Test Score Submissions

One important step to keep track of with college applications is your test scores.  If you are applying and planning on having the colleges consider your test scores then you will need to make sure that the colleges receive the score results directly from the testing agency. You have/ had the option to send your scores to 4 colleges for free when you are registering for the test and there is an additional charge for any extra schools you want to send your results to after those initial four.

You can log in to the ACT and SAT websites to review the locations where you selected to send your scores to make sure that every college you are considering has received a copy of your scores. 

Sending your scores is an important step as you are working on the college the application process. So, in addition to making sure that you have completed your application form, written your essay, secured your recommendation letters, and submitted your transcripts, please make sure that you have sent your test scores to each of the colleges where you are applying (unless it is a school you are applying through the test optional policy).  And since you can do this part in advance, it is worth just knocking that component off of your "to do" list now.

College Visits

We are getting ready for the Junior College Information night which will start shortly and so I have been thinking about college visits - not just for juniors, but for all students and the fact that the long weekend coming up on October 15th will be a great chance for many families to make visits.

When can you make your visit?
Anytime!  Students often schedule visits to colleges on times when it fits with their parents schedule.  You are allowed to miss school for college visits - it is an excused absence, but please be sure to still have your parents contact the attendance office.

While you can make visits at any time, I encourage you to try to select days when you know you will have a positive experience.  There are many colleges that will host a major specific day and those days often include lots of unique experiences in that field of study including meeting professors, talking to students, seeing their projects, etc.  You also want to maximize the positive experience of going on the visit by not creating problems with your high school schedule and commitments.  For example, if you know that you have a game and therefore have to be in school for at least half the day, then that is probably not the best day to try to squeeze in a college visit.  You also know that there tend to be a lot of tests, quizzes and projects on the last day of the semester, so I encourage you to avoid that day as well.

How should I set up the visit?
The student should be the one who communicates with the college - not the parent!  Remember, you are the one who is going to college - not your mom or dad.  You are trying to show the college that you are mature, responsible and ready for the college opportunities and that begins with having the ability to communicate effectively with the admissions office.

Some colleges have online visit registration options and others only take reservations by phone.  You will definitely want to sign up for the visits in advance!  And remember, due to COVID, they are likely restricting the number of people who can be on campus or participate in a tour or information session at any given time so you need to try to plan ahead!

Should I attend on a "major specific" day?
As I mentioned in an earlier question, there are many colleges that will host special recruitment days for students looking at a particular major.  For example, there may be an engineering day, a nursing day, a communications day, etc.  These are GREAT opportunities for students to consider visiting the campus - not only for those of you who have made up your mind that you are interested in a particular field, but also for those students who think they might like to study that field.  So, for example, if I think I might want to study something connected to business, but don't know any more than that, going to the college's business day can be a great learning opportunity for me to gain insight into the different aspects available within that major and that college.  If you attend you might walk away excited about a particular opportunity or section of business or you may leave realizing you thought it seemed terrible and that would still give you the information to help you know that this is not the best job field for your future.

What else should I keep in mind?
- Take a picture!  Don't forget, I want a picture of you on every college campus you step foot on!

- Use the questions that we have posted on the counselor website to help guide you on possible things to ask.

- Pay attention to the details around you to learn all that there is to know about the college.

- Remember, a lot of outside factors can influence the quality of the visit positively or negatively. For example, the weather… if it is a gorgeous sunny day with perfect temperatures you may think it is the most beautiful school and if it cold, rainy, or dreary you may think it is miserable, but try to remember that the weather changes from day to day and judge the school without being overly influenced by the weather. (Please also remember that if you are traveling to areas in different climates than Ohio that weather may truly be an appropriate factor to consider, so I am not making a blanket statement to always ignore the weather.)

- Tour guides also form a huge impression of the school that you visit. Most colleges know that and will try to find outgoing, positive, energetic students to take you through the campus. Ideally the guides will try to get to know something about you or your interests to help point those aspects of the school out to you, but the reality is the students serving as tour guides are not always great and, let’s be honest here, we all have bad days so even some of the good tour guides can have off days where they won’t be impressive on the visit. I know it can be hard, but try to separate the guide from the school.

- If you can spare the time – stop and sit on a bench and just “people watch.” Are these people that you can imagine being your friends in the future? Remember, you are hoping that in the near future that you will be able to make friends with them and others like them on campus.  Go to the campus dining hall and grab something to eat - how is the food?  Do you like the interactions you have with the students and staff in the dining hall? Think about how you are feeling on the campus – can you imagine yourself being there and being both happy and successful at this school?

I cannot wait to hear about your experiences exploring college campuses!

Junior College Planning Night Reminder

Just a quick reminder to all junior students and parents - tomorrow night at 7pm over Zoom, the WKHS Counselors will be hosting a College Planning Night presentation.  We hope you will join us!  The link will be emailed out and it will also be posted on the Counselor Website tomorrow morning.

Care Closet

WKHS is fortunate that we have a group of dedicated, compassionate moms who make up a group called the Activity Club.  This group of parents are focused on finding positive ways to give back to the Worthington community so that we are all stronger together. 

One of the projects that they spearhead for Kilbourne students and families is the "Care Closet."  In this designated area they have stocked a wide range of personal care items that individuals may want/ need but not have the extra money to keep on hand.  For example, in the Care Closet you can find shampoo, conditioner, lotion, soap, shaving cream, toothbrushes and toothpaste, deodorant and so much more!  And it is all there FREE for anyone who could benefit from a little extra help.

The Care Closet is actually a set of file drawers located in the Counseling Center.  Please know that we WANT you to use this resource.  That is why they provide it for our families.  So, if this is something that you know would help you, please stop and see me and I can point out where the supplies are located.  And then, in the future, you can always go to the Care Closet area and help yourself to any materials that you or your family need.

Financial Aid Night

We are less than a week away from October 1st and, for seniors, this is a very significant day.  The FAFSA which helps determine how much financial aid a student can qualify for will open on October 1st.  The FAFSA for current high school seniors will be based upon the 2020 tax returns.  You can access the FAFSA here:  https://fafsa.ed.gov/

When students and parents are completing the FAFSA, you will each need to have an FSAID number.  This number will allow you to electronically sign your FAFSA and in the future it would let you sign promissory notes as well as complete future FAFSA's.

The student and parent will each create their own separate numbers.  You cannot use the same e-mail addresses for the creation of the numbers so if you don't have an e-mail address and have been using your parents e-mail in the past then this is the ideal time to create your own e-mail account.  And students, please remember that you should NOT use your school email account either.

You will make your own challenge questions to help you access your number if you forget it in the future so it is important to write down those challenge questions and answers to make sure you will remember it down the road.  I recommend that students and parents make a folder related to FAFSA where you store all of this information so that you will always have it when you might need it.

If you forget to create an FSAID number prior to completing your FAFSA, it will still have a link for you to be able to go back and create one, but ideally you should create it ahead of time.

Here is a link to create your FSAID numbers:  https://fsaid.ed.gov/npas/index.htm

To help you with the college financial aid process we will have a Financial Aid Meeting coming up this week for parents at 7:00pm on October 7th.  We are fortunate enough to have Faith Phillips, a financial aid director for OSU Newark and COTC, sharing her expertise with our parents and students.  She always has useful insight and is able to present it in engaging ways that will help you in completing your financial aid application.  This presentation will take place live over Zoom on October 7th so we hope you will join us.

Grade Point Average

Yesterday I mentioned that the deadline to change classes to pass/ fail grading is coming up next week.  But then I was thinking that some of you may not understand the impact of pass/ fail grading and how GPA works overall.

The "easy" explanation for how your GPA is calculated is that every class you take at WKHS taught by a Kilbourne teacher with traditional grading is computed into your GPA.  Some students begin taking high school courses while still in middle school.  Those grades will appear on your transcript, but they are not calculated into your GPA.  This is done to assist you because many times middle school students haven't recognized the impact that their grades have on their high school GPA and the long-term impact on their future college applications.  Additionally, any classes that you pass that were taken as pass/ fail appear on your transcript but will not be calculated in your GPA.  So, if you think you might pass, but not do great in the class, you could elect to change the course to pass/ fail grading.  (That is, assuming the class is offered as a pass/ fail option - you will mostly just find this with introductory level electives and not with core courses.)

All regular and honors classes are unweighted which means that they are all based on a 4.0 scale.  AP, IB and CC+ courses are weighted on a scale of 1.25.  Below is a chart that shows how GPA is calculated.

Letter Grades	Percentage	GPA Scale	AP/ IB/ CC+ Weighted Calculation	AP/ IB/ CC+ Weighted GPA
A	90 – 100%	4.0	4.0 x 1.25	5.00
B	80 – 89%	3.0	3.0 x 1.25	3.75
C	70 – 79%	2.0	2.0 x 1.25	2.50
D	60 – 69%	1.0	1.0 x 1.25	1.25
F	0 – 59%
S	Satisfactory
P	Passing

All classes are granted credit based upon the semester.  This means that when you pass the 1st semester you have earned that credit and it is computed into your grade point average.  Each semester class is worth 1/2 a credit excluding physical education courses which are worth 1/4 a credit.  So, if you earn a B in the first semester of English 1 and a C in the first semester of Physical Science, then your GPA for these two semesters of classes would equal a 2.5.  Plusses and Minuses in your grades are still calculated based upon the base grade as we don't have different GPA weights for a B+ vs a B or B-.

It is important to know that some students have taken classes at other schools and are transferring their credit to WKHS.  Those classes will also appear on your transcript with the grades, but are not computed into your GPA.  This is because your Kilbourne GPA will just reflect your Kilbourne classes - any classes you took in another district or an online school will have the GPA that you earned at that school.  So, for example, if you transferred to WKHS from a surrounding district, your classes and grades will be transferred over to Kilbourne, but they won't be included in your Kilbourne GPA.  This means that students will not have a grade point average until after a semester at WKHS.  The reason that this is important is that some students have transferred from schools that have different grading scales and it doesn't allow equitable comparisons.  When students are applying to college you will submit both of your transcripts so that they have the complete picture of your grade point average.

You can see a copy of your transcript on Infinite Campus and it also shows your grade point average.  If you have any questions about your GPA, stop by and see me.

Pass/ Fail & Drop Deadline

I wanted to make sure that all of you were aware that the last date to drop a 1st semester course without having it appear on your transcript is 1 week away - next Wednesday, September 29th. That is also the last date to submit a request to have a 1st semester class graded on a pass/ fail scale instead of the standard scoring. Please make sure that your requests for these options are turned into the counseling center before the school day ends next Wednesday!