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Senior College and Scholarship Information

Senior College and Scholarship Information. Sheri Erhardt Senior Class of 2012 Counselor 728-2400 ext. 7054 slerhardt@mcps.k12.mt.us.

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Senior College and Scholarship Information

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  1. Senior College and Scholarship Information Sheri Erhardt Senior Class of 2012 Counselor 728-2400 ext. 7054 slerhardt@mcps.k12.mt.us

  2. Welcome! Some things for you to do:1. (optional) Please provide your contact information at any of the three locations in the front of the room. 2. Feel free to grab hand-out materials. You may wish to wait until the end after I explain each piece and grab what is relevant to you. 3. There is an index card available next to the contact info sheets. This is provided to leave me questions you may have after we finish that I can email you later.

  3. Initiative Initiative (noun) 1. Ability to act on your own 2. Introductory step 3. Plan 4. Advantageous position

  4. Inspiration • Inspiration (noun) • Stimulation to do creative work • Someone or something that inspires • Creativeness • Good idea

  5. Transcript Check: • Are all of your classes on your transcript listed correctly? (independent study and honors especially) • Are all of your activities listed on your transcript? Correctly? If not, see Mrs. Holyoak in the main office to get a form to have it changed. • Do you have everything you need to graduate? Most seniors will only have Communication Arts (English 4) and Social Studies (US Government) left to take. If you need more than 7 credits, you need to be working with me NOW!

  6. Choosing a College • Programs of study • Location, environment • Size • Extra-curricular programs • Admission requirements and deadlines • Cost • Financial aid and scholarship offerings • Quality of education • Housing, resources, facilities Find the best fit for YOU! Visit the campus and do a tour with admissions! Research the schools you are looking at. Make it a personal choice.

  7. Steps to apply for college: • 1. Finalize your college selection. • Check the admission standards. Do you meet the criteria? If so, and you are applying to an in-state school, you may need to only apply to one school. However, if you have a GPA of at least 3.0, you may want to apply to more than one school to see which school will give you the best scholarship package. • Check the deadlines to apply! The earlier, the better. Most applications are a first come, first serve basis, so give your application priority status by getting it in early! This especially applies to scholarships!!!!! • Find out what kind of financial aid and scholarship packages you are eligible for. Pay close attention to deadlines (which are different than regular admission deadlines!!!) Schools offer school-based scholarships that students are awarded once a student applies. For the most part, these scholarships do not require a separate application. The application to the school makes you eligible—most of the time, but you need to check with the financial aid and admission office to be sure!) • 2. Fill out the application. Most applications are done on-line now. You can fill out a paper version, but on-line seems to be better. Have your parents or another set of eyes check for accuracy before submitting!

  8. Steps to applying for college, continued… • 3. Have your transcript sent to the school you are applying to. You need to go to the main office and fill out a pink transcript request form with Mrs. Holyoak. YOU WILL NEED TO ALSO REQUEST A FINAL TRANSCRIPT AT THE END OF THE YEAR. • 4. Have your official SAT and/or ACT scores sent directly to your schools you are applying to. TIP: make sure when you are registering for the tests, you select the schools you want your scores sent to. If you have to ask the testing companies to send the scores after you have already taken the test, there is a fee for every score sent! • 5. Many schools require two letters of recommendation as part of the application. If this is the case with the schools you are applying to, make sure you select relevant people to write your letters. Give them a MINIMUM of two weeks notice. You most likely will be asked to submit to them a resume or a recommendation request form (available in the counseling center) • 6. Many schools and scholarship applications require a personal essay. If this applies to you, make sure you begin early. Have at least three people review your essays for accuracy and content. It is okay to get suggestions, but make it your own and personal. Make sure you stay within the guidelines and answer what is being asked. • 7. Check the status of your application a few weeks after you send it (or earlier) to make sure they have received your application and that it is complete.

  9. SAT and ACT’s • Should you take a test more than once? • Yes, if a higher score would make you eligible for a scholarship. • Yes, if you have a lower GPA or close to the minimum GPA required for college entrance. • How do I register? • Collegeboard.com for the SAT • Act.org for the ACT • You can register via the paper method, but on-line is preferred. • Registering takes time. Give yourself at least an hour to complete the test registration process. • When you register, make sure you select schools, NCAA, or other programs you know will need your scores. Low scores will not count against you. Everyone will accept your highest score. • Make sure when you are registering, you select a date that you know for certainty you will be available to take the test. Check with your parents! Changing your test date costs money! • What is the difference between the tests? • The ACT has a science and analytical component that the SAT does not. • Our students, generally speaking, have done better on the ACT. If you are not a science-minded student though, take the SAT. • Should you take the writing portion? • Yes, most schools will use this score for your English placement.

  10. College Visits: • University of Montana College Fair…visit MontanaColleges.com to see who is coming. Parents are welcome to attend. Students were to have registered for the fair on-line at mpseoclogin.com by yesterday (Sept. 20th), however if they have not and would like to attend, please register by the end of the week! • Representatives of colleges and universities from all across the country visit Sentinel High School throughout the year, especially in the first semester. I have a listing of all of the colleges visiting each month outside of my office, on the calendar outside of my office, and they are also announced. I recommend all students attend at least three school presentations. • Make an appointment to do an actual visit of the campus you plan to attend. Even if you are a Missoula resident, do a campus tour. You will be surprised how much you will learn about the campus in your back yard! • Exploring College Options presentation TOMORROW NIGHT (Sept. 22) at the Hilton Garden Inn. Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, Penn, Stanford. Register at www.exploringcollgeoptions.org • October 19thhere at lunch (pizza provided!): Presentation about UM

  11. Did you know?... • Missoula students have the highest high school graduation rate and the lowest rate of students going to college. • You can save $2,416 a year by being a UM College of Technology student vs. a UM main campus student…and it is possible to take ALL of your classes on the main campus, live on campus, eat on campus, participate in all activities other than NCAA sanctioned sports! Do this for two years, earn an Associate of Arts degree and transfer to the main campus to complete your Bachelor’s degree and you save $4, 832. • UM retention rates: 1st year to 2nd year= 76% • 5 year graduation rate=37% • 6 year graduation rate=44% • It costs $130 more per class to take an on-line class at the University of Montana. Check with the school you want to attend to see if you would save money or spend more by taking on-line courses.

  12. Estimated Budgets: • Estimated first-year budget for full time freshmen at the University of Montana: Mountain Campus College of Technology Campus Tuition and fees: $5,722 $3,306 Room and board: $6,660 $6,660 Books and supplies: $950 $950 Average Total: $13, 332 $10,916 • Estimated first-year budget for full time freshmen at Montana Tech: • highlighted red= $14,158

  13. Estimated cost of attendance at the University of Oregon

  14. Helpful websites: http://www.epistemelinks.com/edge/essays/lo_college.asp#experience Essay writing advice FastWeb.comScholarship search engine MontanaColleges.comMontana College planning mtcis.intocareers.org (user: sentinelhs, pass: plan7ing) Scholarship, college, interest search www.studentaid.edu.gov federal financial aid website www.wiche.edu/sep/wueWestern Undergraduate Exchange info www.nse.orgNational Student Exchange info collegeboard.com SAT test registration and practice tests act.org ACT test registration and practice tests careersandcollges.comscholarship, college, test prep and more www.essayedge.com Essay Help

  15. Did you know?... • You count as a transfer student when you have received 12 or more credits from another college (including community colleges)…then your SAT, ACT, high school GPA, or courses completed (or not competed) in high school do not matter. Then, it is the college transcript that matters! • There is an internship office at most universities that can help place you into internships around the world…which is extremely helpful when you are ready to apply for a job!!! • Another way to demonstrate commitment to future employers is to join a student group in college. (Example: Beta Alpha Psi is a group that does free accounting) • The average student changes majors 3 times! • You can apply for the National Student Exchange program and study just about anywhere in the country for one year and pay your home college’s tuition?

  16. Scholarships!!!! • Native American Scholarships: There is a very helpful packet full of scholarships and related information available in my office. If you have Native American heritage, make sure you know what is available to you! • Western Undergraduate Exchange: • Students who are residents of WICHE states are eligible to request a reduced tuition rate of 150% of resident tuition at participating two- and four-year college programs outside of their home state. • The WUE reduced tuition rate is not automatically awarded to all eligible candidates. Many institutions limit the number of new WUE awards each academic year, so apply early! • WICHE states include: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wyoming. • FastWeb.com, mtcis.intocareers.org…two websites that are great scholarship search engines. The key to remember is to NOT pay for a scholarship search program, pay for a scholarship application fee, or any other costs associated with scholarships. Anything that has a fee attached is, in my opinion, reason to be skeptical of whatever the program/company is offering. You should also never provide your social security number to scholarship programs! • Announcement postings! Pay attention to the announcements!!! I will be posting new scholarships all of the time. If you hear an announcement that may apply to you and it is not either available on-line or in the bins on the post outside of my office, please see me. I keep a hard copy (if available) of all the scholarships I post. The announcements are available on-line on the Sentinel website!

  17. Scholarships continued… • UM scholarships: (priority deadline is Dec. 31st!...but the earlier you turn your application in, the better your chances!) • Presidential, National Merit, Montana Resident, Army ROTC, Horatio Alger, Departmental (music and forestry) • MSU scholarships: (priority deadline is January 4th…but they are also first apply, first to get, so apply early!) • Achievement Awards (automatically awarded based on your ACT and SAT scores!), Presidential • School, community, business, and program based scholarships are completely separate from federal financial aid. • As soon as my very wonderful parent volunteers finish updating my database of scholarships, I will make them available on the Sentinel website….if you have extra time in your schedule and would like to volunteer your time, I will put you to work (with guidance) searching scholarships for our fabulous senior class! Let’s break a record for most scholarship money earned by the largest number of kids!

  18. Tips to applying for scholarships: • Don’t complete the application alone. Have your parent, teacher, counselor, neighbor look over the scholarship too. Extra eyes for accuracy and advice is always beneficial. • Start early!!!!! Don’t wait until the week the scholarship is due to start. Plan ahead! • Apply for as many scholarships as you can find that you are eligible for! Think of it this way, if it takes you an hour to search for scholarships and three hours to apply and write an essay (many times you can write one essay and tweak it for other scholarships), and you get even a $200 scholarship, that is a pretty good wage!

  19. Federal Financial Aid • Need based federal loans and grants. • Prepare to apply for federal student aid by going to www.pin.ed.gov to get your pin number. This is step one. Get it early and save time. • Apply for federal financial aid at www.fafsa.ed.gov. You can start this process January 1st, 2012. • In order to apply, you need to compete your income taxes. • The Priority Deadline is Feb. 15th. • Pick up the information I have provided tonight • Don’t be afraid to call the school’s financial aid office or the federal aid program any time with questions. • There will be College Goal Sundays scheduled in January and February where you will be able to sit down with a trained financial aid officer and they will do your FAFSA with you!

  20. Important Dates: • September: • 22: College options @7:30 Hilton Garden Inn • 23: Evergreen St. (Olympia, WA) • 27: College Fair @UM • 29: St. Catherine U (St. Paul, MN) • 30: College of Idaho • October: • 1: SAT test • 2: Wendy’s Heisman due • 7: Registration deadline for Nov. 5 SAT • 11: Whitworth U. (Spokane, WA) • 14: College of Charleston (Charleston, SC) • 17: Carroll College (Helena, MT) • 17: Montana Teach (Butte, MT) • 22: ACT test • 25: Linfield College • 31: Coca-Cola Scholarship due • November: • 1: Spirit of Community due • 3: Seattle University • 4: End of first quarter • 5; SAT test • 8: Registration deadline for Dec. 3 SAT • December: • 3: SAT test date • 10: ACT test date • 30: Registration deadline for Jan. 28 SAT • 31: Scholarship Priority Deadline for UM • January: • 4: Application deadline for MSU Presidential Scholarship • 13: Registration deadline for Feb. 11 ACT • 20: End of first semester • 28: SAT test date • February: • 1: Priority deadline for MSU Scholarship program • 10: Registration deadline for March 10 SAT • 11: ACT test date • 15: Priority processing deadline for FAFSA

  21. Essay writing: • Have at least 3 people edit your work • Make it personal. • Do NOT make it an elaborate resume. • Choose your words carefully. In the words of Mrs. Rowell, an English teacher here, “You are a diamond cutter, be precise and concise!” • Leave your mark. Connect to the reader • Brag!!!! This is NOT a time to be humble. Let your assets shine!!!! • Select a topic that reflects significance in your life. • Don’t be gimmicky or make jokes. • Provide details that provides color, the spice, and the life of the essay. • Actually answer the question they ask. Many people just list off their accomplishments and never relate it to the theme of the question. • Capture your audience right away. If the first paragraph does not capture attention, then the reader skims the rest. • Be unique. Make the reader feel like they truly got to know you and how special you are. • Be honest! • Make a positive impression. Avoid going into your weaknesses. Stick to your goals and intentions as a college student.

  22. Closing words of wisdom • Apply early! Make your final decisions on colleges now and start the application process. You will better your chances for both admission and scholarships! • Don’t base your decisions on friends. • Don’t listen to only one person’s advice (including mine!)…talk about college, your future plans, your essays, which scholarships you are applying to, what programs you are interested TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN! You will hear different perspectives, all of which gives you more information to make your own decisions. • Apply for as many scholarships as a you can. Don’t think that just because you don’t have a 4.0, you less of a candidate than someone else. A LOT of scholarships are need based and/or given to someone as an opportunity to better their life!!!

  23. Challenge yourself!Push yourself beyond your comfort zone!Believe in yourself!

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