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.

Course Adjustment Reminders

Just a quick reminder that this week marks 6 weeks of us being in school. Wednesday, September 30th is officially 6 weeks and that is also the deadline for students to request to have any of your classes taken with pass/ fail grading or to drop a class without it appearing on your transcript.

Please note that you cannot drop a class if you don't have above the recommended courses. (So, if you have 7 classes currently, you could drop 1 to take you down to 6, but if you only have 6 classes right now then you cannot drop a class until the end of the semester.)

The pass/ fail grading form and course drop forms are available for pick up in the front of the counseling center or you can download them forms from the counselor website in the academic section.

Some students have asked about changing levels to move from Honors or AP classes to regular classes and yes, that is still allowed even beyond the 6 week mark, but we would strongly encourage you to make that transition soon if it is needed as your grades in the current class will go with you to your new class. The form for level changes is also in the counseling center and on the counselor website.

If you have any questions about pass/ fail grading, course changes, or level changes, feel free to stop and see your school counselor.

Pre-ACT Registration

Registration for the Pre-ACT is now open!

There are a few things to know that might help you decide if you are interested in taking the Pre-ACT or not.

1. The test is open to sophomores and juniors only.

2. There is a cost to sign up for the Pre-ACT.  The charge is $20.

3. The Pre-ACT is the practice test for the ACT.  (This year, Juniors will be taking the SAT at WKHS for free in March.  If you decide you want to take the ACT, you will have to sign up and take that on a Saturday national test date instead.)

4. The Pre-ACT is a paper/ pencil test. (The actual ACT is offered both paper/ pencil or digitally, but more students and more national testing sites administer it as a paper/ pencil test so that is what we are doing for the practice test too.)

5. Taking both the PSAT and the Pre-ACT is a great way for students to experience both tests and be able to compare them to see which one gives you a better score. If you know which test you feel more comfortable with (and which one you scored better on for the practice tests) that can help you decide which one you would want to focus your test prep on for the actual ACT/ SAT admissions tests.

6. The Pre-ACT will be offered to Kilbourne students on Friday, October 30th.

7. The PreACT also includes a career component to help students identify career interests and potential career fields to explore.

8. There is a LIMIT to the number of students who can take the Pre-ACT at Kilbourne on October 30th! Space will be limited to the first 200 registrants. (This is important because, for comparison sake, we have over 400 students signed up to take the PSAT. So, we have half of the number of seats available for the Pre-ACT which means if you are interested in signing up you will want to register soon.)

9. Registration is completed through your MyPaymentsPlus account.

If you have any questions or need any help getting signed up for the Pre-ACT, don't hesitate to stop by and see your counselor!

Ask.

Tomorrow at school the counselors will be in the Commons and in the front of the school to participate in a Suicide Prevention Awareness day. We are hopeful that all students will join us!

This month is Suicide Prevention Month. This link takes you to a short 3 minute video clip with information related to suicide. It's intended audience is for the parents of teens, but it applies to kids too. I am going to ask you to stop now and watch it. Please.

We recognize that the video is simple, but wow does it hit on so many of the key messages related to suicide. Most of all, the importance of asking. The feeling of being alone with your thoughts, your feelings, your loneliness, your hurt, your pain, and not being able to see any way out is a key risk factor for teens having thoughts of suicide. So ask. Ask the people around you, "Are you ok?" Ask, "Are you having thoughts of killing yourself?" Ask, "How are you feeling?" And then listen.

If the answer is yes, then it is time to act. Get your family member or friend support and help. Something needs to change in his/ her life so that they don't have to feel this way. And if they say no, but your gut instinct is that something is wrong - trust yourself and still seek support. You know the people in your life best. You know when something is wrong with your friend. You know when they are hurting or not acting like themselves. There is never any harm in pulling more support into their life... and it may truly end up saving their life!

If someone is in immediate danger of taking his/ her own life, please call 911 or go directly to an Emergency Room. If you aren't sure of the level of danger, you can also call or text 988 which is the Suicide and Crisis Hotline. It is available free of charge, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

If you have concerns about a friend while you are at school, please come and see your counselor or one of the other counselors at WKHS. We are here to help! What you and your friend are going through matters to us and you could be helping to save their life by speaking up. And tomorrow is the perfect day to ask, to engage in the conversation to help prevent suicide. We can all make a difference by joining forces together and showing up for those around us.

Financial Aid Night

Seniors, you and your parents have probably already heard that the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) will release for you to begin completing on October 1st.

To help you with the college financial aid process we will have a Financial Aid Meeting coming up on Wednesday, September 30th at 7:00pm in the WKHS Auditorium. 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.

Because the FAFSA tends to create a lot of questions, this is likely an important night for senior families - even if you have older siblings who have been through the FAFSA process before. We hope you will make plans to join us on September 30th!

Interim Reports

Can you believe we are at the half-way point of the first quarter? In many ways it feels like we just got started. As you are hopefully aware, you and your parents have the opportunity to check your grades on an ongoing basis. But, if you haven't started checking your greats yet this year, since we are about halfway through, this is the time when you are able to get a good feel for how you are doing in each of your classes. We strongly suggest that you take a look at your grades and make sure you are on track for the quarter.

As a reminder to you and your parents, Infinite Campus is the system that has your schedule, attendance, grades, and transcripts. Your teachers are updating their grades at least once a week so that you can check and have an ongoing update for how you are doing in each class. This continual information provides you with the chance to celebrate if you are doing well and to identify what you might need to change if you are not meeting your own expectations for the goals you had set at the beginning of the school year.

Infinite Campus has a free app that is very easy for students and parents to use and is a great tool for staying up to date on your progress. If you are interested in downloading and using the free Infinite Campus app, you will need to know that the District Code is: YCWTRL

Ohio Direct Admissions

As seniors, one of the most common steps that students complete is applying to colleges and then waiting to see if the colleges will accept you. This year, for the first time ever, Ohio has introduced a Direct Admissions program. What is this? It is essentially a flipping of the script.

With Ohio Direct Admissions, Ohio colleges will reach out to Ohio seniors with offers of admission and then the Ohio seniors who receive these offers will choose which ones to accept for ongoing interest.

It is an interesting concept that has been introduced with success in several other states already. Students are under no obligation or commitment to say yes to any of the colleges that offer you admissions without your application.

In Ohio there are 9 main campuses of public colleges, 27 private colleges, and all of the public branch campuses and community colleges that will be participating in the Ohio Direct Admission program.

If students do not want to have their high school data to be considered for matching with the colleges, you have the option to have your information withheld by Opting Out. The deadline to do this is this Friday, September 25th.

Check out the Ohio Department of Higher Education website for more information about Ohio's Direct Admission program.