Thank You Notes

Did you have a good weekend?  I know many of you were busy with winter formal last night and I hope that was a fun evening for everyone who attended.  

On Friday evening as I was straightening up my office following the end of my junior meetings for the day I realized I still have 3 thank you notes sitting on my desk that are from Christmas time.  Not good!

A thank you note is a simple enough idea - let someone else know that you appreciate them. I don't know about you, but a lot of times I am terrible at writing thank you notes... and clearly at delivering them too. It doesn't mean that my gratitude is any less, but... and that is where everything falls apart. If I don't express my gratitude to the person who has been a positive influence in my life or who has done something nice for me or gone out of their way to help me, then how do they know how much I appreciate it? See the problem?

And I am pretty confident that many of you face the same problem. So I want to remind you of the importance of thank you notes. They do not have to be long or flowery - simply thank the person who has helped you. This is especially important for teachers who have written recommendation letters for you. Many people do not realize the time and effort it takes to write a good recommendation letter. If you didn't thank your teachers at the time they wrote your recommendation letters, perhaps now - as you are starting to hear back from your colleges - is the perfect time! Thank them for their help and support in your college applications. It is important to make sure that they know how much you appreciate their help along the way. It won't take you a long time, but it will certainly mean a lot to them. 

Before I close this post, I want to be very clear - I am NOT talking about writing to me! I do NOT need nor am I in any way hinting, asking for, or needing you to write a thank you note to me! I just figured we could all use a reminder in the importance of writing thank you notes and expressing our gratitude for those around us. 

On a separate note, I continue with junior student/ parent meetings every 30 minutes again tomorrow and Wednesday, but then I will be DONE with meeting with every 9th, 10th, and 11th grade student on my caseload.  Yeah!

Holistic Admissions

During junior meetings we have been talking about various aspects that are contributing into a college's evaluation of the applicant.  This is, essentially, talking about holistic admissions.  

There are some colleges which will basically look at a student's grade and test scores and make an admissions decision, but the vast majority of colleges are using a process to evaluate applicants that is taking in a wide range of factors and not just grades or test scores.  Strength of academic schedule, essays, leadership, community service, activities students are involved with, demonstrated interest, recommendation letters, and interviews are examples of the components colleges may consider when evaluating applicants.

Whenever I am answering questions about what that evaluation process looks like from a college's perspective I think about this old article that showed a behind the scenes look at how colleges were taking an applicant's information to evaluate it.  I believe you might find it interesting as well.

This is a link to the evaluation processing page that one college uses (and a good idea of what many colleges will do) to take your application and convert it over to a one-page form to have a quick snapshot of you.  Be sure to check on the different areas to get a description of what each means.

There were two articles connected to this evaluation page that helped give additional information about how the evaluation of applications is carried out.  Although they were from several years ago, I believe you will still find the content helpful and informative.

How one college evaluates a transcript

Shedding further light on how one college decides

Please Be Aware

It's easy to forget... sometimes we all get so caught up in our own lives that we forget that not everyone is in the same situation or feel the same way we do. How we talk about colleges is just like everything else in life and we need to approach it with sensitivity and kindness.

What do I mean?

Well, since we returned from winter break, as more and more college admissions decisions have been arriving, I have noticed that students will sometimes start announcing where they were accepted and their feelings on different schools, forgetting that other students are around. Being accepted is wonderful news and it is completely understandable that you want to shout it from the roof-tops when you have been accepted to a school, but it is also important to be sensitive to those around you and to remember that some of your friends and classmates are NOT being accepted into those very same colleges. 

Receiving a college rejection letter is hard enough, but it is even more hurtful to hear someone else proclaim, "Oh, I was accepted to ___ (insert name of college) but I would never actually go there." Particularly if the school mentioned was the one where a student was recently rejected and had been their top choice college. 

This also plays out when people are talking about colleges where they intend to apply.  Students or parents saying things such as "I would never apply to _____."  This is hard because that college is most definitely someone else's favorite school.

Please understand, in no way am I trying to dampen your excitement, but please simply try to be respectful and aware in what you say about schools and how you "rate" your own colleges. Remember, no one school is perfect for every student and every student is not right for every college- it is important to find the right fit and I sincerely believe that every student WILL be able to find the college that is right for them!

College Decision Response Terms

As more and more students begin hearing from colleges I thought it might be helpful to know some of the most common terms you will see in response letters from colleges. Below are some of the more common college related terms/ phrases for admissions decisions. If you or your son/ daughter receives a letter and you are uncertain what they mean, please feel free to let me know or to contact the college directly.

- Accepted: Congratulations - they are inviting you to join and be a part of their college/ university

- Declined/ Rejected/ Not Accepted: For whatever reason the college did not feel that you would be a good fit. While it is understandably disappointing, please remember that there are lots of colleges and universities out there who will be lucky to have you on their campus, so don’t give up on finding a good match.

- Decision Deferred: The college is not sure yet… usually they will tell you what additional data/ information they are interested in receiving to help them make their decision. The most common piece of data they will look for are senior year grades at the semester time.  I sent mid-year reports out with your transcript to all schools on Common App, but if you applied to any colleges not on Common App that defer you then I'd suggest you come in and request to have your mid-year report sent to them using the transcript release card in Mrs. McDaniel's office.

- Wait List: The wait list is not a denial, but it is not an acceptance either. Colleges use wait lists as insurance to make sure that their freshman class will be the appropriate size. If enough students decide to attend, the college will not accept anyone off of their wait-list.

Please remember that we track admissions decisions, but for most colleges the only way we know of the decision is if you come in and inform us, so please, be sure to stop in and let me know as you hear back from each school.

More Meetings

I don't know about you, but I am exhausted after our first day back!  Granted, perhaps that is also because I met with ALL of my freshmen students today which made for a VERY busy day.  Tomorrow will be equally as packed with meeting with all of the Sophomore students.  Thursday, Friday and next Monday will be filled with Junior meetings.  But I have time this Wednesday to try to connect with you.  So, I wanted to make sure you all knew that unfortunately this is going to be a really hectic week, but I am looking forward to seeing you so be patient and understand that I will meet up with you as soon as possible.  (And, if possible, plan to stop and see me on Wednesday if you need something.)

Also, to all of the juniors who had meetings set for last Friday - I am working tonight to try to figure out when I can get all of your meetings rescheduled.  I will send out updated passes, but it will be sometime next week.

Summer School

With the frigid temperatures we have been having it is hard to focus on the summer, but summer school registration is now open!  Worthington Summer school will primarily be for credit recovery purposes - meaning that if you had failed a class you can take the class over again in Worthington's summer school.  Credit recovery courses will be free of charge.  There will be a limited number of classes available for getting ahead in credits and those classes will have a fee associated with them.  Summer school will run from June 3rd -June 28th and free transportation will be available to students who need it.  Registration is completely online on the district website along with tons more information about summer school - check it out at worthington.k12.oh.us under the "Academics" tab.

Some students and parents have had questions related to taking summer classes through a different school district or through Online schools.  The basic answer is yes, you are allowed to take classes through any accredited school.  Please be sure that they are accredited before you sign up for their classes.  After you have completed your course, they will give you a transcript and you will need to provide that to us at WKHS so that we can transfer your credit.  

As these courses are not coordinated or run by Worthington, I don't have a lot of details about various options, but a Google search for "online summer school" has been successful for students in the past.  (Some students also search for their intended course name to help make sure their search return gives them schools that offer that class.)  You can select any accredited program that works best for you - so look at their costs, learning experiences, expectations, and determine what seems to be the best fit for what you are seeking.

My top tip is to make sure you are signing up for their summer school classes because I do know that in the past students found there was a significant difference in the cost if they were taking a class online during summer school vs. taking a class online during the school year.  The school we have received the most transcripts from each year is TRECA, so that is one option to consider, but it is definitely not the only one out there.

Reminder: You need to submit your online registration requests.  You don't want me to randomly pick your classes - so please, log into Infinite campus and select your courses today!  Also, freshmen, I am still meeting with you tomorrow as planned so bring your signed forms with you to our meeting during your science class!

Self Talk

What are the conversations like that you have with yourself within your own head?  Really, pause for a moment and reflect on what the voice in your head tends to say...

And, for those of you whose response to that is, "what is she talking about, I don't talk to myself" - I counter that this response is exactly that voice in your head that I am talking about.  ;-)

The reality is we all talk to ourselves and it happens so naturally and so frequently that we don't always stop to reflect on what we are saying or where those messages come from.  As I outside shoveling my driveway from our surprise snow day on Friday, I had nothing to distract me from the cold and the snow than my thoughts and the conversations happening with myself. 

So here are a few of my moments of self-disclosure... I am a (most of the time) recovering perfectionist.  I like to do things well.  I tend to go with the motto, if I am going to do it at all then I want to do it well or else why bother.  But as I have learned in this job as well as through extensive reading, perfectionism isn't really about achieving at my highest potential - it is more about pleasing others - hustling to try to convince others that you are worth acceptance and belonging.  (If you have ever read anything by Brene Brown which is an author that I am obsessed with, then this is a concept that you will recognize from her... and if you haven't read any of her books or watched her TED talks, then you really should!  But that is a future blog post in and of itself.)  Yesterday, my perfectionism was in full blown mode while I was out shoveling my driveway.  I would look back up part of the drive way and see a spot that I hadn't gone all the way out to the edge of the drive way and walk back up to get that little area that I had missed.  And the conversations I was having in my own head had nothing to do with trying to impress anyone else because really, who sees or cares about my driveway except for me.  But it had everything to do with what I believed a good and responsible homeowner "should" do. 

Long story about me but my point is that we all get caught up in "should" moments.  We all have times where we don't feel good enough or smart enough or talented enough or insert whatever "__ enough" word you tend to compare yourself to others over.  And in those moments, our self talk often gets really mean.  And anytime you hear the word "should" happening in your mind, I want to encourage you to pause and reflect on it.  Is it actually something that you want to do and is it something that you believe will be good for you and others?  Or is it something that you are doing because it would look good and therefore you would be deemed good enough by others?  Because if that is the reason, chances are the self talk that you have going with the conversation in your head is not particularly positive.

The first step in improving our level of happiness comes from recognizing our self talk.  Once you recognize it then you can decide if you want to do something about it or not.  So that is my challenge for you - try to pay attention to your self talk and the messages you are telling yourself.  And if the things you are saying in your own head are not said with the same level of grace, compassion and understanding that you would extend to your best friend, then you shouldn't be saying it to yourself.  (In other words - we need to start talking to ourselves in the same ways that we would talk to our friends.)

I hope that you are enjoying this 5 day weekend!  It also means that we will have a big adjustment to being back for 5 days of school.  Please be sure to register for your classes for next year on Infinite Campus if you have not already done so.  We left the window open through the weekend in case you forgot to submit your requests.  And, for those of you who might have left your papers at school when you left on Tuesday, don't forget that you can download all of the forms from the counselor website so that you can select the appropriate course numbers that you are looking for in selecting your classes.  Enjoy your last day and I can assure you that both Lexi and I are looking forward to seeing you on Monday!