um and again thank you for taking time out of your night um if you're here tonight and if you're are watching this uh presentation uh my name is Vinnie Cersei and I'm the director of people Personnel Services and with me tonight is Jen PR who is our uh lead guidance counselor at Norton High School and we are going to be doing uh part two of the presentation for juniors uh regarding college application Juniors and their families um and then following our presentation um we're going to have a presentation from Todd from um Bridgewater State University who is the one of the Deans of admissions there and he's going to talk a little bit about the perspective of uh applying and things that should be done um from the college in it's College View so um but right now what we're going to do is I'm going to screen share and we're going to kind of go through um the actual process that the Juniors will undertake in order to uh get their application started um what's involved in that process uh for those who hopefully saw us uh back in the fall or at least watch the presentation we talked a lot about the college search process if you're um still interested in that or you didn't get to see that and you'd like to kind of say okay we maybe we got a little bit of a late start as Juniors we're going to really be doing that work now and into the summer um you can go right on to the high school website go down to the johnwood guidance um Department uh part of the of the website click on that Tab and then you can see presentations um in the guidance Department if you scroll down a little bit in all of our videos uh for the that presentation along with some other ones uh especially one we just did the other night um on financial aid is available so please uh take the time to do that and we'll go from there so Jen I'm going to attempt share my screen let's see how this works all right can you see that go to the slideshow oh boy it's live and on its own right now okay so again as I said this is the 11th grade College Planning night part two and tonight we are going to uh cover the process that's involved in applying to college or to um a little bit of this will also cover some trade schools um or two-year colleges but for the most part we're looking at the the process you would use to apply to a four-year college so couple of different ways to be you know keep in touch and keep tabs um I think it's really important to people to know that each grade level has um a guidance Google Classroom that we share with the students uh and that started in n9th grade and so we send out a variety of information obviously for nth and 10th graders it's it's a little more vague it's it's more about some reminders of community service hours some of the things that are going on um from that perspective um but as the students move into uh 11th and 12th grade it's really important and we'll remind them to to keep tabs on their Google Classroom because we we will talk about things like scheduling we'll talk about things like internships and opportunities to work with our school to Career specialists around a variety of different uh ways of kind of building that that college resume or again if somebody who's maybe not sure they're going to go to college um some other opportunities that Miss PR and Miss um Kay do in in terms of looking at uh things such as apprenticeships for the unions and so forth military information and and all of those kinds of things also get put on Google Classroom um the students do get notifications um but I think sometimes you know they get lots of notifications so sometimes they see the guidance one and I'm not sure but I have a feeling they they sometimes don't read all of those so for the parents out there if you could um if you could uh maybe just you know remind them to keep tabs on that um because it is really important especially when we start having uh representatives from colleges coming doing uh visits and so forth um we also have a you know the monthly newsletter um which is both uh put up on the Google classroom and then directly emailed to the students um we talk about as I said already missions rep visits which is really important um because those are often the folks that are are reading the applications down the road and a whole bunch of other stuff around deadlines and reminders and so forth um and then we ALS and scholarships yes SCH huge yep scholarships are really important because we have um a scholarship form that goes out in February of senior year that we ask the students to complete and those are scholarships that are directly related to Norton Norton High School surrounding community that reach out to us and sort of ask us to to manage that but throughout the year we also get notifications from a variety of places um in committees that are that have scholarships um that they're not necessarily going to go directly through us but want us to make students aware of um I'll give you an example we had a scholarship through the Rotary Club it was a $4,000 scholarship we put out emails I think three different times to our seniors we talked that up we reminded them um and uh we had two individuals out of the entire senior class Supply so um that was a pretty good chunk of change that was missed by a number of students so again parents that are on here are listening to this make sure they're paying attention um to their Google Classroom um we also have an Instagram account um that talks about upcoming events and then just general helpful finders um just uh I don't even remember what day it was Monday um we had a junior assembly so we brought all the Juniors down to um the uh Auditorium and they went uh and reviewed the a PowerPoint presentation which um essentially is a little bit in more depth of what we're going to show you tonight but really the process by which they're going to begin applying to colleges so we're going to talk about we did talk about things like the Common App we talked about um letters of recommendation we talked about all of those kinds of factors how to visit schools what to do and so forth um so again it's a little bit more in depth uh one of the things that I think it's important for those of you who have not gone through this process with your students yet that yes we are here to guide yes we are here to to help advise um to remind them of deadlines to make sure they get their app their you know um letters of recommendation uh notifications out to teachers and out to to us um we can talk to them about you know different majors and so forth but the bulk of the work the bulk of the responsibility does fall on the student um and of course with with any assistant that a that a parent can can give as well so if you can help us remind them of those deadlines and of those kinds of things that's really important as well um so right now oh you want me jump in here yep that would be helpful go for it all right so this is the platform Naviance which we've been working with them over the years and now we're really going to be focusing in on the college piece of it um um I don't know if you can go back if not where here we go what we were looking at is um they need to create their list of colleges I'm thinking about I know a lot of students have already gone on college tours which those if you do them during the school year some are excused there's a limited number it's not unlimited but they can come and get a um the form down a guidance to get it excused however now is the time to be thinking about just what colleg is and creating that list and so here in Naviance you would go up to colleges and you can either search for colleges you can add colleges to lists but essentially you want to start creating this list these are colleges you're interested in and then eventually you will move them over um you can see down at the bottom where it says you can click the heart next to the college to add it to your list that's another way to do it if you're looking at the college specifically um verses in a list like this and searching it I'm trying to get off mute there we go I'm having some issues with my technology here um okay so one of the other things I I just wanted to say was that um you know Naviance is our is our platform that we use here at norn high school that is really going to send out everything we'll get into more details about that but the more that that the students can start putting this list together and thinking about colleges it's going to make it easier down the road um I think what we're going to try to stress tonight what we stress to the students is you know they can they can drink from the small hose or they can drink from the fire hose it's really how they decide to do it if they do a little bit at a time um they take it in small chunks then this whole process will be a lot easier than if they wait into late into the summer or early into their senior year so that's why we present now in order to say okay there's there's lots of little steps you can take as you're going along and this would be one of the more important ones so essentially like Mr cersi said a lot of the responsibility does fall on the student and this is just some very fast bullet points of just the typical College app responsibilities for students so the application and we're going to talk about common apppp in a little bit but that's another platform that actually is linked and connected to navian and the two will will talk the student will do the Common App section and um the counselors will end up submitting everything through Naviance but common app or institution specific which again maybe a college just wants you to apply through their site themselves you set up an account and you apply that would be institution specific so the student really is responsible for the application and pressing that submit button uh we do not submit their applications for them the college essay in any supplemental writing requests from the colleges so right now Juniors from now until about the end of the year they're working on their college essays there's a number of different essay prompts that they can choose and they should be working on those um in their English classes you will see as you get through some of the applications they might be um supplemental some are required and some are optional but they're never really optional if they say optional they still want you to do them um because they want to see that you're vested and interested and if you really want to go to that school you're going to do those supplementals whether they're required or optional the application fee um students responsibility I will say if you sign up um with the school if they send you an email and you say yes I'm interested in navian when you put a school on your list and say do you want to be contacted um if you go on on a tour and you put your email on there those are all ways that the school can contact you and a lot of times you might get an application fee waiver so definitely be checking um those emails and if it's a school you're interested in make that contact we did tell the students the other day to make sure they're using a personal email address for all college related things and not to do it with their Norton High School email um and that's going to be really important moving on the SAT or the ACT scores again that is not submitted through the school that is all through the student you're going to go on College Board you're going to request those and you need to do it in a timely manner there's a window of time it takes for the scores to be sent so you need to do it an ample time so that way it gets uh to the school before the deadline letters of recommendation requests and this is again another thing that we went over with them but they need to ask the teachers themselves personally and then put in a a formal request through Naviance the high school transcripts um we will be sending those to the schools the counselors and that is through Naviance and then the Fast Fun CSS profile that is also something that um the student and the families need to focus on we don't really deal with any of the financial aid um portion of that um we don't want to get too too involv with the finances in a family so um but however we do run both in the fall and then again in the spring um financial aid night uh where we bring in uh individuals from the community um that have some expertise in explain um kind of what the process is um what might be different year to year uh give you some advice around uh understanding student loans uh understanding your award letters so we do do cover that and then um mea is actually another uh agency through the state that does um a lot of support of parents and students around financial aid um they used to come out and do presentations they have gone to the webinar themselves or recordings um but typically uh in the fall when I send out our kind of guidance um information and schedule of events I will includ include uh information from mea or webinars in in their in their website um but if you just Google mea which is the Massachusetts educational Finance something um can't remember the last thing agency I think it is um uh they there's there's so much information especially if you're first generation uh there's a ton of information out there for you so um you know it's it's not that you know we don't want to help support you through through through the faser program and the the financial aid piece of it but that's not really want to have somebody who's an expert in that area speak to you so that's why we have those folks come out and and do that and again uh those those if you're interested right now those are up on our website so you can find those presentations as well um there was one other thing oh I think we might touch upon this later so I I'll hold off on my next comment so like I was saying there's some different types of applications there's the electronic which um everything is sent through the college website and you can see the little icons and these are the icons that will come up in Naviance to let the students know what type of application the college has so if a college specifically just wants you to apply through their online um website and their own personal applic you'll just see that little uh computer screen if you see the computer screen with the ca that means common app and I will say the majority of schools are common app schools which does make it much easier for the student um we'll talk about that in a little bit um but that is one reason why we have all the students match um they are common up in their Naviance Accounts at the beginning of the year we will sit with them we will show them how to do that we'll go into the llbs and make sure that everybody is connected um because those two platforms really need to talk to each other and then I've only seen one or two really still be snail mail but there are those few that are out there where they want everything sent through the mail and that makes it a little bit more difficult for the student because they do need to submit the requests um for the initial transcripts the midyear and then the end year transcripts so again as the students are putting in their colleges in Naviance we're going to see all those College names and we're going to see these icons too so we're able to kind of remind the students hey look you have this college you're applying to and it's only allowing uh application sents for the mail so you need to be on top of it this is what you need to do so again a real important reason why everything needs to be in naviant so that way on our end we can see exactly the colleges and the types of applications that they have and then there's four essentially different ways to apply regular decision the deadlines are typically December through February they're non-binding the majority of students like typically kind of apply through this or this might be your backup schools you might um apply early action and then do some regular decision also so you can do a mixture rolling admissions um they really once they get the application they look at it and decide then they don't wait until a specific deadline like let's say regular decision or the other two uh early action early decision so even though the deadline may be July and the student says H it's October I'm going to wait until after February break to apply because the deadline's in July I would highly highly recommend them not doing that if you have a school that you're very interested in it's rolling admissions the sooner the better because the school only has so many spots so they may close that application um window early and I actually had a student that happened to a couple years ago it was their number one school they're like I'm going to do it after winter break I'm going to come in and then they went to go apply and they were upset because the button wasn't there to submit anymore and it was because they have fulfilled all their spots so they took away the option to apply um so rolling admission you really need to try to apply early early action this is not binding so this we have seen a couple in October um but they're typically November December and students really if it's your go to school you want to try to get some Merit Scholarships it's a High um interest program that you're applying to students will apply early action some do it just because they want to get everything off their plate um they they want to get everything done and then have the rest of their senior year you will find out uh admission decisions earlier than regular decision um but again this one is not binding early decision this is the big one that's binding and you really need to be specific between or know early action and early decision on our end if you pick early decision we have to meet with the student and make sure that they understand the commitment that they're signing to and we have to sign off on that on Naviance so it's a big deal because it is binding um if they are admitted you don't know your financial aid package for the most part um typically they don't give you anything they just say you're admitted and you're going to find your financial aid package later and then you're going no matter what so the finances don't matter with this um this is really I've only had one student ever since I've been at Norton that has been my early decision and that's it I'm done um so you really have to know that this is a school that you're going to no matter what I think it's important to note that it it wasn't um wasn't me but when I first came to Norton we had a speaker as you know prior to zoom um we had a speaker from a college who said that um they had a student who applied early decision to three different institutions um got their acceptance to their actually number one institution um and then uh they found out and I don't know how the the colleges found out but they found out that they had um done the same thing they had done early decision uh to another college and all three of them took back their their acceptances so the student ended up not going anywhere um and again I know folks you if if this is the case you have to expect that you may not get any financial aid I also know somebody who graduated um the same year that my son did went early decision because that's where she really really wanted to go um but anticipated she'd get some financial aid and she did not get any financial aid other than you know offers for loans um she ended up going but I I think it cost her cost her quite a bit of money um so you really have to be prepared that this is the number one college and it doesn't or university it doesn't matter whatever the cost is the cost is um and I think sometimes students hear us but don't really hear us when we say that so uh for the parents and Guardians out there family members please make sure they understand that if you have anybody um talking about early decision stuck again so common app oop sorry we go back this is just really to show you what the um main screen of the platform looks like but again we told students they need to use the personal email if they don't have a professional email right now to definitely start one up uh navian is through the school so they can use their school email that's all set up common app it's your personal email they really need to make sure they're writing their email and their uh username password down all that stuff we do not have access to Common App so if you lose that it can be a huge issue the other thing I will say is make sure that they put the correct information in because you can't just make a whole another account I had a student do that a couple years ago they put like a wrong birth gting or something and they were like ah I'm just going to make another account you're not able to do that it's a one andone common application One account that's it it took weeks and weeks and weeks to get through to somebody um on customer service to talk to someone to get everything worked out it really was a huge issue so they really need to be aware of the email they're using the username the password and all the information that they're putting in is correct um but again they're going to put in their list of colleges so essentially if they just have one uh School in common app in the exact same one in Naviance so they're creating their list in Naviance of all the schools that they want to go to and then they pick one one that they want to put in common app and then we can show them how to link it it'll bring basically all the schools over um but common app is where they are going to be doing their application so um everything for them will be on the scent so to be clear they need one college when they do their initial application in college in the Common App then once that one college allows them to create their app then they connect navian they match them and then everything will be brought over but you don't have to do the whole application you just have to you can start sorry you can start yes you can start it in order to start it sorry I should have been should have been clear on that yes um one other thing I would say about the personal email um you know people I know you know students have you know whatever I have my own V you know V blah blah blah SZ uh at gmail that's great what we often recommend what I've heard from a number of um colge reps and even the financial uh Aid folks is create um a college specific personal email so I'm going to create you know whatever Vinnie Cersei to at or Vinnie Cersei college at gmail so that I know this is my email and now moving forward that's where I'm going to get all of my information that's going to be the email I use for my common app it's going to be the email I use for my fast um and the reason we suggest that is so that you're all of this important information or all of this information you're getting from colleges is not getting lost in the tons of spam and other personal stuff that comes through a personal email um it also can be something you know maybe a student doesn't want to share their personal email with with uh you know parent Guardian um because you know they don't want to share all that information but this way they can share it just for colleges and it's just something that you can specifically um look for you know information from the colleges from fast for so forth and so on so again if you're if you're going to do this um absolutely do not use our email especially for common app in in um for your faser because once you graduate it's gone um naian it doesn't matter once you graduate you're not on navian anymore you if you transfer you're going to go through a different process uh if you transfer from college so for example I was just talking to somebody today who is back and is going to go to a different college is in is applying but we're not involved in that anymore because he's a graduate um so again I just think it's one way of kind of keeping all of your college information in one place um and then if you decide you know I don't want to go to BC anymore we'll just block BC on your email and that will go to spam but you want to keep Emerson just keep that coming so um again just a little hint that'll make I think the lives of the students and the lives of the parents a lot easier so here Common App cheat sheet um I will be posting and some of these are already on the Google classroom for the students but these are all little um videos that you can click on and watch to show how to create a common app account um basically goes through the entire Common App tutorial how do you add colleges how do you link the Common App in Navi account and again I know there are students in different places right now and there are some that are like I really haven't even thought about it so I need to start looking some are already creating that list and some AR like nope I want to get everything all set up um so linking the Common App and the Naviance is something we will be doing with the students in September we'll be going over again the Common App account how to set one up all of that because some students may not be at the point to do that until then but for those students that are ready they have their list they want to start going um I believe August 1 is when commona opens up for the next uh senior class where they can start uploading and doing all that kind of stuff um and then the navian uh link is there also in case you need it but again I think you know taking this time time to talk to your teachers or to your coaches or to whoever you know you're going to get a a letter of wreck from it's an important thing to do making sure you really narrow down like we said we're working with the uh students on their their uh essays uh But continuing to work over the summer I believe you can still set up your account correct um in the summer Miss Pro so get that get that Common App going um and again taking little bites versus trying to take giant bites while you're starting new classes and so forth so even if you're not 100% sure I'm still looking at colleges I'm going to use the somewhere to do that you can put a college on your you know colleges I'm thinking about and then down the road after you visited a couple of times or once and said never mind um that's not for me or boy I looked at Naviance and I realized that my GPA and SAT scores are nowhere near where they need to be so I better take that one off um you know or they don't have the major I've decided on that's all fine and good but again trying to start early and taking little pieces is really the best way to go and so one of the things we talked about is what Mrs Cy has brought up a couple times is letter of recommendations that's definitely something that students should and could do right now um they don't need to know where they're going or where they're applying to uh to be able to get the letter of wreck first they really need to have that face to-face conversation uh we we're saying with at least two teachers the colleges once you put them into Naviance you will see and also in common app it will tell you exactly how many letters you need if it says two do not request five all five will not go and the colleges don't want more than what they say um so you really want to make sure you're asking for the right amount and again if you're unsure about where you're going at this point or where you're applying to and how many that you need to is a good place to start and we tell the students to go have the face to-face conversation with them and then they need to submit it through Naviance and again I've sent out the um the video clip on how to do that they can always come down to guidance and meet with me or another guidance counselor um but it's a very simple and easy process and then the navian will send an email to the teacher and they'll upload it that way um so that's how that happens there is a brag sheet that's posted on Google Docs it's there right now in the Google classro for students they can go in and print it out and fill it out some teachers ask for the brag sheet some are like nope I'm all SAT but the guidance counselor will need the brag sheet for our letter of rack so that is again something you can do over the summer you do not need to request the counselor letter of recommendation through naviant that is something in September we're going to have one-on-one conversations with all the seniors and we'll be seeing you know here's your brag sheet are you making sure you did you did this make sure you put enough information in and then they just share it with us so that's all we need um and then the other thing is sometimes students do ask people that are outside of Norton High School we cannot submit those letters through Naviance so if a student does ask some somebody else like a a coach or um one of their managers or anybody else that they've ever worked with they need to either give them the email of the admissions counselor at the school or they need to give them like a stamped letter uh envelope that it can go in and be sealed everything being sent to the college needs to be sealed it can't be that the student hands in their own letter of wreck and I think it's important the brag sheet is you know our way of kind of getting your resume so to speak right getting all that information um so making sure that your student really is thinking carefully about what they're putting on there they may forget right oh I'm a I'm an alter boy um you know they don't think to put that on oh I put on my you know my stuff about school but think about those things that that a teacher or a guidance counselor might not know of um or they're like oh you know Miss BR knows I'm part of the honors Society well there's 200 kids that we're trying to keep track of um she may have known that because she had a conversation with you in October but of this year doesn't mean that she's gonna remember that come September of next year so making sure they list that stuff out both what's happening in school and then especially things outside of school um you know a lot of teachers won't ask you for it but it's okay to give it to them when you when you talk to them uh and we definitely said a face to-face conversation is is really important um but we also know parents I'm sure you know that right now our kids sometimes struggle with those face-to-face conversations so um a you know they'll consider it a conversation if they you know swing by a teacher's room uh just about before class is starting and says you know hey would you mind doing a letter of recommendation for me that might be enough but if that's the case I think every time you have a face-to-face conversation and a teacher agrees sending them a thank you email and that's also a reminder oh yeah I have to add that you know this Pro you know um I'm a teacher oh Johnny just reminded me I got to put that on my list um some teachers also some of our very um should I say popular teachers or teachers who have lots of kids um in different classes U they get lots and lots of requests um and sometimes they have to uh basically say yeah I can't do anymore you know somebody like Mr Dr kefir for example um if he did every single email I mean every single request he got especially when he's an English teacher um that would have been a full-time job for him in the fall so um you know and then think about the teachers that really know you well um or teachers that are related to maybe the field that you're going to go into those are just teachers that have seen you grow in some aspect or overcome some sort of challenge that's that's a huge thing too and then also on the brag sheet there is a section um for parents to fill out we say the more the better and for parents too A lot of times like Mr Cersei said the students don't think of something or they don't really want to talk about themselves and sometimes this is a way for parents to kind of showcase what their student has done and it may be things that were unaware of or something that was you know really great that they did and it may have been like freshman or sophomore year so it was kind of a few years ago and oh my goodness yes that's right so um it's a good place to kind of just put in as much as you possibly can it's better to have too much than not enough the not enough is makes it very hard and then again just a link for the tutorial on how to request a letter of rck and Naviance and we do ask the students to at least give people two weeks prior notice to your first deadline so typically if it's October 15th you don't you only have to do the letters of wreck in the brag sheet once and it's going to cover you for the whole year but we've had students in the past come up to us oh I forgot to uh give you my brag sheet and my deadline is tomorrow and sometimes like we can't do that or they're trying to come to the office we're in meetings and they can't get uh in touch with us and they've just waited too long and so it's really you know we'll try our best but it's really that two weeks is a huge deal um also that's another reason why too the teachers if we ask them now a lot of them like to get them done over the summer so um students can give brag sheets too um I've had them at the end of the year that's fine as well okay so talk just a little bit about um about SAT and ACT scores um and it's whoops it is the um responsibility of the student um to choose the score the schools that they're going to want to send their scores to um so if you are taking an SAT we can't send those scores um and that's the same when it goes for those who are interested in playing a sport um if you are somebody who especially if you're thinking division one or division two but really anybody who's going to go through um and think they're going to play a college sport you're going to need to go through the NCAA portal um eligibility portal and you need to send your sat or ACT scores to them as well so just like you know when you go into the SATs just s of set up okay here's the schools I'm going to send my my scores to um one of those options is the NCAA portal so make sure you do that if students who have questions about the NCAA they can come and see me or email me and I'll help them through that the other big piece is for those students that are have a 504 or an IEP um in order to get accommodations through the College Board um you have to request that and they actually approve them that is you know just because it's on a 504 an IP doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get them so the way to do that again is to talk to your guidance counselors but also email me directly and say I would like to um you know get my accommodations for the SAT the act or um for those who taking AP the AP um there's a whole process that I have to do one is getting a signature from either a student who's over 18 they have to sign for themselves or from a parent um it's pretty simple form but the form does have to be signed and documented um and then I have to go through a process on the College Board website um to upload some of the materials um answer some questions and then what happens from there takes about anywhere between six and eight weeks for those um accommodations to get approved so if you're planning on taking um your SATs next either in the if you're GNA plan on taking them in August I'm going to really need you to do that now so reach out to your guidance counsel or reach out to me directly um and I can get you that information um as it says sorry go ahead no no no I was going to say I if I didn't know if you were done but um a lot of students that don't do well on the SATs they tend to do a little bit better on the acts so if you didn't get the score that you were looking for in the SAT I would try the ACT um the questions are asked differently the number of um options answers are are different there's a science portion so it's just a completely different test so students do tend to do a little bit better on that one as well yeah my my son did and it it got him some additional Merit money so he took the SATs he did okay on him but um decided to take the ACT did it once the scores were much better and so these his colleges used those scores and um for some of them that helped with his Merit so absolutely um it's just you know it's kind of the way it's worded for some kids is easier to do that um as it says here you you can do four free scores um so make sure that that you're picking those colleges and then after that it's $12 per report um Act is $13 per report as well um and as it says here the next the next sat date is June 1st um you have to be registered really within the next few weeks and then the ACT is June 8th and register by May 8th you can also Google um sat dates for example uh I don't last time I checked which is about a week and a half ago they not released the August one it said anticipated um so they had not released the dates um but it will give you both if you'll take you right to the College Board for example website it will say when the test is scheduled um when registration deadline is and I think even a late deadline which is an additional fee because College Board likes their fees so um um again as I said it's really important if you want your your accommodations um please make sure that you reach out to me um as I said it takes about eight weeks sometimes a little bit longer and this is also for anybody who's considering AP um if you do not do that or they do not get in on time um you will not get your accommodations um on a few occasions especially very complex situations they may ask me for additional documentation that I may reach out to to parents or students for um for example medical complex medical situation um sometimes they don't take just what we have available they'll ask for additional documentation from a doctor for example um the SAT is now going to be fully digital so those days of um of paper and pencil are over um so uh welcome Todd we're running running a little bit behind I'll try to pick it up um so the SAT is now digital um and we'll be moving forward uh we had a gentleman who used to do an SAT prep course for us for free um once it went digital he felt there was enough uh information and ways to practice um both usually directly through the College Board um that he felt that the what he could offer really was not worth the the the time um he felt that there's enough ways to practice uh online now um the real advantage of any kind of practice Beyond s of some of the hints around the testing what has proven out uh is just doing the practice tests those are if you want to increase your scores that is the best way to do that I know no you know high school kid wants to sit down for a few hours on on a Sunny June day or July day and do that so pick a rainy day I guess um and do the practice test it is absolutely the best one of the best ways to uh improve your scores however there are um Bridgewater State actually um now the Todd's with us is running um email that out too to everybody and I just sent it out about an hour ago maybe an hour and a half ago to all the parents so um there there are other opportunities out there and I think what they'll do there is talk to you a little bit about the the tricks of the trade so to speak um but again it's a kind of a structured way for people to make sure their kids are doing the practice so um there are uh colleges that are still test optional um so you know you need to think about that however what we're hearing and seeing is fewer and fewer colleges are sticking with the test optional and I'm not sure if Todd's going to talk about that later on or not but um we're definitely seeing s of the um I always hate to use this term but the top tier schools you the Ivy Leagues and in those kinds of folks the north Easterns like they're we we're either seeing or hearing that they're going to go back to the testing format so however if it is a school that is test optional um you really need to think about that in terms of you know how's your GPA what kinds of leadership roles have you had have you shown good academic performance over over the prior three years um including growth right I think that's really important we hear that over and over again that it's okay so you you know you started here as a freshman but each year you got stronger your grades got better and you took more challenging classes that I I know is one of the things that we've heard from schools that you know consider tests optional again if your tests are good take them and if you do well I don't think it hurts to send them but if you're just somebody who doesn't do well with tests um then this is actually a way to go but you have sorry I was gonna say if you also take them and you send them to the schools in those free um submissions and you don't like your scores you can always take them back so you can always call the school and say I don't want my scores to be um in my application and I've had a couple kids actually do that and I've had one school reach out to me and ask me to ask a student to do that um because they wanted to accept the student but because of the SAT scores they couldn't so they said can you just have him email us and withdraw his scores the other thing I would say too is even this though the school may be test optional the program that you're applying to may not be so if it's like an engineering program they may want you to take the SATs but the school itself may be test optional so you really need to know um the requirements and I think again we you know as guidance counselors and guidance um departments do our very best to stay up on top of all of this but that the the hard reality is there's you know thousands upon thousands of schools um they um change they change their requirements and their their um you know kind of what what they do uh more frequently than you would think and then as as Miss PR pointed out it can change Department to Department um it's the same with like AP scores you know for example like um some some uh schools will accept in general let's say a three but their engineering says you have to have a five in in that particular let's say calculus um so again we we will do our best to guide people but what I really can't stress enough is the student and and if you have um a vested interest as a parent um making sure you get into those websites the schools you're seriously going to apply to and reading the materials on the really reading the information on the uh Mission site the go over to the department make sure you read about that and then if you have any questions at all I find it interesting and I know kids hate to talk on the phone um that that to to call the admissions Department have a conversations with your admissions person um in in a lot of ways getting your an your questions answers but you're also going to stand out a little bit as well because you're going to be somebody that actually reached out and had a conversation that's wild um or at the very least email somebody and ask the questions if you're not sure it's better safe than sorry so um again I can't stress enough the need to make those connections to go out and visit the program to have conversations with with the you know the admissions reps with the if you have an opportunity to meet professors or or or heads of departments in particular um you know offerings Majors that that you're interested in it it makes a world of difference um Selective Service this is just a reminder um from for males over 48 um you're going to need to register with the Selective Service uh within 30 days of your birthday um this protects you although I've heard some inkling that this may not be a thing for very much longer but as far as I know it is still part of the um benefits for you know U Federal loans and so forth so um as of right now this is still something that you need to do um so um for our young men out there who are looking to get federal or the possibility of federal a you will need to do this no it's still me sorry sorry Jen all right um so get connected and and and Todd's going to talk a lot more about this um so I'm not going to go too deep into this but um yes you want to get into a college and yes you need the colleges but what I'm going to tell you is the colleges need you too um because right now there's there's more openings and than there are kids right um so you know obviously they're going to look for the best student for them but they're also um you have a right this is a lot of money this is a lot of time this is this is probably the most important decision um that any student and and has made and one of the most important decisions any family has made so make sure you really understand what what it is you're you're getting yourself into by having conversations getting out and visiting um and making sure that these schools know that you're interested um and again I'm sure Todd will talk about this but you know they're getting lots and lots especially really competitive schools right they get lots and lots of applications they're trying to figure out right who is actually really interested right they don't want to be the backup school or the safety school they want to try to figure out am I one of the top Warner two and if you're really interested in that school it's a top one and two get out there get on their website sign up for their stuff go to their open houses um do the tours ask for an interview or a student shadow if they allow for that um make sure you're on their social media um you know get connected that'll help you make a better decision because you really have a feel for it it always scares me when I have kids that are apply to a school um or even accept their accept the offer and I'm like well how many times have you been on campus uh I walked through it once or I've never actually gone there I'm like oh good lord um that's a big commitment so get out there this is the time of the year to do it um you know be on campus in a number of different situations look for things that are important to you are there you know if you're big into hey I want a vibrant campus are there students out and about on a nice sunny day right to me that's a big piece of it um you know how how are they connected do do they look like people are enjoying themselves and they're friendly when you go to uh an open house are the professors engaging you you know those are the kinds of things you you want to really get to to think about so those are just some things we we think are important at this point all right so hope you aren't kind of feeling overwhelmed I know there was a lot that we kind of threw at you so we're just going to kind of bullet it down really quickly so this fall and winter um we've talked about students researching colleges and careers going on campus tours uh talk to them about the sh or the act and studying for those kind of things this spring and summer really what they need to begin doing is adding schools to colleges I'm thinking about begin those letters of recommendation those requests and we would say at this point two teachers Max in most cases and then to begin to work on that college essay which again they're they are doing um build a resume complete the brag sheet talk to your family about your plans the college budget because that's huge right um I don't think any student themselves is making this decision independently it's a family decision um so a lot of things to take into account and then continue to tour and visit schools find out what you like what you don't like uh where you want to be where you don't want to be and I think one of the important things too in um is you when you talk about college budget and so forth have your budget but don't automatically rule out a school based on the sticker price because often times the sticker price isn't the sticker price um depending on your kind of ability to get Merit Scholarships um and and so forth so you know obviously you can kind of tell based on your GPA and your your SAT scores and so forth kind of where you fit but if you're at a college that's $80,000 but you really are at the top in terms of your GPA and other things um you know you're not going to pay $80,000 so um you know I wouldn't I wouldn't rule out just based on sticker price um but I think it's also important to say here's our reality if you're looking to go to college a but but if they don't get below such and such number then we can't afford it or you're going to have to take out lots of loans um and I think for parents um out there having those real hard conversations and helping kids understand really understand what it means to take out a College loan um how long they have to pay how much they're going to have to pay what $20,000 is going to turn into by the end of that based on interest like they I can't tell you how many kids just really don't understand that process so um having those kinds of conversations is really important and then looking ahead to the fall of next year we're going to have presentations like we've done we've also are going to have LLB lessons on like I said matching Naviance and common app again going over requesting the letters of recommendation how to submit transcripts we'll be doing that that sort of thing um we'll also be having individual appointments so we get through everybody and then we'll keep meeting with them all throughout the fall and into the winter for all different portions of the college application process um the one thing I will say is if a student is is struggling or has questions don't wait for those individual appointments have them reach out to us um we can set up an appointment anytime that they need so if they're like ah they're all going to meet with the seniors you know in two weeks don't wait like we can definitely fit you in before your a lotted time um the SAT is now digital and then again just to remind you if you need accommodations to um talk to the guidance counselor we'll put in touch with Mr Cersei and then you need to complete the appropriate forms and then finally one thing that we should add on to this um NCAA so if you're again looking to to play a sport there's there's a couple of things you need to do definitely have to get into the uh portal they go the portal the eligibility center um you'll need to create an account again the student will need to create create an account um let me know um and then what happens is I usually send out either the first either the end of junior year um in or the beginning of senior year I'll I'll upload their transcripts some um college coaches will ask for those sooner um but I can only upload two so just make sure they're aware of that so I've had you know very excitable college coaches asked for the junior transcript you know in October of their junior year that's great but the only one I can upload after that is their senior um end of year you know once they've graduated um so then you're going to have to send them directly any updates to the to the uh coach and to the NCA directly from there um but if you have any questions you can reach out to me directly and I I will help you kind of through that through that process okay and then parents one thing um I will believe half of what they say to us if you believe half of what um they say to you about us too um many times I've heard you know oh nobody met with my you know my kids said nobody met with them nobody's helping them nobody wants to meet with them please understand that is absolutely not the case um we will we will meet with anybody um sometimes we do have to make an appointment um sometimes um the students who have declared for early action um we have to get their theirs uh out sooner because they have a sooner deadline um so we might say you know let's yeah I I can't do it this week but we'll do it next week um that doesn't mean we won't meet with you it just means we need to make it a week later um in that uh or we will tell them you need to do a b and c and here's your deadlines and then they don't get to those deadlines and then they go home and say we didn't beat with um with them about it um so uh if you have questions if you're not sure if you're like wait nobody met with my kid please reach out to us um I promise you that we will meet with you we will meet with them we will meet with you we'll answer whatever questions if we don't know the answer um I can't tell you how many times Miss PR has reached out to uh colleges uh individually to talk about either individual kids or about individual questions happens all the time Todd knows that we call him quite often um just a Bridgewater um the other thing is not college is not for everybody and I know some people that are watching this or on this call May May um understand that or or maybe in the police gez I don't know um we do have other things going on um we do have connections to unions we do have some trades um folks that we work work with we have absolutely wonderful school to Career specialist Miss Kay um will help kids um look through in in sort of do some some exploration around uh other uh either their major and or other work opportunities uh for students that are interested in the military we do have the military come out um we have a young man who's graduating this year for example who's joining the Army and he's going to be a linguist uh he's going to get fully trained to uh he's hoping to speak Russian and maybe one other language um you know that's a career in and of itself in the military if he decides to stay but he has quite a valuable skill set in four years if he decides not to stay so we we have lots of different ways U we understand especially nowadays with um costs and so forth that this may not be for everybody we don't want people just going to college because that that's what all their friends are doing we really want it to be a valuable experience for them um and if there's something else they'd like to EXP we will do our we're not we're not a votech school but we will do whatever we can um to support them uh in exploring other opportunities um so again just some things that uh additional Sports um this is a great way to um US Department of Education scoreboard you can go in there and kind of look at the different schools get a feel for how they rank um acceptance all all of the things you're going to want to compare Naviance does that as well and the kids have been showing how to go about that kind of weird they fit um we talked about that in part one of this back in the fall as I already mentioned we have a schooled career specialist Miss Kay uh who's wonderful will absolutely work with you um and work with the students around uh anything um to do with College and Career um and as well as school and um school and career um site visits Shadow Days conversations internships work study all of those kinds of things um the the guidance Department on the high school website has lots of information um videos that we've done in the past things around uh financial aid all of all of the stuff um uh is up there um so please feel free to to go there and find stuff and then we do have a College Planning guide um on the the website as well um and that is a literally Soup To Nuts um covers all aspects of um of the the process uh including some very specific things like uh first language English language learner information uh and a variety of things so um that is quite the read but you there's a lots of uh links uh quick links so if you're like geeez I just want to find out about this you can just go there and click onto that you don't have to scroll through the whole the whole thing so those are just some some ways of uh getting additional support um and so before we move on to Todd from uh Bridgewater State and and is a perspective on from the colleges I just want to see if there's anybody online that has any particular questions for Miss Brew or myself I'm going to be staying on I'm gonna let Miss prug go be with her family um she's got young ones I do not um so um if there's any questions for right now please throw them into the Q&A or the chat um not seeing any I'm going to stop sharing I'm going to thank Miss PR for her time tonight and and being away from her family um and uh again she's there now folks so please um if you have questions reach out to her any of the guidance counsels be happy to to help you through the process and I've met with tons of families that have come in and the parents just want me to sit down with them so feel free absolutely so all right Jen go be with those little ones and with that I'm GNA welcome Todd and Todd I always hack up your name so I'm gonna let you say your last name because no matter how many times you tell me I mess it up so um I'll let you say your your your full name um but Todd has been with us I don't even know I'm on year six and I think you've been with me every year doing some version of this so uh I can't thank you enough uh and I I think even your titles may have changed since I over the years as well so um I again I want to thank you for for your time as always and for supporting us in our families um I think it's important to hear you know they kind of hear from us the last two presentations J are kind of on the process um but I think times are changing um and um I think people's perspectives on colleges and and The Whens and the where and the hows are changing as well so I think it's important for you to kind of get that information out to folks and that's why I've asked you to to do this every year with us um and it's always with um we've heard very positive things so I don't know if I think you can share your screen but let me double check while you're in while you're introducing yourself I'll see if I can you all set up to go uh yeah it says host disabled participant screen sharing all right so I don't know if you make me a co-host that would work that should yeah that looked like it did something Perfect Look at that I figured it out after all these years I love it all right situate on my slide back here perfect okay well thank you very much for having me back at Norton High School this is always a a pleasure and uh so I'm here from Bridgewater State University tonight but I'm not going to be speaking specifically about Bridgewater State University so I am going to take the broader View and share with you guys uh some tips for your college search in addition to what you've already heard tonight and they're going to be tips both from my perspective as an associate dean of admission but also as a dad of three kids of course I call them kids two of them are currently in college and my youngest is in fact a junior in high school I say that because I'm literally in the trenches right alongside of the guys so I'll try to share information through that lens as well and I know having been through this twice now already that the col search process can be pretty overwhelming there's a lot of buildup to this and there are a lot of options you know I know a lot of students stress out about getting in and I'm gonna tell you right now you're gonna get into places and you know think about it instead uh as a question of where it is you want to go because you do have options I mean we've got more than well almost 3,000 four-year colleges and universities in this country alone right and you can also go to another country for your college education so it can be overwhelming to to sort of wrap your arms around all of those possibilities and Whittle it down to a scale that's more manageable for you so I like to start off by sharing with you guys what I call the Goldilocks College search criteria I won't get into much detail here but I will show you on the screen very quickly what I'm talking about in terms of criteria because again I have had this personal experience and I know too often times students will get hung up on the major as the key point to how they they approach the college search process process and don't get me wrong students if you know what it is you want to do with the rest of your life that's amazing right and you should pursue that but at the same time if there are students here who aren't quite sure what you want to do with the rest of your life that's okay too and I'm gonna apologize now if you haven't heard that nearly often enough I'll put that into perspective for you guys real quick here before I talk about the rest of the criteria quickly here Bridgewater if undecided was its own major it would be the most popular major for incoming freshman by double the next closest okay ours is about 16% of incoming freshmen I've seen numbers at other schools well into the 20% range and so don't freak out about it you if you don't know what you want to study it frees you up to focus on all these other criteria you see on the screen right find a place that's otherwise a good fit and then go and all the courses that you take as an undecided student still count towards your degree because you have in most places about a third of courses which are required general education courses still have to take English and math and science and social studies so on and so forth right get those out of the way it's the second third that are related to your major and then you have a final third that's just electives like things you're interested in that's where you can double major major minor change your major Midway through college and still get out in four years so you get to try before you buy don't freak out about major but also pay attention to some of these other things right and I say Goldie locks College search because each of these roughly can be thrown into a three category scheme size obvious right you got small medium and large but location is a little less obvious like how far from your home of origin do you want to go to school so first option would be close to home things make you feel warm and safe and comfortable easy driving distance back and forth in a day right got 110 colleges and universities in this state alone all right so the second option is maybe you're a little more adventurous you're willing to go to the other side of the state Maybe you're willing to go to an entirely different state the third option using our goldilock approach is some students want to get as far away as humanly possible from the home of origin that's an option too as I said you can literally go to another country so you know think about each of these criteria they relate to students as you get out there and start touring places and things like that keep an open mind but also keep a running record of you know size it's a good fit you know you like an urban setting then you go and then you don't like an urban setting so just try to keep track of these variables and it helps you kind of Whittle down the universal possibilities for yourself so some tips on how to refine your initial research and building your list of schools where you think you might want to apply the first and most obvious place is family family and friends now if you come from a family where other people have already gone to college use them as a resource and certainly friends you know friends ahead of you in Norton High School who have gone off to somewhere get their feedback because chances are if these are people who are close to you and you have a lot otherwise in with them you may have similar opinions and so at least this is a jumping off point for you I do add a word of caution however because you know you ask enough people you're gonna get enough opinions and ultimately you're gonna have to get out there and see it for yourself right um but family and friends can be a good resource at least in the early stages teachers and counselors they all have degrees they all went someplace they all know you pretty well by now right in your junior in high school so use them as a resource too certainly your school counselors have a wealth of information you guys have a great staff there in high school so use those resources too and then I mean students these days now I really do sound old but students these days have a tremendous amount of resources I mean I think back in the day Mr cersi can back me up on this we did our College search it was like the Princeton Review it was about this thick I would say it's as thick as a phone book but the students wouldn't know what that was either right it was about this thick it had every college and university in the country in the details and that was about the extent of your research that was it that's all we had um but you guys can go online use big future n on which is used in Orton High you know Career Cruising there's a ton of resources out there so we also had to type them on a real typewriter yes I'm old enough to upet I had to do each and every one on a real typewriter that's how I memorize my social security number college applications exactly right yeah so so you use these electric electronic Resources by all means so as you're putting together your list let's talk about next steps in the college search process and and uh and so there's there's three types types of uh you know uh research options you have here Beyond just the the paper and the electronic getting out there and doing some some work so there are electronic Outreach options there are in-person engagements and finally campus visits so we'll drill down into each of these three categories with some specifics for you so usually the first step for students is to start filling out inquiry forms whether they're online on the University's website or the paper versions that you might pick up at College fairs which we'll talk about a little bit later but this is like the Gateway activity so we as universities once you've taken the SAT or the PSAT you know we buy names from them based on criteria and so forth but this is really your first opportunity to to put yourself in the driver's seat and and exercise some agency here so go to the websites it's usually you know more information or something the typically top Navar type dropdown options uh and fill out the forms and then what that does is it puts you on our mailing list okay and you receive all these lovely Publications actually I got to update this photo we just updated all of our Publications but it gives you an idea right you're G to get this stuff promotional stuff about various colleges and universities which again drives at your doorstep allows you to kind of digest things and small increments as you go through the process and it gives you some insights about how these institutions want to present themselves so my advice here though however is that you should absolutely set up a separate email account specifically for the college search process Gmail accounts are free and so create a a Gmail account students that you're going to use just for when you fill out these forms and when you also fill out the common application or other online applications and so forth so use this as your window specifically into the college search process so it doesn't clutter up your day-to-day stuff and you know when you go to that you're going to for specific purpose to organize just your communication with institutions my piece of advice is students allow your parents to have access to that account and I say that simply because this is a this is a family decision and I myself as a parent found it useful to be in the information flow at least in the early stages once you go off and become a student that's I technically your business if you're over 18 although we may still be paying the bills but it's technically your business but I I know it is helpful to keep track of you know deadlines and all this other stuff so and so that you can be waiting through the same information flow together as you start to pull your list together and and send applications out and of course you know subscribe to social media channels there is a plethora of them you know you see the icons on the screen and I still use the bird I refuse to use the X I don't care what that Maniac calls this company before he runs it into the ground but I'm using the bird so in any case sign up because again students it's going to give you information about these institutions where you live you know you're living in your device and on your social media platforms and we're also able to tailor the information more to that medium in a way that really resonates with you and can give you the student level perspective on a place so subscribe and some schools may actually track whether you subscribed to the social media channels we'll talk a little bit about that uh later um but you know it's it's a nice and easy low lift touch point for you to engage in we I I don't know if this is true Tau or not but I've heard that it's not just whether you're tracking that you've signed in but actually if you're on for any length of time yeah so I don't know if that's true but I've advise kids like if you're you're really into the school and you're really into that department even if you're not reading everything you know you're watching TV or scrolling on your phone move your mouse around for 20 minutes or so every once in a while yeah yeah certainly on websites we do I think with social media if you're liking their posts and stuff like that or even comment and so forth you know some schools get get that specific in terms of their tracking student interest so yeah it can't hurtt can't hurt like you said if you're on there already um yeah it's worth it's worth doing virtual tours this is another electronic option uh not so prevalent prior to the pandemic and it's everywhere now and so this is a really nice way for you to get a feel for a place before you invest the time and the money into physically going out there um so it gives you you know it gives you a very um canned perspective on a place but it's still the actual campus right so you get to at least see the Highlight Reel so it's it's worth checking those out too and as I said those should be uh readily obvious either on the University's homepage or certainly on the landing page for the admissions office those are easy to find so let's transition from the virtual to the actual uh because this is this is such a key part to the admissions process because you know so much of it seems dehumanized right you you get boiled down to a GPA and perhaps to a standardized test score and so forth but at the end of the day it's people admitting people to become members of a community of people right so we don't want to lose the people perspective on this either so uh definitely pay attention to this the First Act first iners personal interaction that you have with admissions folks most likely are high school visits so all of us colleges and universities will make appointments with your school counseling office for specific dates and time where we will go and you guys will be advertised those opportunities you sign up you come down you get actually to speak to a real life person from the University I will tell you in very many cases it might be the actual person who does the initial reading on your application so it does pay to make that that that kind of you know person-to person contact just anecdotally my oldest son when he went through the um college application process ended up uh very astutely developing a nice rapport with the admissions counselor who visited his school who he then also saw at a college fair uh who he made a point of emailing out uh during the admissions process and uh it was his first First Choice he might have been a bubble kid and he got in I mean he got it I don't know how much weight you might put on that but it certainly does not hurt um so uh take advantage of this it's also an opportunity for you to be able to get your questions answered in real time and so you know you definitely want to do that excuse me as well so did I interrupt this I want to stress again because I know we this is you know a lot of parents on this um please please please addess to your students to show up and sign up for the missions rep uh visits um we run them almost uh at least two or three times a week um it feels like through the fall um even if they've already applied it's still an important piece um get in there you know spend a few minutes have a conversation make those connections I have a very similar story in that um you know my son not he he went to the admissions visit um later on uh when there was a uh we have our college fair that college fair that college was at our college fair in the fall he asked to volunteer to be one of the students that that um you know helped set up and helped get reps where they needed to be um he wore two different uh versions of bling he had a he had a um a keychain kind of thing that was for one school and he um had a shirt underneath another shirt um that he wore and so when he escorted one he made made sure that was hanging out made sure the other one um heus you wouldn't know it but he's a marketing entrepreneur person now who knew um but the interesting piece was the person um when we went to accepted students day remembered him actually said oh you were at nordon high you escorted me I remember you had um the the lanyard um we had to go back and um ask for more money which I know doesn't usually happen he saw her he went up she took him over to the person and they ended up giving him money and that's where he went to college so um it's you know if you told me before all this I would have said N I don't know about all that I saw it happen in real time it it not saying it's gonna happen every time but it is something that happens yeah 100% no and that's a great story and I think it really does speak to the the power of that personal connection it helps without a doubt um so some questions you might want to keep in mind if you do have the opportunity to do uh to see an ad Mission uh counselor at a at a high school visit some questions you could ask so you know what do what do students like most about your school hopefully the person you're meeting with will be able to speak to that uh to some degree what is what a students mostly live on campus or off campus it might be information that you could find if you did a little bit of digging but certainly the person you're talking to should have that number off the top of their head what majors are the most popular uh doesn't always mean they're the best Majors but you know it gives you an indication you know where the institutional focuses and where uh the types of student students who would be attending that institution what they're interested in what do students do during the weekend is there anybody around on the weekend that kind of question is always useful especially if you are going to a school where you're living on campus right and you want to make sure that you're not abandoned in the residence all all by yourself and how accessible are faculty outside of the classroom and uh are the admission decisions based on just GPA and test scores or do other things matter you know and so this I I recommend this kind of an approach to questions like because if you simply ask what's the average GPA and so forth you you may or may not get a useful answer what you want to know essentially is you know uh how is this put into context what you know you know what your gr point average is and chances are if you have Naviance you can see the Scatter Plots but you know it's those things that kind of weigh in that gray area on the scatter plot where you go how did that kid get in like you they'll tell you you know what other things will they take into consideration that you don't necessarily see on the screen when you log into be on so those are good questions and of course you know what GPA is required for merit scholarship I know Mr Cersei mentioned earlier you know if you're at the top of the GPA range for those admitted students most places will tell you at least ballpark I mean we're very transparent in the sense that it's it's on our website um other schools maybe not so much but if you ask you may find out and that can be very useful information for you anticipating you know what you uh what you might be paying well before you end up getting admitted or even your financial aid packages and of course if you have the opportunity attend a college fair Norton hosts one we are hosting uh another uh New England Regional college fair I say New England Regional because that's our professional association of course but we have colleges and universities from around the country uh coming this year it'll be May 30th and uh we run a couple of sessions I believe you guys uh are bringing a group of students so make sure that you sign up uh for that if you haven't already and it gives you an opportunity we could have well more than 110 different colleges and universities set up at TBL very similar to what you see here on the screen and again May well be the person who reads your actual application and so it gives you a chance to you know kind of efficiently gather information from various schools all at the same place you know the admissions rep will be standing behind the table and available to to answer your questions so give you a couple of tips here about how to negotiate your way through a college fair so we'll talk about logistics talk about how to introduce yourself and we'll talk about some tips on how to interact with the admission counselor from those institutions so in terms of logistics if available grab a map you know certainly uh you know most places will have a layout of schools by table number and so forth if you're getting into a large scale fair that can help you work your way through the through the crowd in a way that makes sense for you try to locate the schools that you've compiled onto your hit list and uh and start with them first before you start wandering the room and uh and and wandering Off Script a bit uh to find some some new and exciting options and my advice is read the table banners because nothing's worse than standing there and having some kid go on and on about how they look bridgport University and like sorry but we're Bridgewater State University and I'm not even sure bridgport is here today um so I've heard horror stories of BC and bu being confused by applicants and they they may they may remember that stuff I I certainly don't I laugh but uh but you know pay attention to the logo before you go on a non fun place because we all have our are straped as you see here on your screen as well so my advice is too don't don't just trick or treat right so by that I mean all these tables are going to have Admissions and materials so brochures uh maybe pens or posters and so forth and inevitably we find students who go by and they're just like filling up their bag just cruising the tables grabbing stuff which is fine I mean it's there to be taken I I I don't care but you're missing an opportunity to really gather some important information and make some connection so uh if all you want is is swag and by all means have at it but uh don't don't miss the opportunity to to make some connections and so when you do stand at the table and you're talking to the person who may review your application some some advice on how to introduce yourself you don't have to be as sve as James Bond right I mean you be yourself don't be something else try to be as authentic as you can and so once at the table my advice is you know first wait your turn there's a lot line of students you know and it's worth waiting hang back let students have their turn get up to the table you you've waited you're patient that shows maturity make eye contact we don't do this nearly often enough most often times it's because our face is in a device but if you're with a person actually try to make eye contact UM and smile you know even if you're nervous My Philosophy is fake it till you make it right if you smiled have actually done research you it fires off the neurochemicals that actually make you happier right and it will calm you down a bit so try to smile be friendly approachable and introduce yourself so you know hi you know my name's Todd uh you know I'm really interested in your University or I'm a junior in Norton I'm really interested in your University and then I'll give you some tips or some questions in a minute and then you know when you're done if comfortable right shake hands that is always amazing to me like if it happens at a t inevitably who's ever standing is going to turn to their admission colleague next to and be like it shook my hand that what a great what a great student you know even if you're not comfortable shaking hands a fist bump something something that formally closes the conversation thanks the person pays respect to that sort of a thing um you know it's again helps you to stand out so interactions is the fair once you've introduced yourself explain why you're interested right you know hopefully if you're at the table you know they have your major so uh you know you can start off at that point um or you can say yeah you know I'm I'm looking at at schools that have you know psychology that are in Massachusetts uh you're on my list you're near the top of my list I'm really excited to to ask you some questions right so it shows you've done your homework you're legitimately interested admission folks love to hear that and if you can and you have plan on visiting a number of different schools try to repeat the same questions at each table and I say that because that allows you to make comparisons from one institution to the next right so if you're interested in a particular uh major or extracurricular activity or housing options and so forth you know compile a data set then allows for comparisons from one place to the other it tends to be useful um and fill out the inquiry cards to get on the mailing list like I was mentioning earlier you know fair so they most likely have a physical card that you can either fill out at the table and hand to the admissions person or take back home and most of them are s mailers uh so you know use that as an opportunity to get on the mailing list also ask for business card like I said this is the person who could be reviewing your application you get their card and again it shows like hey I'm really interested in your institution you know I want to continue this conversation I want to keep in touch that sort of a thing and on the business card obviously are going to be ways to get in touch with them and uh so you shake your shake hands say thank you shake hands again if you feel comfortable doing that and uh take your notes before moving on to the next Booth okay so if you've asked questions you plan on asking the same question you just placed note section on your phones real convenient way to do that if you don't have paper or if you're you're you've gone paper lless like I have so after the fair couple of things go through the materials you've collected review them refine your lists and if you don't like the school please recycle okay so review refine recycle repeat and then uh you know email the representative if you've got their business card email the representative it was really nice meeting you at the college fa North in high school earlier this week I appreciate you answering my questions I'm super excited about your school my family and I are looking at our calendars to find a date to come to your open houses or you know campus tour fill in the blank right and so again helps you to stand out opens up the the channels in case you do have questions and so forth later and they've got some context and they can they can build um a sense of who you are as a person Beyond just the numbers that you're going to end up sending them in the application process and of course as I as a sort of preview a second ago you know at that point go and register for your campus business okay hopefully you're at this point now you've got your college fairs and um in Spring of your junior year and some in in the fall of your senior year but you're ref finding your list and hopefully helping you figure out where are those places that you want to as I said invest the the time and the money in going and visiting so campus visits cannot emphasize how important this is I know Mr Cersei spoke about this earlier you know again this is g to be a huge investment for students and for families and I always say you wouldn't buy a car without test driving right you're going to spend way more on your college education students than you will your first half dozen cars I'm sure okay and so you gotta go and you gotta go kick the tires because if somebody who's in the business I can tell you with 100% certainty we all put pictures of our most beautiful buildings and Shiny Happy People on our websites and social media and brochures you got to go see the place for yourself and when you're going to visit you know it's moving past the facts and figures and it's getting a feel for the place so I have a couple of tips specifically on campus visits for you so we're going to start with the types of visits that are available to you and then we're going to talk about the things you're going to want to see while you're on those visits and the people uh that you're gonna want to talk to while you're there as well so types of visits I got a little chart here and it shows you know if we kind of follow this chart horizontally here it shows how frequent these activities are right and then as we move on the vertical on my chart it shows how more um focused that the those events become okay so frequency and complexity of these of these events so the most frequent and least complex are tours frequent they're probably daily at least Monday through Friday we offer them twice a day I'm sure that's probably pretty typical as well there are occasional Saturday tours and holiday tours and so forth but there going to be a lot of options for you to do tours they're not as complex most cases you're going to show up in a Welcome Center you may have a presentation by a tour guide or somebody on staff maybe not but at the least you're going to have a student LED tour the campus could last anywhere from 60 Minutes to 90 minutes um happens pretty frequently but it's a great introduction to seeing the actual place and allowing you to get a feel next level up in terms of less frequent but a little more complex our info sessions again so most places they may offer just a tour if if you wanted to do a tour and an info session at least here at Bridgewater I do the info sessions on Friday morning it's about a half hour gives another perspective on The Place Beyond what you probably already seen online in print um so those are offered usually a little less frequent but you're getting deeper information a little more complex in terms of the information that you're being provided and at the top of the pyramid here are open houses so open houses for interested students and applicants happen in the fall and then usually there's another set of events in the spring for admitted students but these are really good uh opportunities for you to get in and with a deeper dive so usually just a handful of dates but faculty are involved administrators outside of the admissions office a variety of different student clubs organizations and activities this is usually for us institutions it's the full court press right so everybody's out we've rolled out the red carpet and it gives you a really good sense of the place how it presents itself and some of the offerings that might be interesting to you so you know definitely want to key in on open houses for your top two or three in the fall if you can problem is we all seem to schedule them on the same weekends so inevitably you're gonna have to make some choices um but if you can definitely the the top of your list are those that you're going to want to make an effort to do open houses here um and honestly I've been doing this presentation a couple of times I don't remember what those icons are supposed to be but they're pretty cool so I drop on the slide we're remove them for next time so some things you want to see while you're on campus classrooms and Labs classrooms going to look pretty typical but it'll show you like how up to data the facilities you know the the requisite whiteboards and projectors and all this other stuff interactive technology labs labs can vary from one place to the next certainly if you're a stem student you want to pay attention to the lab facilities and the access to equipment and things of that nature that you're going to be using you're going to want to see residence Halls especially if you're going to live on campus give you a sense of where exactly you're going to be living and dining Halls as well um you know get a sense of how they look how are there long lines does the food look appealing do the students look like they're enjoying the food all of word things you gonna want to pay attention to also yes please let's just be honest right they get they serve up the best food on those days on the open house well it's funny you say that yeah yeah what's what is funny you know we do uh I'm trying to think for our open houses I don't think we change the menu in the dining Halls usually though if they have like a like a a a separate breakfast and stuff like that or lunch just for for students coming in then yeah those are usually pretty decent but but my advice is if you can try to get into the actual dining comments even if you got to pay cash at the door because that's GNA give you a legit sense of like this is how students actually you know so that's always good Intel B but yeah that's that's a good point yeah if it's like a catered event usually the catering menu is uh a little offline from what you're going to see uh in the mes all with the general population so yeah good tip uh you want to check out uh he oh sorry but academic support centers so this isn't just for students who might need special help I'm going to tell you right now almost every student's going to need some kind of help before they graduate because we all we into that one class it's just like a buzz saw on our GPA so you're gonna want to check out the accessibility of those resources you know it doesn't look like it's being utilized by students and things of that nature so you know most tours will show you those facilities uh Health uh and counseling services you know how extensive is the range of Health Services it will vary from one campus to the next you for example here at Bridgewater our health services is basically it's it's an Urgent Care Unit I mean they can do you know examinations they can do stitches we stop short of xay and then we ship students out to the local hospitals for those things and also ask about you know Mental Health Services seems to be you know uh a mental health crisis for young young people these days certainly coming out of the pandemic I think it's worse than ever uh technology doesn't help there's probably a Litany of reasons why students would would need to access uh Mental Health Services either that you can anticipate now or that you can't anticipate that will come up later and the stresses of being away from home uh the academic workload you know getting AC new social setting you know if you haven't given thought to accessibility Mental Health Services absolutely put it on your radar whether you think you might need access to it or not uh and most places will have pretty robust offerings for for students check out the campus bookstore I mean you make a sticker shock both with the items you know with the swag for sale and the Book prices but you know go check it out especially if you're excited about the place you know get an early uh coffee mug or something they you know kind of Build Your Enthusiasm going into the application process and if you're involved if you're physically involved athletically involved go check out those facilities too uh as well as the surrounding Community this is always an important aspect too you know a lot of campuses might be beautiful campuses they might be safe campuses but they're in an oasis in the middle of chaos or um you know they're out in the middle of nowhere those sorts of things so you know um students if you're if you're going to school away from home and you're living on campus the campus itself is important but you're eventually going to wander out into the larger community so you know be mindful of that as well as you're coming in and out those sorts of things so sorry hopefully maybe you're going to cover this but I just want to make sure too like uh student services for are you planning on saying anything I don't want to interrupt you if you are but so I talked about like academic support but other services that you want yeah like maybe have like a 504 or like those kinds of things make sure you have a conversation with the Department is I mean they call them different things but usually Department of student support or something along those lines if you have something like that um absolutely yeah I'll just again kind of a personal story my daughter needed some of that you had a kind somewhat of a complex medical situation um we found that some were um very engaging and very supportive and others were more like well yeah you can talk to your professor about that we'll we'll document it um so I think it really depends I mean you know um if you're in that situation to really make sure you have those those conversations because it um it does fall on the student even in the most of supportive situations uh it's very different for students and parents something that I think some parents especially if they're used to it struggle with in terms of you know the parents not emailing the professor to ask for that extension or to explain that they were in the hospital getting a you know that that all has to come through the student student has to have a conversation um and so if there're somebody who's not used to S of self advocating making sure they have a a student support center that will kind of help them learn how to self Advocate I think is really important oh 100% I I appreciate you bringing that up too I I guess I didn't realize there was such a wide range in terms of the willingness to engage with students I just look through I mean my alma was very accommodating it was the State University here Massachusetts Bridgewater is and yeah I appreciate you pointing that out that that's something that folks will need to be attuned to that's that's something you feel like you want to gain access to and it my advice is always disclosed during the application process no one can use that against you uh you know I know some students have reluctance to disclose um and what it does at least for us is it allows us to be able to flag you in the system so that if you are admitted like we have a whole open house just for students who are going to uh uh have access to our student uh Services Center and so you know you want to be on their radar because you want to make sure you at least aware of what's available to you and how to access it even if you don't think you're going to use it initially right because again you don't want to be in academic crisis mode and then have to be searching for this stuff you want to make sure that you've had those conversations you're aware of the accommodations that you need that you can gain access to and how you access them quickly uh before uh before things get out of out of hand academically so no thank you that's great advice great advice so some quick bonus tips for campus visits for you so pay attention to campus media you know you have an opportunity I always make an effort to pick up the school newspaper it's published by students so you really get the students perspective on places and if there are issues that students have with the campus you're going to read them there trust me trust me so definitely pay attention to to the campus media so campus newspapers any student Publications and bulletin boards you know like people say oh we have you know 600 clubs and organizations I don't see any sign of any of them anywhere around here right so if it's a legit you know campus organization student organization they're going to be posting things on bulleted boards and get to see the types of events that they actually have on that campus that that you might be able to get involved with that as a student there and use your phone I know this doesn't sound like typical advice from an adult right but use your phone while you're on visits um for very specific reasons right to to bring a new list of questions you know separate from what you might have asked during the college fair you know things that are more specific to uh to the level of information that you need to obtain to be refining your list and so forth so bring some new questions your phone Al also allows you to record Impressions and feelings because I can tell you if you're going to tour any more than just a handful of colleges and universities it's GNA get pretty pretty muddled up in your memory so you know making initial Impressions like you know you walk by the the dining hall food smelled great students looked happy you know what I mean that kind of a thing or um uh you know um academic supports in the dang dark basement people look angry you know what I mean that kind of thing and also take photos too you know pictures of facilities inside and out because again we put the best ones out there guys so use your pH use your camera uh you know on your phone to take actual impression things that either stand out as like oh boy that looks awful or hey this is another really cool aspect of this place I'm going to want to remember that that was here and not at the other six schools that I might visit in the course of my tours so so use your phone as a resource and talk to people absolutely talk to people interview with admissions uh if you have the opportunity while you're there um make an appointment with a professor or the department chair of whatever it is you think you want to major in if you're going to do this don't wait till the day of because faculty schedules are out of sync with regular business hours and so they have very specific office hours and if you email them ahead of time and you ask politely they may depending on the time of year be able to schedule some time with you while you're on campus and I say depending on the time of year because I know we've had situations where students have tried to connect with faculty and we're in the middle of like advising period to pick classes for the next semester and you know when we follow up with faculty about like listen I I gotta my priori is the students who work here who are paying to be here with me I will meet with other students at other times but at that point and I have to respect that right so you know plan ahead of time but if if possible try to schedule an appointment with a professor in the department uh where you're interested in enrolling contact a coach certainly if you're going to be a prospective student athlete contact the coach uh or a club adviser if it's a club sport but speak to students not just the tour guide engage with a tour guide but if you have time uh before after the tour try to spark up a convers ation with students that you see walking around campus um whether they talk to you or not it's a pretty good indication of how friendly the campus is too right and uh if you know of a student from Norton who is at the school where you're touring you know try to connect with them if you can that's also a really good perspective because again they coming from a similar background as you and they're at a place where you want to be so they can give you some insights to what that transition's like and if you're not sure about somebody from Norton um please reach out to us and we can um we can see if they'd be interested or at least try to get contact information sometimes we are you know sometimes we can't um the other thing that I'm going to say is a personal thing it was by accident um but we were on one of our first college tours and um we got we were obviously lost you know we look like a tourus um yeah particular School a number of kids came up and um and oh never mind you already got it there yeah I'll let you finish it no no please by all means yeah because you've actually done this yeah so we were actually lost and some people came up and talked to us and then um we decided moving forward we were gonna act lost and uh you know you get a feel for how the kids are I mean obviously it's a one-hot deal you could you could come across somebody else but um you kind of got a Vibe very quickly off of how the kids were and whether they they're going to be accepting and friendly so yeah yeah no I love it and it's great advice and it does work you know it really does give you uh insights into just how approachable and how um other regard regarding the students might be on a particular campus and you do an interview if given the opportunity you know either in person or online because again this allows you to connect with the person who may be reviewing your application and you know a lot of schools use this as uh as another data point in their evaluations of candidates but at the least it also gives you an opportunity to get some more personalized information and uh and and assess you know whether it's a good fit for you um so definitely interview if if it's an option by all means so so uh just to recap some of our tips for your college search here right so you got the goalie loocks College search criteria and some of the things to consider a major among them but not uh not the only criteria so pay attention to some of those other things that help you Whittle down the universal possibilities we talked about electronic Outreach so the importance of visiting websites and signing up uh you know uh for more information online doing virtual tours and things of that nature uh to not lose sight of the importance of in-person engagements so high school visits College fairs things like that uh and also the campus visits and some of the things you should be paying attention to while you're doing your campus visits you're taking time away from work and from school and spending money on gas and lunch and Lord knows what else right so make sure that you're getting the most value out of the time and money spent on on that exercise as well so hopefully that has been helpful for you guys I know we're running late here as it is um but certainly I'm available to answer any questions now or if things come up later my emails here I'm happy to answer questions not only just about Bridgewater specifically again but you know we are state employees at Bridgewater State University so we have a fiduciary responsibility to serve the taxpayers at large and we're happy to just be a resource for you in general so uh any questions that come up later feel free to email me happy to help just realized I was muted uh anybody in our panel that's interested uh in asking any questions please throw it into the chat or onto the Q&A um if not seeing none I am going to thank you again Todd um and I this was going to be up um on our website I know um we found that we actually get more folks watching it um later on than we do in in person quote unquote we used to on demand now aren't we we're spoil so so funny um I I received I don't know three or four emails today saying you know is it going to be up there I thought it it's been another email saying that we do do it but I think people want to check um you know with sports and all the things that are going on so I I greatly appreciate your time and I appreciate the folks who did join us um as always um it's it's it's so helpful to have you give that perspective um and to hear it not from us sometimes I feel like you know with the kids especially we we kind of like their parents so hearing it hearing it from from the school itself is really important so happen to be another voice in the choir all right well thank you again for your time uh thanks everybody and uh everybody have a a good night good night everyone bye bye