##VIDEO ID:AwH5xekM_aw## [Music] good evening everybody and welcome to our college process parent evening program I'm just going to give everybody a couple more minutes and then we will get started okay we are gonna get started now and uh people can join as they uh come along um for those of you who don't know me I'm Michelle Walsh the one of the school counselors here and I'm joined tonight by a few of our counselors um as panelists we have Miss Antonella fuchini Miss Brooke parrot and Miss Megan ero joining us to um help answer some of the questions and things like that um tonight is really just kind of the nuts and bolts of how your college applic your students college applications and supporting documents get from West Windsor to their colleges there's a very specific process a very much uh specific way to do things so that it all gets there by the deadline and so forth most of what I talk about tonight is actually going to be your child's responsibilities and what they're going to be doing but we always find it super helpful to share this with parents as well so you're at least can sort of speak the same language as we are and understand some of the requirements so that you can better support your child as they're going through this entire process so that's kind of why we include you tonight um tomorrow during lunch we've warned them many many times um we are going to have a senior meeting and we're going to cover a lot of their individual questions um they will meet just with their counselor in a much smaller setting than tonight and um we will answer a lot of their questions related to what we go over tonight and related to the process of again your getting your applications from West Windsor to the college um so I'll say it a 100 times probably um but remind your child that they're going to stay in for lunch tomorrow they should pack a lunch and come to the assigned room which we'll talk about a little later uh having said all that I'm happy to see so many of you here and um please know we we make this process fun it's not meant to be stressful and we are here to support you and this is sort of our uh opening opening game here and then we'll get started so a few um housekeeping things before we get going students if you haven't uh you should join our Google classroom for the class of 20125 lots of really valuable information we've been posting things in Google classroom for four years now but this particular year is probably the most post you'll receive than you know all the other years put together so if you're not part of the High School South counseling 2025 please join that another thing um is if you've never checked email before which so many of you don't do it on a regular basis this is the year to check your email regularly we communicate a lot through email we send out a lot of information hopefully you guys all received my first uh Wednesday wisdom yesterday um the fact that you're here I'm a little bit preaching to the choir probably but just make sure you check your email regularly connect with navian often and so we're going to talk a little bit about what Naviance is and and the ins and outs of it today tomorrow we're really going to go to the ins and outs of it because in our smaller group sessions we'll actually bring up Navan and literally walk the steps with your child tonight's more of just an overall um introduction to with the for the parents and child to see sort of what we're using navian for in this part of the process uh the FAFSA I'm not really going to talk about the fasta but I did want to mention that you may have uh heard on the news or read things about how the fasta which is the um free application for federal student aid um is now now required as a graduation requirement everybody needs to complete it you'll either need to complete the FAFSA or complete a waiver form so I'm going to tell you that stay tuned for that I just wanted to mention that because you may have heard about it and you may be wondering did we hear about it and how we're doing it and what that looks like um and we are working through what that looks like and we will be um back in touch with you regarding that but we're very well aware that all New Jersey high schoolers have to either complete the Fafa or complete a waiver prior to graduation Q&A for tonight so I have as I said I'm joined by counselors Miss Chrissy javic just joined us as well um and so um the Q&A is open uh as I go through slides first of all hopefully I'm going to cover a lot of things so um if you're just patient and listen I think probably you'll get a lot of your questions answered but if I'm going over something and you still have some questions you can type them into the Q&A and the counselors will attempt to answer them if they notice that uh there's some really common questions that you know the same question over and over maybe I didn't cover something um clear enough or something um we will answer that live at the end and they'll let me know can you talk more about teacher recommendations or something like that um and I will cover it for the better for the good of the group uh at the end of the presentation tonight okay enough about housekeeping now a couple upcoming events um I guess this still falls under housekeeping a little bit um a lot of things are happening at the beginning of this year first of all and I sent an email uh about this starting September 16th which is Monday um every day there will be admission Representatives coming to our school during lunch um to talk to students about their school to answer questions about the application and the application process and so forth there's a full schedule in navian which will show the students tomorrow you can see it as well uh if you are interested in a school or 100% if you're applying to a school and they're coming to our school for lunch there probably would be an expectation that you would attend that session with the admission rep and once again give up your lunch bring a lunch whatever and go see that admission rep if you're that interested in Lehi University and Lehi University is coming here during lunch and you don't show up that sends a message that maybe you're not that interested so just pay attention to that visit schedule I just took a look before we started and I already noticed so many of you have um signed up for visits already so I think that's fabulous but just take note of that we we have two sometimes three admission reps a day between now and like um early December uh I mentioned the councelor meeting that's happening tomorrow um so I've told we've told the students you know many times about this so hopefully everybody will attend that and then the other thing big thing that's coming up related to college is our college fair on October 15th and that is um held at High School North and we're we already have you know over 120 plus colleges uh attending that fair and the and the registrations keep coming in so um on this um on this slide you'll see a um barcode where you can register for the fair you're not really registering for the fair you're registering for Strife Fair which allows you when you go to the fair if you visit a particular school and they want to scan your barcode so that you can um you know they remember that you were there or they can send you additional information or something like that then um then that that's kind of how you utilize the fair and we'll explain that more to the students but it is on here um we're going to have the barcode posted all over school um so just just kind of save the date October 15th from 6:00 to 8:00 P.M uh college fair at High School North okay so how does this process work and what do we do we've already gotten lots of questions from some kids some uh eager students who kind of wanted to start this whole thing so we said we're going to answer all your questions tonight and tomorrow so there's a lot of pieces that have to get to the college and there's a a variety of people that take care of those different pieces so the school counselor has a piece to complete the student obviously has pieces to complete teachers have pieces to complete and parents we just ask for your support in managing the deadlines and navigating the process hence wanted to sort of show you the process today which will might help you uh manage it with your child um so the thing is that everyone's kind of working at the same time so the school counselor will be working on the recommendation letter they'll be doing the transcript there's a secondary school report and the school profile those are all the pieces that have to get to the schools from the school counselor the student who's the manager of this process by the way has to contact teachers for recommendations they have to complete their Council recommendation packet hopefully they did that already it was due April one of last year um but many of you I know have pieces missing and we're going to address that tomorrow as well they have to request a transcript in navian they have to decide whether they're submitting or not submitting their test scores and then and then if they're submitting they have to do that and then they obviously have to submit their full application along with their essay okay the teacher is going to is in charge of the recommendation letter that has to go for the students to the colleges and so you got many people working for you but we're and I'm going to explain what I mean by working at the same time uh as we talk about deadlines so as you students as you are working hard on your applications you're going to learn tomorrow that you need to let your teacher know hey I got I have some deadlines November 1st here's the college I'm applying to need to let your counselor know hey I have some dead lines so while you're working on your application working on your essay and doing those kind of things your teacher is starting to write a recommendation your school counselor starting to write their recommendation pulling your transcript together completing the secondary school report and then all of your pieces get to the college by the deadline the counselor's piece the teachers piece and the students piece do not necessarily arrive on the exact same day they just all arrive prior to the deadline as long as the student the manager of this process you know communicates to everybody hey let's get working teacher you start writing school counselor you start doing your piece and I'm doing my piece what we don't want to happen is the student to work vigorously at home get everything done and come in the day before the deadline and like Miss Walsh everything's done I pressed submit last night can you get my recommendation there by tomorrow that's not how works so that's what I'm talking about by working at the same time giving everybody time to do their pieces okay and I'll keep going back to this idea as we go through um this presentation so your first steps um really and some of you have have done this already but um is to start to finalize your list of schools where you want to apply we worked a lot on that in junior year we worked a lot on developing the list in junior year year and then over the summer and now throughout the fall you'll be finalizing that list of schools you're going to decide on an application type some of the time most of the time it's not really your decision it's just what the school um requires common application is going to be the most common not to repeat that word um if your school uses the common application you must use the common application that's the only way we're we're considered a Navan school that's the only way we can send your documents electronic if it's a common app school you have to use the Common App you might come across an application called the Coalition that's gotten a lot less popular or less used in the last couple years and then you have electronic applications which are college specific applications they're colleges that don't use the Common App but they do have an electronic application because just about everyone has an electronic application now um and so so an example of that is Georgetown Georgetown doesn't use the Common App Georgetown has their own application um then they don't submit their stuff through Naviance they have a whole like separate process um MIT is another example of that so there'll be some examples like that and we're going to show you tomorrow when you're in Naviance how you know whether your school is a common application an electronic application and so forth and again like I said if the college is a common application you must use it failure to do so will make it impossible for us to send your things electronically you might come across some schools that say Hey but if you use our VIP application you get a fee waver and you don't have to pay uh Drexel's known to do that there's a bunch of other schools that have what they call VIP application so um don't use that but you can still use the Common App and you can still get the fee waiver but you can't use the VIP application the reason why is that not every school is as fortunate as we are to you know pay for the price of navian and so other schools sometimes submit their documents differently but when you're a navon school there's certain things that you kind of have to uh abide by in order for your application and your documents to sort of mesh together once it gets to the college um and now we're just going to go through a few things with the common application um not the whole common application but some pieces of the common application that sometimes kids get tripped up on or have some questions um and so the first part is the educational information so the snippet on the slide is um if you look at the top there's kind of tabs across the top of each page of the common application and we're on the third tab called the Common App and we're on the educational piece so you're going to select High School South you're going to give our class size which is 399 um just know that we do not report class rank so if there's a question related to that we don't have class rank here in West Windsor and then there's a question that says do you wish to report any honors related to your academic achievements kids always wonder what that is okay we don't have honor role here some schools have an honor role and so they could put honor role um but we don't really have that so an honor could be you're a National Honor Society you're a National Merit semifinalist it could be you have some honor related to an academic subject it could just be just about anything that maybe you received an award and you won an essay contest something like that um but there might be and usually there's a majority of students that are like hey I'm like a solid student but I never really won an award I'm not in National Honor Society I don't enter ESS contests but I'm a really good student anyway it's okay if you don't have any honors okay you have lots of places in the Common App to report some of the other things you do and remember you have your transcript and stuff so remember this common app is for the whole world and so they have to have pieces in here that might apply to a variety of different um schools different settings things like that so if you don't have if you feel like I don't have any honors information to enter there then by all means don't feel like that just slam the door and you might as well not even apply because it doesn't it's just an opportunity if you want to communicate that you want an essay contest or an art contest or or you're in National Art society that would be the place to sort of enter that information another um piece to um the in the common application is the furpa release so once you have added a college to my colleges which we're going to literally show you specifically tomorrow how to do that um it's going to ask you to sign a fura release a fura release um um basically asks you to wave your right to review your recommendation letter um and waving your right is basically saying that you have confidence that your recommenders are going to write nice things about you um that it's very candid that you really don't have any piece of it you're not reading it you're not reviewing it and it's full transparency so you really have to weave your right um and so the thing with this piece which is weird in this day and age but you can't you can't uh change it so if you don't wave your right uh you can't go back and wave your right later I don't know why it's like undoable so please pay really close attention to this and make sure that you fill it out right um the first time it asks you to wave and then it says that you understand that once I sign you save it and so forth forth um and then that'll be for all of your colleges so you you just have to do that for uh one school and that release all your colleges on the Common App that release will apply to all of the colleges okay so that is that piece still still working through the troubleshooting the Common App um another thing is they're going to ask you for your admission plan are you going early action are you going regular decision early decision ruling um how are you applying and remember you're going to be on the particular college so it's only going to offer the admission plans that that particular college offers okay so on this example we're sitting at Bucknell University we're on the my colleges tab at the top of the common application we're on Bucknell University and I could choose early decision early decision to or regular decision Bucknell doesn't have an early action so I have to choose one of those um choices our start term is fall 2025 okay we're not going in Fall 2024 we still have a year left at South and now we're not going in the spring we're going in the fall 2025 so you would choose one of those if you choose early decision you're going to get if you see on this um on this snip on my slide here it's going to ask you to invite a parent parents must sign off on early decisions couple things about early decision that's a binding decision you can only apply early decision to one school in your entire list and if they accept you you have to attend uh no matter what when I say no matter what I mean no matter what how much money they give you no matter whether you change your mind in January and you fall in love with a different school if you apply early decision ethically you're telling them if you accept me I'm coming and then your other schools can only be regular decision uh and or early action um and there's a few schools that have restrictive early action there's a lot of different things people do as far as admission plans and so if you're confused about a particular school's admission plans and what that means for you or how binding is it or something like that uh please always ask before you just choose it okay so that's uh important and the biggest thing there is with early decision you must invite a parent if you choose early decision and then skip that invite parent part um we won't be able to send our documents and nor will you uh you're going to see invite recommenders you see that on the top of my snip over there you are not inviting recommenders through the Common App remember this common app is for the whole world if you look under counselor there it says your school is using Navan for transcripts school reports and so forth contact your counselor directly we do not submit our recommendations through the Common App we submit them through Navan and then it matches up at the college end and that's the only way we can submit them so once you invite us in the Common App things get a little wonky everybody gets confused and it's just messy so there's a few things you remember when you get to this part do not ask us to um do not invite us there you're going to invite teachers and counselors a different way uh and it's going to be through navian okay um nav some Navan Basics now that those were the the obviously that wasn't the entire common application but um it's sort of where we find over the past number of years that kids sort of get tripped up in the process so we like to answer some of those questions and again tomorrow we'll be answering probably a lot more questions related to it and we're literally going to go into Naviance and so forth um to to show uh it's a lot easier when you can actually show it um so navian Basics your child and hopefully you might have seen this screen before because this is something we actually did in 11th grade transcript requests cannot be accepted until you've completed the councel W packet which was due April 1 but a lot of people not a lot of people but there's some of you that have missing pieces here and there some of you have have it completely in and some of you haven't started at all everyone's sort of at a different stage with this and we kind of hounded you in 11th grade to get it done then summer happened so if you still didn't get it done we can't accept your transcript until those pieces are done so that would be the counselor Rec packet which is the student and parent surveys student input and the parent input uh a resume which is in Naviance or a resume that you just have um and the furpa waiver the furo this is a different furp than the Common App this is a transcript release um that has to be signed in the event you have has to be signed and we use it for the schools for example that might not be on Common App so the fura waiver that you signed on common application allows us to release your transcripts and your recommendation letters and so forth to your common app schools this fura waiver allows us to release to any other Common App School even any other program and honors program program something like that that needs additional information if that is signed most of you have signed that because it was one of the Genesis forms this year and so when you did all your forms in Genesis many of you signed it already so we do know who signed it so if you're requesting transcripts uh we will triple check that you signed that and until those pieces are complete we're not going to consider your transcript request uh our timelines not going to start until we have all of your pieces so you can request a transcript which puts us on a timeline we say we give us three weeks but if we look and none of your stuff is in our three weeks doesn't really start until we have everything because we can't really do anything without your full packet and tomorrow many of you and when you meet with your counselors we'll probably find out which pieces you might be missing so then when you request transcripts this is this is the fun part right um last year we added colleges to colleges I'm thinking about many of us did um and if you didn't um then you should get your colleges and colleges I'm thinking about I've actually already met with a few students this year who said oh I have my own spreadsheet that's all good and well but that doesn't help your transcript get to the colleges because it has to be a navian because that's how we operate so if you have your own little spreadsheet and you haven't done this you should do it um that any colleges that you think you might be applying to you put in colleges I'm thinking about so this is what colleges I'm thinking about looks like um in navian and so as you can see the University of Alaska Fairbanks has a delivery type of an open computer that means they have an electronic application but they don't use the common application American University has a computer with a CA in it they use the common application so this is how you can tell uh what your schools use and how things are going to be delivered um to your school all right so you're going to uh have them in this and then some kids some students I know started this last year and we told them this colleges I'm thinking about should be gigantic and then we EB and flow and we visit and we learn more and we take away and we add and so forth so now we're at the part where we're actually saying you know what I'm not just thinking about these Miss Walsh I'm going to apply to these so now you have to tell us which ones you're going to be applying to so you're going to click the schools that you want okay I'm definitely going to apply to American Delaware and I'm definitely going to apply to ruter I would just click those three schools and then I would choose move to the application list um again this we're going to literally do it tomorrow to to show you so the other piece where you have to make sure your colleges are is in your common app account so if you move this to your active applications we see it but we get a message that hey it's not even in their common app list so are you kind of sure they're applying there or not so your schools that are in your common app have to match the schools that are in your college I'm applying to um otherwise again we can't send stuff because the stuff's not even in your common application if it's a common app school so that's um really important so you're G to pick the schools and this isn't a oneandone deal by the way you might have you might know for sure you're applying to two schools right now so after we meet tomorrow and everything's open and ready to go and you've done your Council Rec packet you might say you know what I'm definitely applying to American and Delaware but I'm not sure about the rest I still need to visit I still need to talk to my parents I still need to think about what I want to do so then the week later you say you know what I am going to apply to George Washington University and my parents have given me permission to go to California so I'm getting UC Berkeley back on that list then you can add it you can do this throughout you can discover a college on October 15th at the college fair and say oh my gosh I def want to apply you go in you add the school to your list and you apply it's not like whatever you do today then you're done and you just move on this is an ongoing process with several hopefully uh ongoing um conversations with your counselor okay once you do that you will get um a screen like this that says okay you're applying to UC Berkeley how are you applying and you have to tell navian I'm going regular decision how will you submit your application you see Berkeley was not a common app school so you had to choose direct to institution if you went with Dickinson you'll see Dickinson's another one that we're requesting um we're going to do that via the Common App and then it asks are you planning to submit your SAT scores and you're going to choose an option and I think it's either yes no or I haven't decided yet or something like that but you'll choose an option again that can be conversations over time with your counselor or your parents to see what you want to do and then once you answer these questions down here you're not just going to add applications you have to add and request the transcript because that's how we get notified not just that you've added applications some of you actually you weren't allowed to request trans I mean you it wasn't turned on I had it turned off the request trans transcript thing so you couldn't even do it before today um but some of you added applications kind of jumping ahead uh you're going to have to go back and request those transcripts because that requesting transcripts wasn't an option at the time um but now it is an option and obviously it's mandatory because that's how we know that you want to request transcripts so you'll fill those things out and then you'll add in request transcripts then a screen will come up and say oh okay great you want a transcript what type of transcript are you requesting and you're requesting an initial transcript right now later on you'll be requesting a midyear because they do want your mid most schools want your midyear transcript and at some point you'll be requesting a final transcript but let's not jump there yet because it's only September so we just want an initial transcript um what additional materials if any you want included we do not include test scores so you can just leave that blank if you want to send your test scores you can send them through the college board or act some schools however will take you'll see the words here unofficial SAT scores like from you self-reporting or something like that they may want them if you get in and decide to attend that school then you might have to pay the 10 bucks to to send them but before you go and pay $10 for every school that you want to send your transcri or your SAT scores to or ACT scores um double check check what they accept might just save you a little bit of money there um and then where it says where are you sending the transcripts when you drop down that in real life it's going to be a list of your schools that you said you wanted to apply to and you just say I want to sem my transcripts here here here um and then you request and finish what that triggers then is it triggers to us the counselors that you've requested a transcript so I might see I'll get an email em saying oh there's been an up you know a new request or something and I would go in and I say oh look Brooke parate who's a counselor but we're tell she's a student uh requested a transcript H let me check does Brooke have her packets on Brooke does have her packets on everything is complete that's great okay I'm gonna pull her put her on my pile because I have three weeks to write her letter do her secondary school report pull all her things together and get it to her school for the deadline and that's kind of how we look at it so that's sort of triggering your counselor um to work and giving us the time that we need um another piece to I keep talking about how your navian and your common app account have to kind of um merge together at the college level um and in order to do that you actually match them up so in college I'm applying to in addition to seeing the schools that you added there uh from our previous process if you haven't matched your account yet well most of you probably have not you're going to see literally like a pink bar at the top of colleges I'm applying to and it's going to say looks like you're not able to apply to Common App schools you need to match your account and then when you match your accounts um you're going to have it's going to prompt you to Lo L back into your common app with your username and password and then it'll match up your account what that assures is that you're going to send your common app to the school separately remember we're going to send your stuff separately when it gets there it all binds each other into a nice little electronic file um and that so that's a step that must happen we actually can't send your stuff physically uh unless you're matched we can't send your stuff if your if your ma lists don't match common app and navian and we can't send your things if your accounts aren't matched it'll give us a message so all of those little pieces have to happen tomorrow in our counselor meetings we have a checklist of everything that you need to do before you request a transcript and it's kind of like sign the fura waiver match your account so forth so you're going to leave tomorrow with a check checklist that checklist will also be in Google Classroom um so you'll have that very handy and it might make more sense the more you hear this it's going to sort of make more sense when you do the process yourself you're going to sort of get the steps and again we're always here um we're always here to help you and and work with you uh teacher recommendations so this is another thing that um was turned off up until today so many students asked about that I can't request my teacher that's correct because we had it turned off we wanted to make sure everybody did it correctly um a lot of formally request them so that they're brought in Mrs Walsh you're muted I'm muted Mrs Walsh you hear me now yes okay I just shut down for a minute okay I made a couple people co-hosts I said I joked in case I go down your co-hosts I actually went down but I'm back sorry we are I was weird like went away I had a little Panic for a minute okay let me catch my breath for a second let's move on um back to teacher recommendations so I don't know how much you heard but if you requested them in 11th grade and you did your input form that's two of the three steps your teachers are not going to know where and when to send your recommendation until you do this last step and this last step is this Walsh can I interrupt you for one second yes um would you mind sharing your screen I think it went down oh that went down too okay sorry about that no problem let me see geeez that was crazy that was my biggest nightmare um can you no it's not hold on one second um oh shoot oh let me do this let me see if I sharing is not turned on why am I still a host hold on I'm sorry everybody oh I'm not a host oh no okay okay hold on let me um sorry let me call I'm going to mute myself for a minute e [Music] no e okay I'm back I think am I back okay great sorry about that that was uh my biggest nightmare about tonight and we joked about it let me see something and it actually happened but now I'm stuck in my present oh there we go okay let me go up okay here's where we were sorry about that everybody thanks for your patience good old technology testing my nerves but here I am I'm back um letter of recommendations we're still talking about this um so when you uh in navian you'll go to colleges and letters of recommendation again we're going to show you this literally tomorrow you'll choose the teacher that you're um asking and then from a drop-down list so in this example we chose uh Miss Ellen glass band and then underneath that will be the letter those colleges that you just are have put into colleges I'm applying to and you would select whichever schools you want miss glasband or whoever your teacher is to write for and um when you do that and at the end you would say you would say submit request then um like us miss glasband would get a notification that Brook parrot is now she's applying to colleges and she also needs you to write a recommendation so then miss glass band's sort of time frame starts and she has three weeks to write that recommendation and get it there before the deadline as well so remember remember you're doing all this managers student managers of your own process you're telling your counselor by requesting a transcript you're telling your teacher then you're like okay those people are working that's great now I can work and I'm going to keep working because I know Miss Walsh and I know Miss lban are working hard also and everybody knows that my stuff has to get to the colleges uh at a certain time because we know what your deadlines are because they show up here and then they show up where um um when I get when I get my um sorry I got distracted here when I um get my transcript request I know exactly where you're applying and what your deadlines are so that's kind of how the recommendation works so teachers have come down and said so and so said they requested me but I don't see it and I said they didn't request you because they couldn't request you it was literally the feature I purposely turned it off until we could explain it so you have not requested them unless you have done this piece of the procedure okay um all right moving along here self- reporting schools so um there are some schools that are considered what they call self-reporting it's gotten um more popular in some of the larger state universities and so forth in the last several years um University is a self-reporting school so they use a self-report of academic record often referred to as the SR um the SR is ruter uses that but also pit uses it there's other schools that use this particular almost common app of self-reported academic record what you're going to do with that is you're going to get your transcript from Genesis which you all have access to your unofficial transcript and you're literally reporting your academic record you're not sending a transcript right now you're reporting yourself you're starting freshman year I had la1 I had biology and I got an A and I got whatever you're going to report all of your classes and all of your grades um and then uh you're going then they're G to the self-reporting schools like ruter and so forth other ones um are actually going to accept you or deny you based on your self-reported academic record but of course if you get in they are going to um request a final transcript and then obviously they're going to compare it and make sure that what you reported is what actually happened and so forth so for them it just kind of I think speeds the process a little bit it doesn't speed your process at all it actually slows your process down because it's a little cumbersome but um you'll do that when you hear Sr or self-reporting we actually don't send a transcript to ruers initially we know that you send your self-reported um academic record uh sometimes they're going to ask for what they call your New Jersey smart ID every student in New Jersey has one and it's in your navian account profile it's also in your Genesis so we can show you tomorrow when we actually have the screens up and stuff what your um what your smart ID is where like where you can find it okay deadlines deadlines matter a lot okay so remember we talked about the three- week thing so we must have your request three weeks ahead of your deadline and the timeline doesn't start counting until we have your full packet so if somebody requests let's go back to Brook parrot now she's not as organized as she is she used to be she requests a transcript tomorrow and I say oh Brooke requested a transcript wait I haven't received her resume or her student input form so guess what Brooke three weeks doesn't start yet I reach out to you I send you an email because now you're watching your emails regularly we can't possibly Chase everybody down in the school when you're in your classes and so forth all the time so we will be communicating email and I'm going to send Brooke an email email and be like hey Brooke thanks for requesting your transcript but I can't really do anything because you have not yet turned in your student info form or your resume I need that stuff as soon as possible if you want me to start on your recommendation letters and so forth and so she needs to see that email get her act together bring it in and then the count then my timeline will start if she decides not to read her email and a week or two weeks go by and then I say Brooke did you see my email she's like like no well it's because you didn't look but so please look at your emails and make sure we have what we need so that when you request a transcript uh we can get started on it and again uh many of you will probably over the next few days and maybe even tomorrow uh be made aware of what pieces of that packet you may be missing okay so if you notice this little table over here so the college deadline is November 1st your transcript request is due by October 11th now that freaks people out sometimes because they're like why do I have to have my stuff finished by October 11th if my deadline is until November 1st remember you don't have to have your things done by October 11th you have to get me working by October 11th you have to get your teachers working by October 11th and we are all working towards the November 1st deadline so you can't again Comm in on October 30th and say Miss Walsh I got everything done I finally pressed submit can you get my stuff there by tomorrow no okay you request us you request your teacher we're all working you feel good about it your people are working and you'll be able to monitor what was submitted what was completed in navian it'll tell you if something was processed or whatever but remember we get a lot of requests and some certain teachers especially get tons of recommendation requests while they're teaching all day they're doing letters at night um it takes time so don't panic everything will be there by the deadline don't ask your teacher every other day whether they're working on it or not they're working on it um if it gets a little close and you're concern we can send an email but have faith in the process as long as you request on time so the deadlines that we have in the left column are just some of the more popular deadlines November 1st is a really popular deadline November 15th November 30th so forth notice that anything due January 1st and January 15th the request is due to us by December 1st um and I know that's more than three weeks before January 15th but obviously we have a long break in there uh the winter holiday and so we need need to have everything by December 1st so we can get everything completed and sent before we go on our especially long winter break this season okay so that timeline is really important and handy to uh have okay um the FAFSA I I casually mentioned it in the beginning um that it's going to be a graduation requirement you hear more information about that um you shouldn't look at that as a negative it's more like everyone should do the fast foot to see what kind of Aid or scholarship they might be eligible for um it has a December 1 release as soon as you it's released you should complete it and submit it your schools will have uh FAFSA deadlines financial aid deadlines um and so you need to also follow what you have to see what their deadlines are and make sure you submit your fast for form uh prior to the deadline some of you may see another financial aid form called the CSS profile um there are some um private schools not all but some private schools that require the CSS profile which is another financial aid form and they will make that clear that that's a requirement and what the deadline is so it's important to in addition to following your application deadlines this is a kind of a parent thing so if parents want to get involved in any way this this would be a good place to get involved in is the fast f in the CSS profile and understanding those deadlines and Gathering whatever documents you need and and so forth okay so uh as promised tomorrow we are going to follow up this meeting with a much smaller and in-person meeting with all of our students they'll meet just with their counselor and we're going to um answer any questions we have a lot to cover we're not going to say who has questions from last night because maybe not everybody's here tonight so we actually have some uh specific things to go over we're going to bring up Naviance and actually walk you through some of these steps literally um so you can see it um and so forth so we have a lot to um go over tomorrow in that 40 minute lunch period and that's why we ask that you come on time you bring your lunch so you're not spending 20 minutes just waiting to get lunch um and then walking in um it won't be that effective if you do that and here are the locations where your the counselors will be tomorrow for their lunch meetings bring a Chromebook and bring your lunch uh most of you know by now to contact us use our Google appointment calendar um you can come in during lunch um if we're available we we can't always be available sometimes like tomorrow we're not available during lunch for anybody except for you guys um um and different things happen during lunch and also we can't see 30 kids during lunch period so it's always best to make an appointment but know that we don't eat lunch the same time as the students and we are in our offices just can't guarantee that we don't have other students or something so you know just know that that's the spot and then there's a document that you'll have a link to right here uh High School South College process answers and a lot of what we went over tonight is going to be um in there in different categories and so forth so a lot of you know kind of again some snip slides to show you the steps and so forth are all in that an college process answer so you have this document you have tomorrow you have your counselor at you're ready you have the college process answers um feel supported I hope you do feel the love uh both parents and students that we're here to help you and to make this process uh kind of as exciting as possible um okay so thank you uh see your counselor earlier and often you guys tested me today by shutting me down and making me scramble a little bit and try not to lose myself so so we did all right um counselors were there any general questions that needed to kind of be uh clarified um at this point in time um we've been answering the questions as they've been coming in so we're up to date with everything terrific okay then um again I want to thank you please um encourage your child to come tomorrow to our meeting because again we're going to have a lot of really good information and I think it put everybody at ease and get everybody started um so um we look forward to working with you through this um parents this presentation um is not only going to be um on the district website and in Google classroom but we've been recorded including my little Panic moment was all recorded I guess and the recording is going to be on the um West Windsor YouTube channel sometime next week if you actually want to listen to it all over again um you can certainly do that or this presentation will be posted as well the documents that we're giving out tomorrow during our meeting will also be posted in classroom okay anything else we're good counselors uh I appreciate my counselors coming tonight um this is just kind of like a little extra night they're here to support you and to support uh me and to help get some of these questions answered so um so we have the best team here you're in very good hands so have a great night everybody and uh we look forward to working with you through this exciting process byebye how do I end for --------- ##VIDEO ID:_tRnNAQlRjk## [Music] hi everyone and welcome we'll get started here in just a minute uh we have people joining from the waiting room um so we will get started in just a probably just about 30 seconds to a minute or so all right good evening everyone we're g to get started now my name is Lee Riley I'm one of the counselors here at High School North I'm joined this evening by my colleagues Mrs narang Mr maida Mrs gadowski Miss James and Mrs Muth I want to thank them for joining us um their role in this evening's program will be to uh answer questions in the Q&A um we won't necessarily be answering questions um right off the bat we'd like you to um listen to what I have to share initially but as we get toward the end of the slides uh there will be trying to answer uh some questions uh please note that this session this evening is a general presentation designed to give students and parents an overview of the transcript request K uh process and some uh general rules of the road when it comes to college applications but we do understand that every student's uh journey through this post-secondary application process is very unique and that's what the counselors are here for with that in mind if you have specific questions um or if your child has specific questions uh regarding applications uh we would ask that you uh not include those questions in the chat but instead reach out to um your child's counselor um via email or whatever method is most comfortable for you uh because the kids are 17 and 18 years old we of course would prefer um that they ask their own question questions and to that end counselors are going to host follow-up sessions with students to answer any questions that they have after tonight's uh slideshow and that those sessions will take place over the following days so uh I intend this slideshow to again be a general overview I don't want parents and students to panic and say he's talking too fast this is too much information um this is hard to follow I'm very unclear on you know this part of the presentation that's to be expected because we understand that even though we go through this process every year um that this is new to all students and many parents so there are going to of course be questions that you have as we go through the process and counselors here are here to support you um with those more child specific inquiries as we go through as we go through the fall um so again I want to thank my my fellow panelists for coming today they're going to turn off their cameras now um but I want to thank them for joining us this evening uh generally what I'm sharing with you through the slides is uh all eight counselors here are walking the kids through the process in the same way um at the same time uh we are going to be providing them and you uh with resources uh we think that will help a lot of slides in this uh slideshow have uh live links that you can use uh links to helpful documents or websites uh that we think will be of use for you and um so we will we will post this slideshow um to our Google classrooms and to the class of 2025 Google classroom also this session is of course being recorded um it will be a few days before before this recording is posted to the wwp website but we're hoping by next Tuesday or Wednesday tonight's program will be recorded and will be available um for students or parents to watch um or rewatch on the on the district website on the district YouTube channel I should say um first again I want to uh thank some of my colleagues for joining us here this evening um uh parents and students if you're not familiar with the Department we have a eight school counselors and one Student Assistance counselor that uh work with students in the building on a daily basis we're of course working with the students alphabetically and for most of your uh students this will be the year four of having our counselors the one exception would be Mrs Faith sabinsky who we are happy to say has joined us this year from the uh from Community Middle School she's replacing Teresa Riley who took a position at Village uh up Elementary School in West Windsor um this September um Mrs Riley is working closely with Mrs sininsky throughout the fall she will be writing College recommendations for all of Mrs sabinsky seniors and so those two are going to be working collaboratively um with your kids uh but the the first and only point of contact UM for Mrs sininsky students will be Mrs sininsky and then of course she will be um collaborating uh professionally with uh with Mrs Riley throughout this application process but that is our team um I'm very uh uh proud to be a member of this team uh the eight of us I was counting it up today have well over a hundred years of experience um in College counseling so even though we we can't memorize uh the rules of the road for 4,000 undergraduate institutions nationally we are uh very well-versed when it comes to the process and um if we don't have answers we know where to find answers uh so your child's school counselor is a wonderful Resource as they go through the process this fall and this winter um again tonight is an overview so I hope to take no more than 30 to 45 minutes probably closer to 45 minutes and I just want to go through some things and some terminology that you're going to be encountering uh already and as you go through the the the college application process but a as this is an overview I just want to start off with some general thoughts that we like to share with all students every year number one trust the process um this process works for every student every year so even though it might seem a little bit overwhelming in terms of what you're having to balance between schoolwork and uh these outside applications you will get through this process yes first marking period this year will be pretty busy a lot of students will apply to most of our their colleges during the first marking period in the months of late October through November uh but college applications are accepted throughout the senior year so uh we know that we have said some students apply to schools already and we know that that process will continue through the second and third marking periods as well so trust this process um and trust that uh that you will make it through in in great shape as you're completing applications and things like college essays and personal statements just be mindful students that colleges and universities are really trying to get to the essence of who you are and who you are isn't necessarily always reflected in a list of activities so as you're filling out these applications um focus Less on the number of activities that maybe you've participated in and really uh how that has informed you as an applicant so tell your unique story whether that's academically um in terms of your outside interest your character um things that other people really appreciate about you that's really the message in the emphasis you want to get aart across to these college admissions Representatives also a lot of our students come into this process and they say how can I put myself in the best light when I am applying to these compe of colleges and we really ask students to take a moment to turn that around and to remember that you are interviewing colleges and looking for a best fit for you so you need to take your interests and passions and marry that with a school that you think is going to give you the most opportunities um and the possibilities for success and happiness and here's a little secret that a lot of kids seem students seem to forget through this process process is you can be very happy and extremely successful um at more than one school so even though some of you might be focused on a quote unquote dream school or a school that you think matches um everything you looking for there are a lot of schools out there uh where you could and will be very happy so try not to be too hyperfocused on one outcome that you can't necessarily control it's okay to cast a wide net and um you will find success at whatever School you end up attending uh next fall as an applicant you're looking for environment where you can Thrive academically and personally spend a lot of time thinking about um what the physical location of that campus means for you Urban versus suburban small community versus large community um of course um the educational academic opportunities and extracurricular opportunities that each school has a lot of these schools have similar opportunities but the feel of the campus when kids visit is is often vary varies greatly from student to student so for that reason College visits uh in the past and moving forward through the fall and even to NE even into next spring will become a really important part of your journey um so we certainly consider we want you to um uh be very conscientious about actually getting out to these schools at some point during the process remember and I've said this before uh you're not alone in this process you've got counselers here to support you students you have parents to support you other adults in the building to support you uh recommenders whether those be counselors teachers or outside professionals that you've worked with uh that will put you in the best light possible um so you are not walking through this um without resources so and lastly this should also be an EXC process as well yes of course it will come with some anxiety and and things that are outside of your control but it's also an exciting opportunity as you um as your journey continues beyond graduation next June so as often as you can and I believe one of your senior class advisers uh mentioned to this to all the students in your assembly last week on the first day of school or the second day of school um try to enjoy this journey try to prioritize your school workor during the day with these college applications during the evening realize that there will be an end to the college application process that this is a very uh it's a fleeting time and again once you get through the fall uh there will be other things that you can spend your time on during your senior year and that you can enjoy as you wait for these college admissions decisions but uh there's a lot of support through the process and we really want you to enjoy this journey as well um there are some first steps that I expect a lot of you you have already completed um finalizing your list of schools isn't necessarily one of them uh we realize that your schools your school list will be dynamic throughout the fall and even into the spring so we don't expect that everybody's got a list of eight to 10 schools right now and that will never change um when you're creating Common App accounts or a coalition account and you're adding schools to those accounts and completing applications um we realize that uh you may add and delete schools As you move along and that's to be expected so uh we encourage you to do that um many of you will have colleges that not only require a transcript from the high school uh but they ask for something called a self-reported academic record so when you're creating your common apppp account uh you might find that you need to create what's called an Sr account as well and uh there will be a hyperlink for that at least at one point during the the um program I'm not whether this is a live link on this screen but Sr is something that we've seen an increase in uh schools that want self-reported academic records um in recent years so that will be yet another account that you will have where can parents come in handy um helping students keep track of usernames and passwords uh we would advise that you keep those lists on a common dock or in a common place um using similar or the same usernames and passwords for multiple schools is definitely encouraged uh because it will you know decrease the level of confusion and resetting passwords and things like that um and probably the most important thing for students and parents throughout the fall is to pay attention to application deadlines many colleges have rolling admissions which means you can apply whenever you're ready to apply um but some schools incentivize applications that are completed by a certain date popular dates include November 1st and November 15th so if you have school that have November 1st or November 15th deadlines and you're looking to make those deadlines um that will cause you to prioritize some of your applications above others um we all know people and maybe we are people ourselves that have organizational challenges so students if you're someone that has a little bit trouble keeping track of dates and keeping organized um not only is this a great opportunity to work on those uh skills uh but also to involve your parents uh we know that your parents uh would love to be a resource for you and um they might have great suggestions with how to keep on top of some of these um deadlines and and counselors will provide recommendations as well so creating a common app account I expect that the majority of you have already done this uh common apppp has over the summer uh updates their accounts for the new year uh so this is this the screenshots I'm showing have looked very similar ilar uh for years and years um High School North is of course your high school that's one of the first things you'll be able to list under your education section our senior class size is at around 375 so anytime you see a college ask for your senior class size you can use that number our GPA scale is a 4.0 even though you can earn well above a 4.0 uh with high grades and honors and advanced placement classes our base GPA scale is still a 4.0 and lot a popular question we get from students is when I'm filling out the Common App or other applications what GPA should I report I see two gpas on my transcript I see unweighted and weighted um we would always advise you to just um put put yourself in the best light possible and report your highest GPA which for most students is going to be your weighted GPA your weighted GPA would just be a better indicator of the rigor of classes that you've taken over your four years so creating a common app account you'll find uh is pretty easy commonapp has several sections uh from who you are as a person to your family to your education background to your testing background uh that you will fill out once and that will get sent to all colleges so a common app account is a way to uh complete things once and then have that same application sent to uh hundreds of schools nationally I think it's well over a thousand schools now except the Common App including Ruckers and many other local schools the second thing you'll do once you create a common app account is you'll start to add some of the colleges you've been thinking about to your colleges tab so uh whether it's the College of New Jersey New York University you can add any colleges that you're thinking about and again you can edit this list throughout the fall um you will send applications separately from this screen so colleges with that you're adding or deleting um that's okay that that's a again a dynamic process when you add colleges uh when you add at least one school you'll be asked to uh sign a furpa release and now you might have heard the word furpa before it's kind of similar to Hippa in the health care field uh fura is basically your privacy rights and the school including your recommenders your counselor are not allowed to release information about you until you sign a furpa waiver so once you sign the furpa waiver on Common App and you match that up with your Naviance account we will then be clear as your counselors and your teachers to send documents directly from High School North uh to your schools some some common app schools and outside colleges that don't accept common app will allow you to invite other recommenders so this could be um a high school or a wreck sports coach uh a member of the clergy um a club advisor inside or outside of the school a music teacher basically another adult or Mentor in your life that you believe knows you well and can really speak to your um strengths as an applicant um there's an opportunity to invite recommenders uh through common apppp and that will that option will appear for most schools so you'll see I've listed the College of New Jersey here is an example of a school that will allow you to invite recommenders you simply um enter the email address of the recommender and they will get an invitation to upload to your common app account there are some schools that don't uh request outside recommenders but again I've found that a majority of schools do so for those students that um really have adults in their lives that they're very close to and they feel could speak to them uh and the skills that they might offer and talents that they might offer a college um that's certainly acceptable um and encouraged by colleges and universities ities so um you are feel free to take advantage of that uh on Common App early decision many schools have different deadlines as I mentioned before um some schools have what's called an early decision process and I do want to point that out because that is unique from the other admissions deadlines and um contracts that are out there for different colleges if you apply to a school that offers early decision really often times when what that means is that admissions agreement is binding if you are accepted to that institution by applying early decision you were saying that you will 100% attend that school the following school year so this is a binding agreement for that reason um early decision schools uh ask parents and school counselors to sign off on your early decision agreement so that they understand that students parents and counselors have all spoken to the applicant and students and everybody is on the same page in terms of this binding agreement uh the advantage for some schools that have an early decision option is because they know that you are committing to attending their institution um oftentimes they will accept a larger percentage of their applicant pool um as part of the early decision class that will vary school to school so can this be a huge Advantage at at many schools not necessarily um but with all else being equal if you and your parent are focused on one school and it meets all of your criteria and you want every advantage and opportunity you can have to be accept to receive an offer of acceptance to that institution you can consider applying early decision the downside is is your you're accepting admissions to a school before you even understand uh what the financial implications are for instance so there are certainly downsides and um you're locked into a decision in December of your senior year as opposed to visiting more schools and weighing your options until the spring um April or May are the deadlines by which most schools want an admissions um a student to uh make a firm commitment so early decision has advantages and disadvantages but students if you are um thinking about applying early decisions certainly have a conversation with your counselor since we're going to have to sign off um through common app that that we have had that conversation with you Naviance Naviance is the platform that we use it's the the program that we use in school um to send all of your documents electronically Naviance has a lot of features there are personality profiles you can do research on all of these schools that uh that you might be considering and navian also has a feature called Edo which is of course short for electronic documents um that is a service uh that works with commona and other schools to deliver um everything the schools need electronically directly through our navian platform so teachers and counselors upload school materials to Naviance we share Naviance accounts with students students will match their common apppp and Naviance accounts and then this will allow us to to send in an expedited manner um all of your materials electronically either directly to Common App or directly to non-common app schools that will accept electronic submission Naviance is great because when we're sending things through Naviance um we can track and see when they've been received um it's a it's it's a wonderful feature um but the first thing you should do in navian when you're actually adding colleges that you've listed in common app is match your common apppp and navat accounts by entering your commonapp credentials once you do that your common apppp account will be able to talk to your Naviance account and vice versa uh I also embedded on this last screen um a video where you can uh that just uh goes into a little more detail about what that that process looks like I've also got a video on this slide uh requesting college transcripts um what you need to do for us uh basically it's a two-step process number one you would list colleges your applying to again that's a list that you can edit so you can delete schools um and add schools throughout the fall and then once you add a college that you're applying to you can also request that we send a transcript you need to both do both of these things you need to do you need to add colleges you need to add your college to colleges I'm applying to and request the transcript in order to um initiate that process for your school counselor um another another thing that trips up seniors traditionally is their common app account schools listed on their common app account don't necessarily match the schools that they've listed on their Naviance accounts and that creates issues so I will remind parents and students this evening and your counselors will remind you throughout the fall if you're adding schools or making changes to schools on your common app account you need to go over to your navian account and make sure that those lists match at least for common app okay we can't send anything uh we can't send things through commona if your common app school is not listed in Navan so uh first thing you need to do when you're making changes in common app is is jump over to Naviance and make sure that those schools are matching up that creates uh a lot of headaches for you um and making sure those lists match uh is really important for your counselors requesting teacher recommendations I know most of you have talked to teachers you may have filled out teacher uh recommendation surveys on navian which is great uh We've turned on the feature today that will allow you when you're adding colleges that you're applying to to also request letters of recommendation you'll have two options when you're requesting letters of recommendation for the schools you're applying to one is a general option it just means that um you send a teacher a general request saying I want you to send your recommendation to all colleges I'm applying to and then there is a college specific option you can also pick and choose for each school you're applying to which teacher recommendations you want sent now students and parents you might ask why would I use that college specific option and the answer is this some schools only require or will accept one letter of recommendation so in those cases and you'll be able to see this um when you're adding colleges to Navan uh you'll have an opportunity to choose which teacher you want to send your recommendation if you're just asking for General letters of recommendation the recommendation that will go will just be the first one that's uploaded by your teachers um what percentage of students request General letters of recommendation versus specific letters of recommendation I'd say it's probably around 50% so is it a big deal either way does it really matter too much absolutely not um your teachers are writing about who you are as students um and and you cannot View those letters of recommendation um however if you have a school that you're applying to that's maybe an engineering school and it's really important to you that your Math teachers recommendation is the one recommendation that they accept um we understand that so uh we we know that letters of recommendation you might want to be specific with in some instances again if you have any questions about how to request letters of recommendation there's a video linked here right on this slide counselors and teachers ask for for uh student surveys to be completed prior to our recommendations being sent counselor surveys um either from parents or students give us a a better idea of what you're doing outside school what makes you tick we certainly see you um in a certain lens uh but we know other people in your lives including your parents maybe including your friends um see you in other ways and there are things that we might not know about you so when you're we're writing our letter of recommendations we love to have input from students of course and certainly parents as well um parent surveys uh me personally I don't require a survey be entered from each of my parents but all of the counselors in the department um require students complete their Council recommendation survey prior to us writing your recommendation so before you make any transcript requests from us make sure that Council recommendation survey is completed similarly we have two tap teacher recommendation surveys that are listed in here as well all of the teachers that have Naviance accounts in our building have access to the teacher recommendation surveys so if a teacher has asked you to complete that survey you can go ahead and do that we understand that some teachers in the building have their own surveys as well so uh just follow whatever directions your teachers have for you and also um please communicate with your teachers throughout the fall um certainly when it comes to maybe your earliest College deadline yes your teacher we a will be able to see that when they log on to their Naviance accounts but they might be writing recommendations for 30 different students so if your earliest deadline is October 15th it would be a great idea to send your teacher a reminder a week or two before that recommendation is due and just remind them that you've got a deadline coming up once teachers upload your recommendation materials once those will go out to all of your schools um after that date so um all teachers need to be aware of is your earliest College deadline so that's what I would that's what we would say about that the transcript request summaries and again I know I'm going through this a little bit fast but you can you can obviously revisit some of these things uh what should students be doing throughout the fall you should be adding colleges to your common app account once you add at least one college to your common app account you'll have the ability to sign your furpa waiver in common app you only need to do that once once you sign your furpa waiver for one school it stays assigned for all of your schools if you're considering early decision talk to your counselor but students and parents will have to sign an early decision agreement through common app and counselors will have to sign off on that through Naviance as well complete your Council recommendation survey in Naviance um certainly if you haven't done that already please complete that prior to uh that initial transcript request and importantly match your common app schools um in Naviance in common apppp now again Naviance talks to Common App so many times when you link your Naviance and common apppp accounts and you make changes to your schools in common app those two platforms are supposed to speak to each other so you might find that your navian schools update to match your common app schools but just take a look at both just to make sure that everything looks similar do that every once in a while um add colleges I'm applying to in Naviance that will allow you to request teacher recommendations initial transcripts in Naviance for each of those schools so it reads like eight steps but it's really pretty simple when you take a look at both platforms both the Common App platform and the navian platform are very very userfriendly they are not complicated and again we've been working with Navan for 25 years now um it's it's very user friendly and the steps that we ask you to follow um are are pretty simple so you shouldn't have an issue with any of these but when you have questions about Navan certainly come down and see us important reminders remember there are 375 seniors in our senior class counselors will have anywhere between 40 and 60 seniors most of you will be requesting transcripts and college supporting materials right around the same time between early October and and uh early November so with that in mind uh you should complete your counselor and teacher recommendation surveys in navian now that's something that you should should really do in the next week or two um once you add colleges to navian if you've got a deadline all right these colleges should be listed in Naviance and these transcripts should be requested in Navan three weeks prior to your earliest deadline because again um if you multiply 50 students on a counselor's case load times an average of 10 to 15 schools per student those are a lot of materials that we have to manage um we cannot have students coming in the day before applications are due and asking for transcript requests uh because you it's difficult for you to cut the line in front of someone um who's really followed those uh those deadlines that we ask for most college deadlines are at the earliest November November 15th however there are schools out there uh specifically schools like University of North Carolina I believe Georgia Tech some Southern schools that have October 15th deadlines so if you have at least one school with an October 15th deadline or a school that maybe you've already applied to and you want us to send out transcripts sooner rather than later um you should do all this and add add that school to your common app account put in that transcript request now um so that because we are only uh probably four weeks or just a little B over four weeks in advance of the October 15th deadline so the sooner you get those transcripts requests in um the sooner that your counselor will be able to prioritize your materials and get those out uh by the college deadline if you're applying early decision to a common apppp school again I've said this before you do need to sign the Ed agreement in common app prior to making that request in Naviance okay um we need the we need that to be indicated so that we can sign off on that um so your Comon app materials can be sent I said before that most schools accept common app so I'd say 1100 to 1200 schools nationally accept common app and 90 plus percent of our students um will apply to Common App schools maybe 10% accept electronic submission uh but they aren't on the Common App there are a few schools that are a little bit different and I'm just pointing out one here in this slideshow because Georgetown is probably the most popular outlier school um with a different type of application procedure um of the schools that our students apply to each year so for those of you that might be considering Georgetown um they don't accept common app or electronic delivery through our Naviance platform so students if you're applying to Georgetown you're going to complete everything through the Georgetown portal and you're going to request teacher recommendations and your counselor recommendation directly through the Georgetown portal we will then get a direct link to Georgetown your counselor or your teacher and we will submit documents that way why is Georgetown so different that's a wonderful question um they have confounded us for decades and decades now um but they remain steadfast in their desire to be different and to be unique so if you were a Georgetown appp respective applicant just know that the rules of the road for Georgetown are just a little bit different and we do realize also that a lot of students are applying to schools internationally sometimes schools in England or schools in Australia Canada are going to have some slightly different criteria in terms of how to apply that's completely okay uh as counselors uh we are familiar with some of these schools and we will work with students uh throughout the fall to make sure that we are getting everything to them um through the platforms and in the manner in which they they request and require all of these documents um some terms and then these next few slides are just a little bit I'll bounce all over the place a little bit here but something that's gained popularity in the last few years is called the self-reported academic record and I mentioned this probably in the second slide of the night the self-reported academic record is exactly that um it's a it's it's something that College are using instead of and in place of high schools sending students grades through their transcript directly to schools now why would schools want students to self-report their grades instead of accepting a transcript from a high school well it's really simple um schools have students applying from hundreds and even thousands of different high schools and each one of those high schools across the country and internationally have different grading scales different credit scales different titles of courses and those are very hard for schools to decode so about a decade ago um a few schools uh Ruckers was one of the first ones in the country started to say you know what we'd like to we'd like students to put their school transcript information directly into our portal so that everything looks the same coming out they piloted this for a few years and they found that 99.9% of the time time students accurately um replicated their college trans their high school transcripts in this Sr portal um colleges that accept Sr will still require that the high school send your final transcript if you were attending that school prior to your final admission um but again this is an easy way for a lot of these bigger schools to consolidate this transcript information and put it in a common language that they can understand and have the students and parents really do that leg work um instead of having their admissions staff try to decode all these high school um these high school transcripts so popular Sr schools include Ruckers Penn State University of Pittsburgh University of Delaware a lot of schools that our our kids apply to so chances are majority of seniors are going to have at least one School uh probably Ruckers that requires the SRA R um I've got the SR account Basics I've got a link here on this slide um it's pretty easy to do you can complete the SR for almost all of these schools after you complete their application in fact if you've completed their application and you haven't filled out the SR they will send you a direct link to their Sr um portal so uh you can do the SR in advance or after you've applied the Sr are again like common apppp you will complete once and then you can send that to to multiple schools College admissions assessments I've talked for 35 minutes and haven't mentioned anything about the SAT or act and that's great because as a school counselor I don't necessarily think that these standardized tests really reflect who you guys are as candidates um or as prospective uh College applicants but they do play an important role in the process process for a lot of these schools um mainly comparing grades and course rigor from one High School uh to the other uh we have high schools all across the country that teach in very different ways they have different levels of rigor and it's hard for colleges to understand the difference between an A in West Windsor Plainsboro High School North uh versus an a at a high school in Boise Idaho a standard test that most School most students take um is a way to kind of give them a little bit more information in that regard so for that reason College admissions assessments are still a thing um they took a big hit during the the covid years when almost all schools went test optional but the latest Trend over the last year or two is more and more schools are going back to test en courage or test required so even though two-thirds of schools are test optional for the class of 2025 we encourage you if you're considering going test optional to read each school's policy very carefully when it comes to um test policy um we we find that uh you might find that some schools if you don't report your test scores it might be to to your disadvantage um there's a US news article that I think really does a good job speaking to this and so I've got that linked here Sumer colleges are requiring test scores again what it means for applicants so it's it's a quick read and that will just give you a little bit of an overview if you have questions or you're considering going test optional for certain schools again uh talk to your school counselor um we can give you a little bit of insight and you can also call the school's admissions office and they can give you um their best Insight they're not here to be school ad uh College admissions officers are wonderful people they're not there to be um evasive uh they will answer your questions clearly and um they know their admissions policies and procedures the best so a lot of times when you're talking to us your school counselor about college admissions we're going to advise you to reach out directly to that particular school um to get a specific answer that's going to answer your question uh the best also we a frequent question we get is AP exam scores um AP exam scores do not play a part in the admissions process at the overwhelming majority of schools uh but if you do send your AP exam School along with your at the same time as your applications um schools could take those into consideration for the most part schools will look at your AP exam scores once you've been admitted um in order to possibly award college credit for your high school courses all right the summary of the important parts so there are a lot of balls in the air here um when a college gets your application they're going to expect some different supplemental materials so uh here's who's responsible for these different parts the school counselor for most colleges is responsible for sending a recommendation your high school transcript which is your grades and the courses you enrolled in something called a secondary school report and a school profile those two things describe what type of high school we are how many honors and AP courses we offer how many students are in the building uh what type of town we're located in all kinds of demographic information that gives them a little bit better of an idea of who we are now Local Schools like Ruckers or Ryder or the College of New Jersey they don't need to look at our school profile or our secondary school report schools that get multiple applications from our students every year don't really need to consult with that but there are some schools out there that might not be familiar with westwin or PL Spirit where we are what our average student looks like so we share with them our school profile and our secondary school report our school profile is um is posted on our website and it's updated yearly every October so uh you can feel free to look at that profile at at any time you want um a lot of times schools will want um midyear grades as well so that they can check up on students and see how you're doing now students you're in control of who you want us to send your midyear grades to so when you fast forward to January we're going to revisit that conversation and if if students you are interested in having your grades sent to any of your schools we will have a form to complete um a more recent recent trend is even first marking period grades um that's less popular um for colleges because many of you are applying before first marking period even ends but you will on occasion run into a school um students that are asking for your first marketing period grades so again stay tuned for more information on that uh later in November and we will share something with you that describes how you can request first marking period grades if you have a school that wants them teachers are simply uploading their recommendations for you they'll do that directly through navian and for students obviously um your application is the main thing that that these schools are looking for so you're going to send your applications 99 times out of 100 electronically directly to your colleges for colleges that want the self-reported academic record you're going to send that as well and you're also going to send your SAT and ACT scores directly to colleges we are not responsible for sending your St ardized test scores those are your property you can choose which test scores you send to different colleges so um whether it's your SAT scores through the College Board website or your ACT scores through the ACT website um those sites have um pretty easy um features where you can request those scores be sent again we would ask the request those scores be sent um well in advance of your school's deadlines but if you're taking the SAT or the act this October or early November generally that is plenty of time for your for your colleges uh to receive and consider those scores when you are applying students counselors and teachers will we're all working toward a common goal I mentioned that there are a lot of materials coming at these colleges from different directions it doesn't necessarily matter if the student application gets there first or a teacher recommendation gets there first or a transcript gets there first um if it's common app School everything goes through common app at the same time if it's a non-common app School uh they will start a file for you whether they get your application first or whether they got a teacher recommendation for you first couple more topics that I just want to touch on and this isn't necessarily Germaine to the college application process but I'm sure if you're a parent like me it's first and foremost in your mind this year's free application for federal student aid the FAFSA form will be released on December one I should add 2024 it was also released on December it was supposed to be released on December 1 2023 and that was actually delayed until uh this past January um if you are a parent who has a student in college you will recall how much of a debacle that was I'm hoping for the class of 2025 that this roll out this fall is going to be a little bit easier initially the form was supposed to be released on October 1st again that's been pushed back to a hard release of December 1 and a soft released of October and November so you might get an invitation to complete your FAFSA prior to December 1st but December 1st is the date that they're giving us for when everybody will be able to complete this form uh the 2526 form along with last year's form has been greatly simplified as a parent of a college student um I filled that out last year uh and it was a lot easier than in years past so there were there are some important changes to the formulas they use for federal aid and I believe that I've got a hyperlink to that uh to a good article um here on this slide so you can take a look at that um the agency in the state of New Jersey that handles financial aid um for our state institutions um is called heesa the New Jersey higher education Student Assistance Authority they are they're going to offer free financial aid workshops throughout the year you can see those on their website we'll offer a financial aid workshop at some point during the um that we will advertise to you as well and also one last fun fact the state of New Jersey uh passed legislation earlier this year requiring that all graduates of the class of 2025 complete the FAFSA um we will put out additional communication uh during the winter with regard to that mandate um and it shouldn't be overwhelming um because there will be an ability to wave that requirement um for some parents but just know if you hear about that in the news or or on the radio that the expectation is from the state of New Jersey that every High School senior um is going to complete that FAFSA form during their prior to graduation this year just a few final thoughts from me um number one I hope that everybody is enjoy has enjoyed the the first week of school um just from and just from my observations over the first week I I don't think I can ever remember a smoother opening our senior class is wonderful you guys have done a great job over the first week um I love watching you enjoy your out to lunch privileges every day um enjoying all the new things that are going on in our building and there is a ton of spirit in our senior class so the counselors and I are very excited um that we're going through this process with you um we hope that your classes are all going very well and we do want to give you just a little tip that you do do not want to drop a class during your senior year after you send out your transcripts so we know you can't make any schedule changes once the year has started but we also don't want you to be planning on possibly dropping a class second half of the school year after you've sent out applications um that's information that's going to need to be shared with your colleges um so just know that that's highly discouraged senior year grades I mentioned earlier marking period one and mid-year grades will be able to get those to schools for you if those schools do require that um we have what I think is a very helpful document that our counseling that our counselors have put together called the co the college process answers and that hyperlink is here we've put uh links to that on that onepage document to a lot of different resources including tonight's presentation that we think you will find very helpful as you go through this process we will also link um tonight's Zoom presentation as well when that comes out next week but if there's something in the in the uh in this presentation that you want to go back to or has confused you or you're not sure what I said about uh FAFSA or anything else the college process answers is really the First Resource that you should consult and it's designed from us to be kind of a One-Stop shop for all things College admissions related at West Windsor Plainsboro we also have a lot of college Representatives that are going to come visit during um our lunch period during the fall um and those college visits and that schedule is posted on your Naviance account um these visits are going to start actually next Monday so seniors if you have schools that you're really interested in or schools that maybe you just want a little bit more information about check out our list of college lunch visits chances are many of those schools are actually going to come right here and some of those representatives from those schools are going to be be the people that do the first read on your application if you submit that application this fall so if you've got a school that you're really interested in and they're visiting please don't go out to lunch that day take advantage of that opportunity to come to the counseling office or to a101 um wherever we're hosting these representatives and introduce yourself and ask some last minute questions um it's a just a great opportunity also um we have a a yet another Google classroom for you but this is a real good one it's a classic 2025 counseling classroom this is our classroom just for seniors for all of the counselor seniors and I've got the join code here we will post relevant information with the college application and high school graduation process throughout the fall and the spring I'd say that we've got at least a 100 members of that classroom I'd love to have well over 300 by the end of this week so again we post a lot of important things fairly frequently uh during the course of the year on that Google Classroom so if um seniors if you join that counseling classroom you're not going to miss out on anything significant that's going on with regards to high school graduation or college admissions finally counselors will host Q&A sessions for their students um later this week um and they you will receive information directly from your school counselor uh with more more details on that process because it'll vary a little bit um from counselor to counselor but again we understand that everybody's Journey um is completely different and seniors we absolutely expect that you're going to have questions and that you're going to stop by our office on multiple occasions saying I've got something that I need to ask and then you might stop by 30 minutes later and ask another question and then you might send a Google Chat 30 minutes after that don't apologize that's completely okay this is your first time going through the process and we expect that and again we enjoy walking through this process with you the westwin or Plainsboro college fair is an opportunity for us to invite and host over 150 of the most popular colleges in the nation and many colleges that that you all are applying to I'm sure many of you attended this last year and some of you attended sophomore year as well this year's QR code is posted here on this slide you can also visit strive.com to sign up for an account um using strive fair to go through this college uh that go through the college fair process and to share your information with colleges um is is a really great um is a really great opportunity for you so that's coming up on October 15 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm again I'm sure most in the audience have done that once already if you're definitely applying to certain schools it's never a bad idea idea to ask those those those questions uh that you might have about the application process um or to you know just spend some some FaceTime or maybe look for some uh additional schools that you might want to apply to uh throughout the throughout the fall so we have a lot of opportunities for you and I do thank you for um hanging in with me because I know this is a lot of information um again utilize the resources that are posted on the college anwers Doc and we will share these resources as well in the senior Google Classroom um within the within the next week and on the YouTube channel for the district we'll have this presentation posted and we'll link it in in all of these places as well um I want to thank my colleagues again for monitoring the chat uh again our apologies if we couldn't get to all of the the Q&A you absolutely have an opportunity uh students or parents to reach out to your um your child's counselor or students reach out to your counselor directly um to ask follow-up questions that is really what we're here for um throughout the fall so with that said uh I'd like to conclude this evening's program I want to thank everybody for being um an attentive audience and uh we really look forward to um everything that senior year has to offer for your class of 2025 homecoming um college fair college applications everything else that uh between now and graduation and your school counselors are here to support you in all of those Endeavors so please have a wonderful and safe evening and we will be speaking with you soon thank you