Important Counselling News: October 2014

From: Mrs. Green, Counselor

        The month of October is a busy and an important one!  It marks the period when standardized testing begins for our sophomore and junior students and many college application sites are opening for seniors.

Senior Parent Night is Wednesday Oct. 1st, at 6:30 PM, in the Art Room E-1.

CSU Application Due Dates:  Oct. 1st- Nov. 30th   A CSU application workshop will be held after-school on Oct. 3rd, but all seniors are invited to see Mrs. Green individually if they need help applying.

UC Application Due Dates:  Nov. 1st-Nov. 30th  The UC website is now open, but application submission will not be available until Nov. 1st.  An after-school application workshop will be held on Thursday, Oct 23rd, at 2:35 p.m.  Seniors applying to schools in the UC system are strongly recommended to attend this workshop.

Common Application Due Dates (vary with each college): Check with specific college websites for information. An after-school application workshop will be held on Thursday, Oct.16, at 2:35 p.m. Seniors applying to colleges using the Common Application are strongly encouraged to attend.

Scholarship Opportunities: Some scholarships are currently available for senior students.  Check with Ms. Green for the latest information.

Other Programs:

The PSAT is given to all Sophomores and Juniors to prepare them for the kinds of questions they will be expected to know for the SAT and to help them determine their individual skill levels in relation to other students locally and nationally.  It provides important insights about what your student needs to know and do to improve in any areas of concern.  It also provides the school insight into what areas of curriculum to improve.

  • The sophomores are given the test as a practice in standardized testing protocol.  

  • Juniors who score very high (99%tile) on the PSAT test become eligible for Merit Scholarship recognition.  This type of recognition can be very valuable when they apply for college as seniors.  


 .    The testing date this year is Oct.15th.  Your student should be bringing home a PSAT practice test booklet to work on.   You should encourage him/her to work on a few questions every evening to help improve their scores.  Teachers will also be using various questions from the booklet and other strategies in the classroom to assist in this process.

  • The PSAT test day will be on a special schedule shortened to a half-day program.  Students need to be at school from 7:50 to 11:15 a.m. in regular school dress. They will be asked to report to assigned classrooms to take the exams.  Parents and students will need to make arrangements for early student pick-up to accommodate this early release schedule.  This is a mandatory school day for juniors, sophomores, and freshmen.

  • The freshmen will be going on their Class Retreat during the PSAT testing period.

  • Seniors are not required to be in school that day.  They will be given the opportunity to work on their college applications, which will need to be concluded in early November. Remind your student to complete the Senior Profile by early October, if it is not yet completed, and to make copies to give out or send via e-mail to Ms. Green and the teachers they are requesting recommendation letters from.

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