ACLC College Planning

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ACLC College Planning

• Junior Year

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This is part one

• Part Two September of Senior Year
• Individual College Planning Sessions
• Part Three Financial Aid Presentation
• School Year Brown Bags

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What Parents Can Do

• College Application Process
• Personal and emotional
• Helping child begin transition to young adulthood
• Conflicts, separation pains Maintain dialogue
• Factual and Rational
• Helping child find colleges that are good fit
  academically and socio-emotionally

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Personal Emotional

• Process involves long period of letting go
• Easy to confuse profound personal feelings with
  thoughts about finding right college
• Strategies for keeping peace
• Open communication
• Middle Man Private consultant
• Establish boundaries

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Factual and Rational

• Goal is to find good fit academically and
  socio-emotionally. Help by
• Suggesting colleges
• Visiting colleges with student
• Helping keep deadlines straight/organize search
• Realizing kid is (usually) as terrified as you
  are
• Being positive and supportive!

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Dont Help By

• Doing work for student
• Doing all research
• Application or essay
• Remember Student is one attending college
• Dont take away opportunities for teen to grow
  and gain self-confidence

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Post-Secondary Options

• Two year college or vocational school
• Community college
• Private two year
• Four year college
• Public (UC, CSU, out of state)
• Private
• Gap Year (year on)

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Building a College List

• 5-8 colleges
• Count UCs as 1?
• 2 safety schools
• Fully meet admissions requirements acceptance
  assured based on statistics
• 2-3 best fit schools
• Meet admissions reqs school meets your reqs
  acceptance realistically possible
• 2-3 reach schools
• May meet school reqs competitive dream
  schools only small percentage of accepted match
  your profile

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Whats a Best Fit?

• College where high school grades SAT/ACT fall
  comfortably within range of recent entering class
• Size, campus atmosphere, setting, distance from
  home seem right teen has positive impression
• Affordable, or could be with financial aid

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How To Build a List

• Recommendations Family, friends, facilitators
• Teens own college knowledge
• Match generators (CollegeBoard, etc.)
• ACLC viewbook file, catalogues
• College Fairs
• Colleges That Change Lives www.ctcl.org

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Factors in Acceptance

• High school transcript
• Honors, AP, community college classes
• Test scores
• Class rank (decile)
• Extra-curriculars
• Admissions essay
• Recommendations

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About the Transcript

• More than half of colleges create own GPA,
  typically based on core academic subjects of
  English, math, science, social science foreign
  language
• UC a-g requirements
• Uses grades in 10-11 in a-g courses only
• Grade bump for up for 8 semesters HP or AP
• D or F must be repeated with grade C or better

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How Important are Grades?

• VERY
• Take most demanding classes school offers
• Take advantage of community college
• Do not earn D grades
• Improvement over time is recognized

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SAT/ACT

• Required by most, but not all schools
• www.fairtest.org
• Almost all schools accept either SAT/ACT
• Subject tests may be required
• Can now select which scores schools receive
• See counselor or register online

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What About Activities?

• Important!
• Colleges look for consistent commitment over time
• May include activities inside outside school
• May also include paid or volunteer work
• Doesnt have to be Mother Theresa level
• Doesnt have to cost money

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Junior Spring/Summer

• Schedule meeting with Lora
• Create college list
• Visit colleges (even virtually)
• Plan a productive summer
• College classes, internship, etc.
• Plan rigorous senior year coursework
• Go above requirements
• Stay focused

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More

• Take SAT/ACT in May or June
• For selective colleges, take SAT in Mat 2-3
  subject tests in June, or take ACT including
  writing
• Check college websites for specific testing
  requirements
• Approach facilitators for recommendations

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Still more

• Begin to work on admissions essay
• Common App prompts available late summer
• Unhappy with SAT/ACT? Prepare to re-take
• Create brag sheet to give to recommenders
• Build a plan for a reduced stress senior year

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What is Early Decision/Early Action?

• Application options to receive notification of
  admission/denial by mid-December
• May increase chances of acceptance
• ED is binding
• EA is not binding
• Considering? Take required test in spring or
  summer

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What Will ACLC Provide?

• Senior individual planning meeting
• Admissions essay workshops
• Recommendations
• Common App School Profile
• Access to books, guides, etc.
• Basic financial aid info session
• Info on gap year planning
• Support answers