College Admissions Decisions

College admissions decisions are already starting to come in for some students. Every senior looks forward to receiving their college acceptance letters. It is an exciting time and reassures that there is more ahead. Depending upon the schools where you are applying, it is possible that you will hear back quickly or you may be waiting until sometime in March to find out if you have been accepted. I do ask that as you begin receiving your acceptance or, sadly, even rejection letters, to please keep me informed about the decisions. For the vast majority of the colleges, the only way I know about your admissions decision is if you share the information with me.

Remember, the only way to receive an acceptance letter is to actually APPLY to the college! (Just a friendly little reminder for those of you who are struggling to get your applications finished.) :-)

DACC Open House

Just a quick heads up that tonight, Thursday, December 8th is the Open House at the Delaware Area Career Center. The open house will run from 5:00 - 8:00pm. Any students (and their parents) that are interested in learning more about the range of opportunities available at the career center should consider the opportunity to visit the career center. Being able to see the labs first hand, talk to the instructors, and meet students who are currently attending the Delaware Area Career Center, is truly the best way to decide if earning your elective credits at the career center is a good option for your future. I hope you will take advantage of this open house opportunity if you are interested!

Socratic Society

Last Friday morning 36 students were inducted into the Socratic Society. Staff members are given the opportunity to recognize students for excellence in one or more of the core socratic values of Scholarship, Integrity, Personal Effort, Compassion, or Lifelong Learning. Students are only eligible to be selected for this honor one time during their high school career.
A special congratulations to "my" students who were among those recognized this month! (Left to Right): Mariah Minichello, Hannah Vincent, Emily Cantrell, Tori Eger, Nia Brown and Alex Allison. Also, I had several students who are not pictured, but were inducted on Friday: Janae' Calhoun, Michael Dillow and Kevin Doerr. I am proud of each of you!

Patience...

Let me start off by acknowledging that I am *NOT* the most patient person on the planet!
I know that it can be frustrating waiting for something to happen. Waiting to hear news. Waiting for the next phase of your life. Waiting... waiting... and still more waiting. But the reality is you need to be patient.

Right now colleges are completely overwhelmed and back-logged with applications that they have been receiving. After you have submitted your application and all of the required paperwork it takes the college time to get everything processed and updated in their computer. To make things even more confusing, many colleges are also automatically generating letters that they are sending home to students to remind you that you need to send your transcript and test scores and a recommendation letter. People tend to panic when they see that notice and want to send the materials again. Colleges do not want that happening as it will simply back up their system even more. This is a very common occurance at this time of year, but it does create a lot of panic in homes of seniors across the country!

Try to be patient and do not panic. If you get one of these letters (from any college) take a moment and double check - did you mail your official transcript to this particular school? Did you request to have your official test results sent to the college from the ACT/ SAT websites? Did your teachers complete their recommendation letters?

If your transcript was mailed within the last 2-3 weeks, then take a deep breath and relax knowing that it is likely just because their system is backed up. Continue double checking on the college website (most will give you access to see your application status) and see if they have everything. If you are nearing the end of the 3rd week and they still don't have all of your items, then you should give them a call to double check. Chances are they just haven't made it there and into their system yet, but there are times where things get lost in the mail or filed in the wrong area. If items need to be sent again then we can work together to take care of that, but first make sure that they really are missing it.

As always, swing by my office to see me if you have any questions.

Application Reality Check

December 1st was a major college application deadline, but it is certainly not the last deadline. Many students arrived in my office in a panic at the end of last week fearing that they had missed their only opportunity to apply to college. I want to assure you that there is still plenty of time to apply to college, but you definitely need to be working on the applications now. So, let's do a quick reality check on where you should be for the application process (if you are a senior)...

- Your need to request your transcript for any colleges with application deadlines before January 1st by December 15th and don't forget to pick up your transcript and mail it to the college.

- If your college forms required a recommendation letter then you should have turned in the parent brag sheet and counselor recommendation supplement forms to me by now. (I have the rec letters written for everyone who had submitted their paperwork prior to this week.)

- If your college applications require a teacher recommendation letter then you should have asked your teacher for a rec letter and provided them a resume or the recommendation request form with information sheet completed.

- If you are still working with January or February deadlines then you should be working on editing the drafts of your essays to perfect them before the deadline.

Hopefully that falls in line with where you are in the application process... and it is even better if you are ahead of the game and have submitted your paperwork in advance or already submitted your applications! Some of you have started hearing back from your colleges, don't forget that we are tracking that information, so please keep me posted as you receive the college admissions decisions from each school.

Planning Ahead

I hope you had a nice weekend! It's hard to believe that we have just 2 and a half weeks left before winter break. As you are busy in your classes trying to get everything wrapped up before the quarter ends, I wanted to give you a heads up about my schedule because there are several days when I will not be available.

I assume you already recall that you have a late start day tomorrow. (I'm jealous that you get to sleep in!) I will be around all day, so even though you have shortened periods, if you need anything, please stop by. Late start days always tend to be slower days as far as students stopping in to visit.

The days that I will be out of the building start on Friday. I have a financial aid conference to attend on Friday so I will not be available. And then next week I will be out on both Monday and Tuesday for a meeting at central office.

Remember, if you ever have an emergency and I am not available, you can always see one of the other counselors. If it is not an emergency, then please try to either plan ahead and stop in to see me this week before Friday or else wait until next Wednesday to check in with me.

College Admissions Interviews

Some colleges offer the opportunity for prospective students to participate in an interview with an admissions counselor or an alumni representative as a component of the application process. If you are looking at a school which requires an interview – don’t panic!

It is important to relax and be yourself. This is your opportunity to shine. Display your personality and allow your interests and passions to be expressed.

In addition to answering their questions, don’t be afraid to ask any questions you have about the school. Be sure to complete some research ahead of time so that you are not asking questions you easily could have found by visiting their website.

If there is anything about yourself that you want to be sure that the admissions representatives understand – unique circumstances, experiences, or special traits that they might not ask about don’t hesitate to offer up this information. This is your one opportunity to actually discuss these areas with a real person. By bringing up these topics, it may spur them to ask additional questions that you will be able to answer. If you want to talk more before your interview, don't hesitate to stop by and see me.

And, hopefully it goes without saying, but remember that first impressions are important – so be polite, smile, dress appropriately and arrive on time for your interview!

Here are some additional articles about college interviews that I found that I thought you might appreciate:

Do college admissions interviews matter?


College Interviews – Start practicing early


Nine tips for mastering alumni interviews