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.

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!