact College Board at 1-888-225-5427 or email apstudents@info.collegeboard.org.

In addition to joining the class through CollegeBoard, students who are planning to take the AP test will need to sign up and pay for the test through the MyPaymentsPlus system. The cost of the test is $100 if students register prior to October 30th. After October 30th there is a $40 late fee up through February 22nd. There are no options for ordering tests after the February 22nd late registration deadline. Please also note that for students who qualify for free/ reduced lunch, you still need to register through the MyPaymentsPlus system, but it will automatically show your fee as $0 instead of $100.

AP Exams will take place at WKHS from May 3-14, 2027.

Please don't miss the chance to register as a way to help earn free college credit!

College Data

When students are searching for a college, digging into data isn't always high on the list of things to do. It is much more fun to explore the campus and meet with a professor and decide that this is "THE" school for you. And yet the data has a valuable story to share as well.

What do I mean?

Think about Retention Data. Information regarding retention rates means how many students who start at the college on the first day of their freshman year come back the following year. This is important to know because it gives you an idea of how happy and successful students are on the campus. Students that get accepted and go only to find that they are completely over their heads at the school might not have built the study and organization skills needed to be successful and so they might not return for the next year. Or students may attend thinking every day would be fun and forget that there is a lot of work involved with college too and so they might elect not to return to school because they didn't enjoy it as much as they had hoped. Sometimes it is because the college is not a good fit for them after all. And so if you notice that a college has a low retention rate it doesn't mean you won't like the school, but it may be a reason to pause and really look in depth to make sure you are going to be happy and successful at the college.

Another critical piece of data is how long it will take you to graduate. Most of the WKHS graduating students anticipate that they will be in college for 4 years. And that would be great. But that doesn't always work out for students in the long run. This can be due to a range of factors including how easy or difficult it is to get the necessary classes for graduation.

The https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/ website provides user friendly tools to search for colleges and explore their data.

Cap & Gown Orders

Seniors, don't forget, the deadline to order your cap and gown at the discounted rate is October 31st.

You will go to Buckeye Scholastic's website in order to place your order.

Buckeye Scholastic has a ton of options that students can select of various specialty items such as announcements and frames. We have had many students ask what is REQUIRED to be ordered - that would be the Cap, Gown, Tassel and Stole package. (No keepsake tassel required.) So the total cost for that package is $42.95.

If you have a cap and gown that a sibling wore in the last few years that is the right size for you to wear, that is totally fine! All you need to do is order the package that is the graduation tassel and stole.

It's so wild that it's time to be taking care of all of these official graduation related tasks!

Keep Up...

One of my students told me that in her family they go with the concept of "It's better to keep up than catch up." And ever since hearing that it has stuck with me. It's a catchy phrase and totally true. When we end up in a hole and have to spend time digging out of a hole, it is really challenging to catch up and we feel as if we are perpetually behind. For me, this weekend served as a reset and I hope it did for you too.

As you head into the 2nd quarter, my hope is that you will try to keep up. And, to be totally honest, I hope that I am able to keep up too. But if you find that you are struggling to keep up, I hope this Missing Assignment Recovery Plan article will be helpful to you.

End of First Quarter

Do you feel like this school year is going unbelievably fast? Today marked the end of the first quarter. This is an important point for you to pause and reflect. Remember, quarter grades are not included on your transcript - just semester grades. This means that you have reached the half-way point in earning the grades that will be on your transcript.

Some of the questions you should ask yourself include: Are you where you want to be? If you are not, what do you need to do different to turn things around? If you need ideas for how you can improve your grades, I strongly encourage you to meet individually with your teacher. You should also take advantage of the help available from the academic assistants in the Teaching and Learning Center (which is located in room 205). You are also welcome to stop by and talk to your school counselor and we can try to brainstorm some ideas to help.

If you are happy with your current progress, congratulations! Make sure you think about what you have done that has been helpful to your success and continue to put forward those same actions.

Enjoy your long weekend!

Free Flu Vaccines

I hate getting sick. I don't like missing out on time at school or doing activities that I enjoy. Plus, being ill and not feeling good is certainly no fun! One of the best ways to try to prevent getting sick is to get your annual flu vaccine.

The Columbus Public Health Department will be at Kilbourne providing free flu vaccines to all interested students and staff. This will take place on Friday, October 23rd from 8:30am-12:00pm.

In order to take advantage of this free opportunity, students must have your parent's consent. Students can pick up consent forms in the WKHS Health Office or families can utilize the online registration:Flu Vaccine Clinic Registration

Junior Testing Timeline

Great job today to all of the students who took the PSAT! I suspect many of you walked away from the test thinking, "my brain hurts" or "that was a lot" and we want to assure you that this is a normal reaction. Taking the practice tests helps you to start building up the stamina for when you have to try to focus and take the full ACT/ SAT in the future.

The reality is that students should not anticipate taking the ACT or SAT just one time. Both ACT and SAT have shared reports about how much students improve on their test scores by repeating the tests more than once. For example, CollegeBoard (who runs the SAT), recently shared data with us that the average score for students who participated in the school day testing was 906. For those students who then repeated the test a second time, their average score improved to 1166. So if you go into your college admissions testing experience knowing that you will be taking the tests multiple times it may help to decrease your stress and increase your confidence.

Junior students and parents will hear more about this recommended testing timeline during tomorrow night's Planning for College Information night. (7pm in the auditorium - we look forward to seeing you there!) But we wanted to give you a quick overview of it tonight as well.

1. Hopefully you took the PSAT today which is the practice test for the SAT and it is also the qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarships.

2. At the end of this month, take the Pre-ACT. This will be during the school day on Friday, October 30th. It is the practice test for the ACT and it is a great, inexpensive way to practice for the ACT.

3. Use your PSAT results and Pre-ACT results to look at your own individual strengths and weaknesses and develop a testing plan for which test you scored higher on and what areas you need to study/ review to improve your scores for when taking the actual ACT/ SAT.

4. In December, consider strongly taking the ACT or SAT. You don't have to take the test in December, but it's a good chance to take one of the college admissions tests. If you are planning on focusing on the ACT, another great reason of taking the ACT in December is that you can also order your score questions and answers with the test which would allow you to review how you answered and what the right score is which can help better prepare you for the future tests.

4. In March, take the SAT. This will be during the school day on Tuesday, March 2nd and is the FREE test opportunity that all juniors will get to take.

After that, depending on how you have scored you can determine the rest of your testing plan.  There will be more opportunities to test in the spring and summer as well as the early part of the fall during your senior year.

If you have any questions about these testing opportunities or why we are making these recommendations, come to the Junior Night presentation tomorrow night where we will talk about this and so much more!

Good luck on the PSAT

Don't forget - tomorrow is the day when many Kilbourne sophomores and juniors will take the PSAT.  

If you are one of the students who will be taking the PSAT, you will report directly to your testing location at your designated testing time.  (For most juniors, that will be the gym in the morning- 8:30 check in for an 8:40 start.  For most sophomores, that will be the gym in the afternoon - 11:45 check in for a 12:00 start.)  You will need to bring your student id with you in order to check in.  One of my most important reminders is do NOT forget your FULLY CHARGED district issued chromebook!  If you haven't already opened and launched BlueBook to make sure that it is updated and working properly, I strongly encourage you to do that tonight before you get to testing tomorrow. 

As with every standardized test, you will not be allowed to have your cell phone or smart watch on you at any time during testing.  With the test being digital, I would still encourage you to bring a calculator if you like using a traditional calculator better than the digital one online, a writing utensil to use with the scratch paper you will be given, and I would recommend a normal watch if you prefer to track timing on your own. 

You will be able to have water and a snack under your table for easy access during breaks, but you cannot eat or drink at all during the test.  As you know, the temperature in the building varies greatly.  So because we don't know what to expect in the gym, I strongly encourage that you dress in layers so that you can add a sweatshirt or take it off depending on how hot or cold you might be during testing.  As with normal school days, you are not allowed to put up a hood during testing - this is a school rule, but more importantly, it is also a testing rule you must follow. Additionally, you are not allowed to wear hats during the test either.

If you haven't already watched this short (less than 3 minute) video about the digital PSAT, I would strongly recommend that you review it. Knowing ways that you can flag a question, eliminate options, etc will only help you tomorrow when you are testing.

To those of you who will be testing, get a good night's sleep, be sure to eat breakfast and good luck testing tomorrow!

What do you want to be someday?

This past week I had a "question of the day" in my office for students asking about their memories of when they were little and what they had wanted to be someday when they grew up. I heard lots of unique answers - astronaut, professional athlete, teacher, nurse, doctor, actress and more. It's fun to dream about what you'll be some day when you are little. When you hit high school, those dreams can start to feel like pressure. And we definitely don't want that to be the case!

Yes, of course, as you hit high school, it is important to start considering your future goals and dreams. But we would encourage you to think of it more as a hypothesis... something you can test out and compare to the facts and see if it continues to hold true. And, at the same time, to know that it is ok to have an idea for now about what you think you'd like to do, but that as time continues moving forward and you learn more about yourself, the world, and careers available to you, that it is also ok to change your mind and adjust your goals. Just like from when you were little to today and your ideas about what you wanted to be when you grow up.

There are lots of opportunities and experiences that we put in front of you to help you explore options so that you can test out various ideas to find those which fit you best. This week happens to be important dates for several career related items.

1. All freshmen will complete your YouScience career aptitude assessments during your core classes at school on Tuesday. This is a great opportunity to learn more about yourself, your own personal strengths, and how you can potentially leverage your strengths into areas of interest and passion for your future careers.
2. All sophomores who are interested in attending the Delaware Area Career Center field trip have until Thursday to sign up using the link on the handout from DACC and to fill out and return your completed signed permission slip. If you have lost your copy of the permission slip handout, please stop by the counseling center as there are extra copies available on the black shelves on the left of the front lobby in the counseling center.
3. Juniors and Seniors are invited to TWHS at 6pm on Wednesday night for the Pre-Apprenticeship night presentation. This will give you and your parents information about getting involved with the various programs Worthington has partnerships with for current high school students.
4. And, finally, all 10th through 12th graders are invited to take the ASVAB which is the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. While this is a test that the military uses similar to the ACT, it is also a helpful career assessment even for those students who are not interested in a career in the military. Additionally, please know that earning a high enough score on the ASVAB can be a replacement option for one of the honors diploma categories for students who have that as a personal goal. The ASVAB will be offered at WKHS on Friday, October 23rd so students are encouraged to register to take the test this week if you are interested.

So if you are a student thinking, "I have no clue what I want to do some day" know that is totally ok and try to take advantage of some of these opportunities to start exploring ideas and see what jobs are of more or less interest to you and you can gradually start narrowing your search down to areas that appeal to you most.

Net Price Calculator

Yesterday several of the counselors were out of the building for a meeting about Financial Aid. My head is still swimming with information that they shared, but I want to remind students of every grade about the benefits of using the Net Price Calculator.

Every college features a net price calculator on their website. This requirement is in an effort to help provide students and parents with the information needed to make more informed decisions and choices about what they can expect to pay for a college education at each school. Now, I will forewarn you that not every net price calculator is the same and some are more detailed than others. Why does this matter? Well, if it is very specific and takes all of the different factors into consideration that the financial aid office will be looking at when creating your financial aid package, then you are likely to get a better picture of what your estimated aid might be, but if it is a more simplistic calculator then there could be more variance when compared to your actual aid package. Plus, of course, the accuracy of the information that you submit will determine the accuracy of the information that you receive back.

Without a doubt, college is very expensive and so trying to figure out the best ways to be able to finance your education is an important factor to consider in your college search and selection process. We hope this tool will be useful to you as you investigate schools.

Don't forget, tomorrow from 1-3pm is the Columbus Suburban College Fair at Otterbein University. It's a great opportunity to meet with a lot of college admissions professionals in a short period of time!

Schedule a Campus Visit

We have a long weekend coming up next weekend as all students have Friday October 16th off from school. And then a few weeks later, you also have Tuesday, November 3rd off of school for election day. Why am I pointing that out today? Because those are two GREAT days to consider making visits to colleges for students in every grade!

Both of the days that we are off, the colleges will be in session which means you don't have to worry about missing out on school content AND you get to visit the colleges while students are on campus. This is a win-win opportunity for students and families because making college visits while classes are in session gives you a more accurate feel for campus life, learning experiences, and how you could possibly picture yourself (or not) at that college in the future.

Even if you are thinking that you want to go to colleges that are far away and can't make a trip on such short notice to visit them with these two days off, I'd suggest you spend some time at local area colleges. In central Ohio we are lucky that there are so many schools within a very short drive that you can visit. Why would you visit a college that you're not particularly interested in attending? Because it will help you to gain insight and awareness into what opportunities are available to you on campuses, it will make you a smarter consumer when you go to visit your top choice colleges, and you just might be surprised and you could even fall in love with a school you didn't think would be a fit for you.

If you want to make a college visit on October 16th or on November 3rd, we strongly encourage that students talk to your parents about what your plan would be and then the students should contact the colleges to set up the visit including the admissions office information session and the campus tour.

Juniors Planning for College Night

Next week, on Wednesday, October 14th the WKHS Counseling department will be hosting a Student and Parent College Planning Information Night. Historically, this presentation has received some of the best feedback out of all of the information nights we host. The students and parents who attended this meeting in the past have expressed how much this helped them get started and move forward with the college search process and developed a better understanding of what to expect along the way. The meeting is primarily targeted at juniors, but sophomores and freshmen are welcome to attend if interested. The meeting will take place at 7:00pm in the Auditorium.

We hope you will plan to attend! And yes, we want you to bring your parents to this meeting and no, we don't want you to just send your parents instead... this is YOUR future and you are responsible for deciding what direction you will take. Please RSVP so we know how many people to expect.

Next Week Senior Events

We have 2 events that primarily target seniors happening next week.

The first is a College Application Completion Workshop on Monday evening, October 12th from 5-6:30 in the WKHS "fishbowl" counseling center conference room. This is a great time for you to come together with your other friends and work on your own college applications with the support of the counselors. Need us to help read through your essay, no problem! Want to ask questions about your activities, we're right there. Not sure how to invite your counselor and request your transcript, we will guide you through it all step by step. If you haven't already completed and submitted your applications, this is a helpful chance to make some real progress on finishing up your application before the deadlines.

The second event will take place on Wednesday evening, October 14th at 6pm at TWHS. This night is the Pre-Apprenticeship Information Session. This is a districtwide presentation and so the meeting rotates between WKHS and TWHS each year and this year it will be held at TWHS. During this evening, each of the Worthington Pre-Apprenticeship partners will spend a little bit of time explaining to students and your parents/ guardians about their companies, what they do, what the opportunities are for participating in a pre-apprenticeship with their organization, and details about what your schedule would look like, if it is paid or not, and opportunities for careers in the future. The partners who will be presenting include: Worthington Enterprises, Worthington Steel, Independent Electrical Contractors, Hamilton Parker and Performance Columbus.

We do ask that you register so that the pre-apprenticeship partners who will be coming to present know how many people to expect and so that we can get you information on where to go when you arrive at TWHS for the presentation. The RSVP link is available on the Counselor Website. Additionally, while the pre-apprenticeship experiences are for seniors, younger students are also invited to attend the presentation to begin the process of learning more.

Parent/ Teacher Conferences

Parents, if you are interested in arranging to meet with one of your son or daughter’s teachers during conferences, the online system opened today for you to register for a meeting slot. Conferences will be scheduled as people sign up for them, so if you want to make sure you have times that work well for you, we strongly encourage you to register right away.

Conferences will be held on Monday, October 12th from 4:00 - 7:30pm and on Wednesday, October 14th from 5:00 - 8:40pm. Each conference will be scheduled in 15 minute time blocks. Conferences allow parents the chance to learn about your student’s classroom performance from the teachers, it allows the opportunity for you to ask questions and they provide an opportunity to build a dialogue with the teachers regarding any thoughts and concerns you might have.

Please follow the steps below to register for a parent/ teacher conference:

- Follow this link to take you to the conference scheduler:  http://ptcfast.com/schools/Worthington_Kilbourne_High_School 

-  Click on the teacher you would like to meet with for a conference.

-  Sign up by entering your child's last name, first name, your name and your e-mail address and then click Submit.

-  The next screen will direct you to check your e-mail inbox for a message with the subject "Select Date/ Team for Teacher Conference Now."

-  Open the e-mail and click on the link to select a conference time.  If you do not receive an e-mail, please check your junk/ spam folder.  Please note, you MUST follow the link in the e-mail in order to complete the sign-up process.

-  The link will take you to a Time Picker.  Available time slots will appear on this page.  If there are no available appointments that suit your schedule, please e-mail the teacher directly to set up an alternate meeting time.

-  After submitting your time slot, you will be prompted to finish, schedule another appointment for the same student or register another student.  Once you have completed your reservations, you will receive an e-mail confirming the date and time of your conferences and a link by which you can make changes to your date or time if you need to do so.

If you have any problems using the online conference registration system, please contact Caitlin Stead at WKHS. She can be reached by e-mail at cstead@wscloud.org or by phone at 614-450-6400.

Columbus Suburban College Fair

The Columbus Suburban College Fair is coming up on Sunday, October 11th from 1:00 - 3:00pm at Otterbein University in the Clements Center (180 Center St., Westerville, OH 43081). This is the largest local fall college fair and a great opportunity for all of our students - grades 9-12.

College fairs give you a chance to meet with admissions representatives in person. They are all gathered together in one place in order to meet you and to answer your questions. Many schools also keep track of the number of interactions/ meetings you have with their admissions representatives during your search and application process so that they can gauge your interest level in their school.
Be prepared before you get to the college fair. Know that there will be far more schools than you are interested in or can even truly take in during one afternoon, so it is useful to come up with a list of colleges that you would be interested in learning more about by doing a search that looks for different criteria that seems to be a good fit for you. With that list in hand you now have a starting point for the colleges that you would like to talk to during the fair.

All students are asked to register with Strive Scan by visiting www.strivefair.com because this will allow for you to have a bar code specific to you. Then, when you are at the college fair next weekend and you talk to a college that interests you, they can simply scan your barcode and that will allow the college to know of your interest. I promise you, this is a MAJOR improvement over the days when students had to hand write out interest cards at each college table.

I encourage you to check out the Columbus Suburban College Fair information on the front page of the WKHS Counselor website for more information about this year's event.

A few other hints:

It can be useful to ask the same questions of each college so that you can compare them and their responses appropriately and we encourage you to consider thinking about the questions you most want to know about the school and can’t find in a brochure or on their website. Everyone is different so your questions are going to be different depending upon your interests, but if you are really interested in playing a club sport in college, you might want to ask about their club/ intramural program and the numbers of students that participate. You may want to ask what the top 2 or 3 majors are on campus as that will give you an idea of what most of the students are interested in studying. If you are undecided about what you would like to study, it would be a great idea to ask them what support and services are available to help students in exploring different majors.

Take something with you to be able to jot some notes on - I suggest a pen or pencil over a phone because even though your phones are amazing for the notes app, the impression it may give to colleges is that you're not engaged in what is happening and are side tracked and paying attention to your phone instead. It is a crazy event with so much happening, so if you don’t write it down as you go you won’t remember much after the fact. The admissions representatives are giving you a small look of the college – what do you think following each glimpse?

When you are walking through the college fair with the list of schools that you want to talk to, don’t forget to leave some time for browsing – you may realize that a school you had not previously considered has just what you are looking for in a college. It can be easy for us to get caught in the cycle of only looking at specific schools because that is what “everyone” else is considering.

Ideally, you will be able to avoid getting caught up in the crowds and confusion so that you don’t walk away from the college fair with a lot of brochures, but no real ideas or impressions about which colleges most interest you. At the end of the college fair you will likely have a bag filled with information about colleges. One of the best college fair articles suggested, “Don’t succumb to the temptation of just piling all those brochures in some obscure corner of your bedroom. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a day or two away from the college search. Then get out all of those brochures, along with the notes you took at the fair, and read through them. You may find that some colleges aren’t as interesting as you first thought. Others only look better the more you research them.”

If you have never been to a college fair before, I admit that it often feels like mass chaos. But it is also the opportunity for you to gain a lot of useful information from a large number of schools in a short period of time. Good luck and happy college searching… we can’t wait to hear about the schools that spark your interest!

Students of the Month

Yesterday morning was the first ceremony of the year to honor Kilbourne's Students of the Month. Students are nominated by teachers to receive the recognition as being a Student of the Month in honor of their outstanding academic commitment, their leadership, their personal effort, the compassion they have shown, or their dedication to being a positive presence in the school community.

There were 30 Kilbourne students who were recognized for their contributions that make WKHS a better place - in the classroom and beyond. This is an honor that students can only earn once during their high school years.

Congratulations to the following students who were recognized this month: Ibrahim Ahmed, Dania Al Adhami, Yousif Alothman, Isatta Bah, Patrick Burns, Jayson Cline, Amara Conley, Alice Deisler, Sage Dickman, Chloe Eberly, Jaiy'Aire Echols, Lilyona Estrella, Abigail Gerschutz, Gretchen Gregg, Duncan Haas, Allan Heieh, Elizabeth Hill, Jonah Johansen, Aubrey Jones, Benjamin Keyes, Adah Kong, Perihan Kucak, Asher Post, Aswini Ragulan, Alexa Ritchey, Arthur Silva De Jesus, Sloane Szabo, Kylie Van De Weghe, Elijah Vincent, and Timothy Wayne.

We are proud of you all and thankful for the positive impact you have at Kilbourne!

Why THIS College?

Why do you like a particular college? What is it about the school that made it stand out to you and left you with the impression that this would be a good place for you to spend your collegiate years?

Hopefully, you have an idea about what you'd answer for both of those questions for each school that you are including on your list of schools where you are going to apply. And, let me be clear - you should like something about every college that you are considering and you should feel good about each of the schools if you are applying there!

In addition to mattering for deciding where you are going to apply, your answers to these questions are essential when you are trying to answer college-specific essay questions.  Some colleges will ask applicants to answer supplemental essay questions and often one of these questions relates to what you like about their school.  They may phrase it in different ways, but the bottom line is that they are trying to determine why you believe their school is a good fit for you.

Remember, the admissions officers who work for the school already think their school is great and they know about the wonderful opportunities available so you need to take it beyond saying that they have a great location, outstanding professors, and wonderful weather.  You need to take it to the next level by identifying specific aspects at the school where you can see yourself contributing to the school and offerings that you plan to take advantage of while you are in college.

Good luck in searching for the right college fit for you and for conveying why it's a good fit in your essays. Also, remember, today is October 1st, which means that seniors are just a month out from the majority of college's early application deadlines.