Picking a College

For seniors, the countdown to final decision time for picking the college of your dreams is rapidly approaching. For juniors, you are beginning your search and trying to determine which schools you can imagine in your future.

There are so many resources available to review and consider to aid you in making your decision. Campus visits, reviewing the college websites and meetings with admissions representatives when they visit Kilbourne are all great strategies for learning more about the college and finding the school that is the best match for you. I want to remind you that a wealth of information and resources are also available in my office that you are welcome to come in and read to help you in making your choice. There are books that give perspectives of different colleges based upon the responses current college students have provided in surveys about school, others that rank selectivity of schools based upon majors, and others that provide insight about the schools from expert researchers.

I know that this process can be stressful and overwhelming, but hopefully you are also finding it fun and exciting. As always, let me know how I can help you sort out your options.

March Students of the Month

On Thursday morning, approximately 20 WKHS students were honored as March Students of the Month. Students are nominated as students of the month by Kilbourne faculty and staff for their academic achievement, good citizenship, and/or service to the school or community. Students can only earn this recognition once in their high school career. A special congratulations to "my" four students who were among those honored this month - (Left to right): Tori Eger, Ethan Dixius, Keeler Callahan and, not pictured, Joshua Blake. I am proud of you all!

More on Scholarships

Haven’t heard enough about scholarships yet? Well, let’s talk a little about other scholarships that are available at the community, state, or even national level. You can always start with a general search, but there are also many scholarship search engines that you can use as a resource. With so many different scholarships, it can feel a bit daunting, but remember, if you are able to earn one of the scholarships, your time would certainly be worth the effort.

Here are a few of the scholarship search sites that might help you:

http://www.fastweb.com/
http://www.collegeboard.com/
http://www.collegenet.com/
http://www.scholarships.com/
http://www.scholarshipmonkey.com/

Also, remember that we maintain a scholarship drawer in the Counseling Center so you are welcome to stop and look through all of the applications we have available.

Never pay for a scholarship! Scholarships are meant to give you money – not the other way around so know that if they are asking you to send money, that it is a scam.

Here are some other articles related to scholarships that I think you might find helpful:

4 Do’s and 1 Don’t for Finding College Scholarships

Skip these 6 Scholarships Essay Errors

7 Things you Need to Know about Private Scholarships

Get your Scholarship Application Noticed

Local Scholarships

Local scholarships are a great opportunity for students to earn some additional financial help for college. And, with the scholarships being local, it means that there will be less people applying for the scholarships (compared to national scholarships) which gives you a better chance of receiving one of the scholarships.

Please take the time to carefully read through the criteria for the scholarships to see which ones would be appropriate for you to apply for and then start getting organized to get your applications completed. After you have determined the scholarships that you would like to apply for, please stop in the counseling center and pick up the actual scholarship application from the tables in the main area of the counseling center. (The picture is the table with local scholarship applications in the Counseling Center.)

The deadline for all completed applications is the end of the school day on April 13th and no late applications can be accepted. I cannot stress enough the importance of planning ahead and starting to work on these scholarships now!

Also, please pay attention to see if the applications require a written recommendation letter and if one is required ask your teacher(s) for a letter as soon as possible - especially if they have not already written a rec letter for you.

Take a Picture

We made it through another week! Granted, it was a four-day week, but from all of the students that I talked to today, it felt like a much longer week than that. I hope that you have fun adventures planned for your three-day weekend.

For some students, this weekend serves as the perfect opportunity to get a jump start on making college visits to get an idea of what different schools have to offer. For other students, it is time to start narrowing down to help determine which school you will be attending next year and so this may be a second or even third visit to campus. Either way, I would like to remind you that we would really like you to take a picture somewhere on campus to share with us!

Also, don't forget that tomorrow (March 4th) is the deadline to register for the April 9th ACT. If you were planning on signing up for this testing date, please make sure that you take care of that before the price jumps up.

Enjoy the weekend!

Paying for College

Paying for College is expensive! There is no question that higher education costs add up quickly and it can be confusing to try to figure out what all of the different terms related to financial aid really mean - especially when the economy is struggling. This is just a brief overview to give you an idea of what you might see/ hear when you are looking at your options.

There are two broad categories of financial aid – Merit Based aid and Need Based aid.

Merit Based aid is what you think of when you think “Scholarships.” These are usually awarded to students based on academic achievements, leadership, athletics, special talents such as art or music, volunteerism, or other personal qualities that set you apart. These scholarships do not consider financial need. A significant portion of all merit-based aid comes directly from the college/ university. Some schools may require additional scholarship applications, essays, interviews, and many colleges will have earlier deadlines to be considered for their scholarships. It can be helpful to know that a lot of times the smaller, private colleges will have more money available for scholarships in order to help make attending their school competitive with the lower costs of the public colleges. Please also remember that we have scholarship offerings available in the scholarship drawer when you first walk into the counseling center. It is important to keep an eye out for unique scholarships that might apply to your personal situation. In the past I had a student who was able to qualify for an Italian heritage scholarship. Perhaps one of your grandparents won a purple heart or maybe you have time to write an essay for one of the other scholarship competitions… no matter what the situation, if you find a scholarship that you meet the criteria for go ahead and apply – you might be pleasantly surprised at the result and if you don’t, the answer is definitely a “no.”

Need Based aid is what you will sometimes hear people refer to as “Financial Aid” even though both Merit Based and Need Based aid technically fall under that one category. There are a variety of different Need Based aid programs. Grants are considered gift assistance – they give you money and you do not have to pay it back. Loans which can come from a wide variety of sources – the federal government, the college, and private banks is money that you are required to pay back. Work Study programs are on campus job opportunities that the government helps find that allows you to earn money for college through working on campus. The big difference between Merit Based and Need Based aid is that Need Based aid is that the type and amount of Need Based aid you will receive depends upon the amount of financial need you have.

And, yes, just to add to the confusion – there are some scholarships that will consider financial need as a criterion. They are still awarding the scholarship based upon some specific aspect of who you are it is just allowing them to narrow down the potential applicant pool.

One last important reminder - NEVER pay to be considered for a scholarship! That is a scam. Don't waste your money!

If you have any questions you can always call the financial aid offices of the schools where you are applying as they are true experts in the field. I am also happy to try to help in any way that I can.

One other reminder - tomorrow night is the PSEO information night where you will have the opportunity to learn about the option of taking free college classes while still in high school.

Talent Show

Congratulations to all of the students involved in planning or performing in tonight's WKHS Talent Show! You did a great job. I always love being able to witness your many talents in action. 6 of "my" students performed among the 20 acts including (in alphabetical order): Ashley Butler, Christina Carrizales, Sayak Das, Robbie Davidson, Michael Dillow, and Lauren Hedges. Additionally, CW Boyles was one of the Masters of Ceremony and was also involved in entertaining the crowd. For any major event like this there is always a great deal of work to do behind the scenes and Hannah Vincent served as the event coordinator and Kyle Calcote worked on the lighting. Each of you did a wonderful job!