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.

Delaware Area Career Center

When students enter 9th grade, many are excited about the different choices and opportunities available in high school. Unfortunately, the reality is that the first two years of high school really don't have all that many choices. There is, however, a great deal of flexibility as students reach their junior and senior years. One of those options includes the possibility of attending the Delaware Area Career Center.

Today all sophomores had a chance to listen to a presentation about the Delaware Area Career Center (DACC) and the programs they have available for students. Attending DACC is a great opportunity to earn your elective credits in an area that interests you rather than taking electives that you are selecting simply because they will fill up your schedule.

It was interesting to hear about all of the different programs that are available for students. With over 25 different programs available, there are many unique experiences and opportunities available that can give you a jump start on a career and can also stand out to colleges. If you are interested in participating in the field trip to the DACC, please be sure to return your permission slip to the counseling center soon so that you don't lose the permission slip or forget. (Technically the deadline to return it is October 15th.) The field trip is scheduled for Friday, November 20th.

One thing to realize about the Career Center is that they partner with more than a dozen different high schools from across Central Ohio. So by attending the Career Center you have the chance to meet new people who have similar interests. Each student is still involved in the activities in their home school such as sports and clubs, but this just extends that network of friends and contacts. I will also point out that while it is a huge advantage to have that many different schools all working with the career center, it also means that the 25 spots available in each program are going to be competitive to apply and get a seat. As a result, if this program interests you, we encourage you to make your visit in November so you can apply right away after the field trip.

Net Price Calculator

When you are trying to determine which colleges might be a good fit financially, it is important to know about 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, we 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 using the Net Price Calculator tool will be useful to you as you investigate schools for your future.

Also, a quick reminder that tomorrow night, September 30th, at 7pm we will host the Financial Aid Presentation in the WKHS Auditorium with financial aid expert, Faith Phillips. We hope you will make plans to join us!

Creating Your College List

As you determine your list of colleges where you would like to apply, it is important to keep a few things in mind...

1. You will only be attending 1 college in the future.

2. College is a match to be made not a prize to be won.

3. There are no absolute guarantees, but there is a LOT of data available that can inform your decisions.

4. You should only apply to colleges where you would actually WANT to attend.

Applying to tons of colleges "just because" or "just to see what happens" is not a good strategy.  It wastes your time and the college admissions reps time if this is a college where you will never plan on attending. Additionally, if you feel like you need to apply to countless colleges it is usually a sign that you're not really sure what you're looking for in a college and so it might be a good point to pause and really reflect on what you're looking for in a college.

When we talk about creating a college list, you will often hear us (and lots of other college admissions representatives) talking about making a list that includes Reach, Likely/ Target/ Match, and Safety schools. So we want to talk to you a little bit about this because we know it can be confusing to students and parents. (For this blog post I am going to use the term "Likely" schools. You may also hear people call this "Match" or "Target" schools.)

When you are trying to decide if a college is a reach, safety, or likely school, you will want to first look at your own information.  What is your grade point average?  What are your test scores?  How rigorous of an academic course load have you selected each year in high school?  Then, when you have a pretty good idea of what YOUR application profile would look like it is time to look at the college websites and look at their accepted student data and compare to see how you match up.

A safety school would be a college where you are ABOVE their criteria of what they have been accepting for admission. These are often (although not always) colleges where students will get the most money for scholarships as well because they want to entice you to come to their school and therefore they will make it an attractive financial option for you.

A likely school would be a college where you are solidly right in the mix of their accepted student profile.  It is most likely that you will be attending a likely school.  That is why they are also called a target school or a match school.  This is where you should really be focusing your college applications.  Schools where you are more likely to get accepted and that you would be right in the mix academically with all of your peers.  Why does that matter?  Well, it means that you'll be able to have a balance in college of a social life along with school as opposed to needing to study 24/7 if you are in a school where you're struggling to stay afloat academically.

A reach school would be any college with less than a 33% acceptance rate and/ or a school where you are on the lower side of their accepted student data.  Now, let's pause for a moment and think about this. If you are sitting with a very respectable 3.7 GPA and the college you are looking at has an 8% overall acceptance rate and their average GPA is at or above a 4.0 GPA, you really need to decide WHY you are applying to this college.  Are you going to be ok getting a rejection from that school?  Because statistically speaking, you are not going to get into this college which is why, if you choose to apply there, it would be considered a reach school.  There are different levels of reach colleges.  If you are applying to that same school with an 8% acceptance rate and your GPA is above a 4.0 it is still a reach, but it makes far more sense that you'd be a viable candidate for admission.  When you are getting ready to fill out all of those applications, having a hard, honest conversation with yourself can help make sure you are prepared for any heartache that might come this spring as admissions decisions are released.

Sometimes students will ask us if they HAVE to apply to a safety school and our answer is no. Just like students do NOT need to apply to a reach school either. In fact, there are plenty of students who will apply to just 1 college. This is often the case for students who plan to start at Columbus State. We often see students applying to just 1 college if they know they want to go to OSU no matter what and will be happy at a branch or at main campus. And we also have had many students apply to just 1 college if their top choice school utilizes rolling admissions because they can apply now, have a decision back in a few weeks and know if they need to keep applying to other colleges or if they can be done with their applications after getting that first decision back.

As a general rule of thumb, you are probably applying to anywhere from 3-7 colleges. If you are needing help narrowing down your college application list, feel free to stop and see your school counselor so we can talk through your intended colleges. With all of the college application fees, it will save you a lot of money and a great deal of time if you narrow down your college list.