College Planning Overview from AHS

Counseling Department

FRESHMAN YEAR - Preparing for college or any post-secondary schooling starts way back in the 9th grade.
Students need to select challenging courses and do the best that they can possibly do in those courses in order to
establish a good GPA (grade point average). Establishing good study skills and habits is important at the 9th
grade level. Being involved in extra-curricular activities counts too. Finally establishing good attendance is
important in this first year of high school.

SOPHOMORE YEAR – student should continue to take challenging classes and get good grades. Keep
working on extra-curricular activities – this shows that you are well rounded. Do some career exploration.
Career Pathways seminar that is required of all sophomores will help with that. Take the PLAN – it is the pre-
ACT and an indicator of how well you will do on the ACT when you take it as a junior.

JUNIOR YEAR – begin to think about which school you want to attend after high school. Research shows that
students need some kind of post-secondary schooling decide if you are heading for a technical school, a
community college, a college or university. Visit some college campuses. Nearly all offer open houses in the
fall to interested students. Take the ACT in the spring of your junior year.

SENIOR YEAR –

Fall of senior year - Continue to take challenging courses! You need to be in shape academically when you hit
that college campus in the fall. Retake the ACT, SAT and MEAP(s). Most students take the ACT college
entrance exam. Keep taking the ACT, preparing and practicing each time, until you have received the highest
score that you feel you can get. The highest is a 36. On average each time you re-test you will increase your
score by two if you have prepared in between the tests and perform well on that test day. Work on passing those
MEAP tests. That is $2,500 for any post-secondary schooling. Take the SAT if you are planning to attend
school in another state.

Also in the fall of senior year – Submit applications to any and all schools that you are interested in attending.
We instructed all seniors that they should have all applications in to their perspective schools by October 31,
2005. That is not a deadline set by the colleges and universities rather it is the one that we and many of the
college recruiters set so that our students have the best consideration for admissions and financial aid from those
schools. As I am sure you will recall, we met with all seniors in the fall at which time we discussed this as well
as others things having to do with post-secondary planning. We gave all seniors numerous handouts and
timelines to follow.

Winter of senior year - By this stage in the game, students considering attending four years colleges and
universities must get applications submitted! Each college and university has a set number of “slots” for their
incoming freshmen class. As I am writing this, they are reaching decisions on who to admit. Once they have
filled the number for incoming freshmen that they have set, they will not accept any more. So if a student waits
too long there is a good chance they will not get accepted for that reason. They might be a great candidate, but if
the spots are full they will have to go on a waiting list and they may not get in. Also each college and university
has money set aside to award to a certain number of students that they determine. Once that money is allocated
there will be no more to go around even if the student is very worthy. Financial aid decisions for
college/university money are directly connected to admission. If a student is not admitted, he or she will not be
eligible to receive financial aid from that school.
January 2006 – do your FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). EVERYONE who is planning on
attending ANY post-secondary institution should do this. It will determine if you are eligible for any FEDERAL
financial aid (these are Pell Grants, Stafford Loans, Perkins Loans and more). It also determines eligibility for
financial aid from the school or university. Do this on the web!! It is so much easier. www.fafsa.ed.gov.

Winter 2006 - For competitive universities – such as U of M, Michigan State, Michigan TEC time is running
out. Others, CMU, WMU, WSU, GVSU, SVSU, EMU Oakland and Ferris it is not too late. Community
colleges you can apply all the way up until the end of the school year. Remember though the institutional
financial aid from those schools could be gone if you wait too late. Around March or April a lot of the schools
are also requiring deposits on housing so you need to get your applications in or you may not be in the dorm of
your choice. Apply online it is quicker and easier. Ask your counselor if you need help.

Seniors who are not sure about their career plans can meet with their counselor to talk about that but you don’t
have to necessary have that figured out in order to go on with your schooling. Most students do not declare their
major until the end of their sophomore year so you have time to figure it out.

Kids with low GPA’s have options. A good option is to go to a community college. Community colleges
accept anyone with a high school diploma or GED. High school GPA is not a factor for admittance. No ACT is
required either. If the student wants to transfer to from the community college to a get a four-year degree
(Bachelors) the university they are transferring to only looks at the community college transcript – not the high
school one. So a student with a low high school GPA goes to community college and establishes a good
transcript there and can then transfer to just about any four-year college or university.

Trade and technical schools also have lower entrance standards so they too are a good option. Finally the
military is an option. Entrance into the military is based on having a high school diploma or GED and scores
earned on the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery).

How to find scholarships …

Read the Weekly Counseling Center News put out by Mrs. Coss. She sends it via email to all the teachers and
many parents. You can get added to the list by sending her an email at ncoss@algonac.k12.mi.us. She will copy
and paste your email address to her group that she emails this news to each week. The applications for all of
those scholarship opportunities are in the filing cabinet in the Counseling Center labeled – Scholarship and
Financial Aid information. The counselors or Mrs. Brunzell can show you where it is. Complete and submit as
many of those as you can.

Create a FAST WEB account. Go to www.fastweb.com and follow the steps for creating a new account. This
scholarship search engine will then look for scholarships for you based on the criteria that you list in the
enrollment fields. Each day you will receive emails with links to scholarships. Do they all!

Local Scholarship Packets will be delivered to all seniors on Monday, February 28, 2006. This packet contains
all the applications for all the local scholarships. Do any and all that you feel you might get. Read each for the
criteria. Submit them to Mrs. Blair by the deadline – Friday, April 7, 2006. If you miss the deadline you will not
be eligible for any of them. You can get more than one and these combined with other financial aid that you
might be getting from the FAFSA and your school will help pay for school.