SENIOR BULLETIN #2
Scholarship and College Information
October, 2014
UC/CSU
· UC Application Workshop will be held on our campus on Tuesday, October 21st at 7:00 pm in the Theater. This is a great opportunity to go over the application in detail and have all your questions answered by a UC Admissions Representative. We strongly suggest that you wait to submit your application until after you have attended this informative workshop.
· CSU Application Workshop will be held on our campus on Thursday, October 23rd at 7:00 pm in the Theater. This is the same great opportunity, but this workshop, presented by a CSU Admissions Representative, is for schools in the Cal State system like Cal State Fullerton and Cal Poly Pomona.
· CSU and UC Applications are available online as of October 1st, 2014. Applications for UC can be worked on now and then submitted between November 1st and November 30th. The final due date for CSU applications is also November 30th, but you can submit your CSU application as early as 10/1/14. The earlier you submit, the earlier the CSU can let you know you’ve been admitted. The UC will notify students about admission decisions between March 1st and March 31st, 2014. The CSU notification period varies, but all students will be notified by March 31st, 2014.
· SAT Scores need to be sent directly to all schools to which you are applying through www.collegeboard.org. DBHS does NOT send any SAT or ACT scores. The UC website states: “If you're a freshman applicant, be sure to have your ACT and SAT scores sent by the testing agency. If you have your official score report sent to one campus, it will be available to all campuses to which you applied.” For the CSU, use SAT code 3594 and your test scores will be sent to all Cal State universities to which you apply. For ACT, log onto www.act.org.
· Online applications are convenient and available at www.csumentor.edu for the CSU and www.universityofcalifornia.edu for the UC.
o Applying online helps you to fill out your application accurately because the program takes you through the application step by step and won’t let you go on if you’re missing information or have done something incorrectly.
o Save your application often while working on it, and prepare your personal statement as a word document and then cut and paste to make sure it comes out just the way you want it.
o Be very accurate when self-reporting grades, classes and extracurricular activities to the UC. Self-report all A-G courses taken, including all repeated courses/grades. They will compare your application to your final transcript and everything must match so you should use a transcript when reporting grades.
o There is a section of the application that asks for classes like Algebra, Geometry, or the first year of a foreign language taken in 7th or 8th grade. Don’t worry about these grades negatively impacting your application – the UC just wants to see that you actually took these classes so be sure to list them in this section.
o Every year the UC randomly audits some applications and asks students to provide verification of their extracurricular activities. If the UC determines anything in your application has been falsely reported, you will NEVER be allowed to enter the UC system for the rest of your life.
o Don’t wait until the last minute! Every year there are stories about people who wait until midnight November 30th and then can’t submit their application for some reason at the last minute. Submit before Thanksgiving and enjoy that turkey!
PRIVATE SCHOOLS
· Letters of Recommendation – As you have been told several times, letter requests are due to your GLC’s by October 10th at the very latest. If you are reading this after 10/10/14 and have not turned in your request, that ship has sailed and you need to focus your energies on colleges that do not require a letter of recommendation.
· The October 10th Deadline is for you to have your request and supporting documents to your GLC. It is NOT the due date for you to submit supplemental documents and essays to your prospective universities. Adhere to the universities’ deadlines for those documents.
· The Common Application – You must invite your GLC on your Common Application. Prior to inviting your GLC, you must complete the “Education” and “Academics” sections of your application. Be sure these sections are completed, and then proceed to the “School Forms” section to invite your GLC. Be sure to get the email addresses right or you won’t appear in our queue – [email protected], [email protected].
· SAT – UC’s and CSU’s will accept the December SAT or ACT, but some private schools may not. Check on private college websites to be sure, and sign up for the November SAT just to be safe.
· Private School Research – If you haven’t done so already, you should really research the schools you’re considering. Research allows you to weigh all the factors involved with this major decision – distance from home, area surrounding the college, size of the school population, campus atmosphere, etc. Some of you don’t even know the state in which some of your prospective colleges are located, and that’s just silly when you think about it. Now is the time to look beyond the schools everyone has heard of as well. Those schools are great, but there are many, many wonderful schools, and some you haven’t heard of yet might be a perfect fit for you.
· Don’t stress about your rank or the fact that DBHS does not weight our GPA. We know that much of the information online refers to rank or weighted GPA, but you have to trust that admissions officers are smart people looking for other smart people. Representatives from elite schools like Harvard and Princeton have said the following to us: “We know that #80 at a competitive high school could be a great fit for our schools, but #1 at a less competitive school might not make the cut. Rank is all relative.” “We prefer unweighted GPA’s because many schools calculate them differently. Our computer re-calculates the GPA on the transcript anyway.”
· Try researching at www.unigo.com – this is a great site for researching schools (not just privates) because you have access to tons of information about the universities you’re considering, including hundreds of reviews and interviews from current students.
· Private Schools have scholarships that they can give out to whomever they want. Don’t let the sticker price of $50K or more necessarily scare you away from applying to a school that’s right for you. Scholarships and grants can help tremendously, and many private school students don’t pay the full advertised cost of attendance.
· CSS (College Scholarship Service) Profile – This is a form provided by College Board for high school seniors who are looking for financial aid, and it’s required by many private colleges and universities. The UC and CSU systems use only the FAFSA (more info on that later) and don’t need it, but several private schools want this form prior to the FAFSA to determine the level of financial aid they will offer you. The CSS Profile is available beginning October 1st at http://student.collegeboard.org/css-financial-aid-profile , and the sooner you fill it out the better.
· Online colleges and universities can be found at www.accreditedonlinecolleges.org/california/. An online education could save you money, and this site provides information about several online universities.
· Early Admission – Early decision and early action plans allow you to apply early (usually in November) and get an admission decision from the college by December or January. While this seems like a great way to lessen the stress of the college application process, it may not be the best choice for you. Read the following information (some of which has been taken from www.collegeboard.org) to help you make the right decision:
o Early decision plans are binding. You agree to attend the college if it accepts you and offers an adequate financial aid package. Although you can apply to only one college for early decision, you may apply to other colleges through the regular admission process. If you're accepted by your first-choice college early, you must withdraw all other applications.
o Early action plans are similar to early decision plans, but are not binding. If you’ve been accepted, you can choose to commit to the college immediately, or wait until the spring. Under these plans, you may also apply early action to other colleges. Usually, you have until late spring to let the college know your decision.
o It is a common misconception that early admission plans provide you with an advantage, but this doesn’t make sense. Students who are accepted early are exceptional and would have definitely been granted admission through the regular admission process. Selective universities have been doing this for a long time – they wouldn’t accept a marginal student early and then realize they made a mistake.
o You can’t compare financial aid packages if you are accepted through Early Decision and thus bound to attend that one school. You’d be surprised at how the financial aid package offerings vary from school to school.
NATIONAL MERIT
· The following students took the PSAT last year and their scores placed them in the top 1% out of about 1.5 million juniors who took the test. This places them in the nation’s elite group of National Merit Scholar Semifinalists, one of the most prestigious honors a senior can receive. This year’s Semifinalists are:
o Kyu Seo Ahn
o Saakib Akbany
o Athena Chen
o Zhen Chen
o Matthew Chiu
o Justin Choi
o Kali De Cambra
o Sophia Deng
o Gregory Gunadi
o Shyam Hassan
o Jeannie Huang
o Mandy Hung
o Christopher Ivanoff
o Rena Jiang
o Catherine Larcheveque
o Young Lin
o Michelle Lyu
o Alvin Ma
o Alexander Song
o Emily Wong
o Jordan Wong
· Additionally, the following student’s PSAT score made him one of only 1,600 Black American high school seniors named as a Semifinalist in the 2015 National Achievement Scholarship Program:
o Tamer Rashad
COLLEGE FAIR
· So Cal College Fair takes place Tuesday, October 7th at the Fairplex from 5:00-8:00 pm. You and your parents can speak with college representatives and attend seminars on topics like “SAT vs. ACT”, “College-Bound Athlete,” and “Finding the Right College.” The fair is located at the Sheraton Fairplex Conference Center at 601 W. McKinley Ave., Pomona, CA 91768, and admission is free. For more information, go to www.socalcollegefair.com.
· University representatives visit DBHS all the time. For a current schedule of upcoming visits, see the Career Center page (linked to Guidance) on our website – http://dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=58834&type=d&pREC_ID=calendar.
SCHOLARSHIPS
· Free Scholarship Search Engines:
· Gates Millenimum Scholarship – This scholarship is aimed at African-American, Asian Pacific Islander, American Indian and Hispanic Students who fall into the category of low income. Must have an unweighted GPA of at least 3.3. Must have demonstrated financial need as identified by the FAFSA. Must show leadership and participation in extracurricular activities and be active in community service. Must be a US citizen. Scholarship will cover the cost of tuition, fees, books and living expenses for the first year of college and is renewable. Applications must be accessed from www.gmsp.org. Deadline is January 14th, 2015.
· John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Essay Contest – The John F. Kennedy Library invites high school students to write an essay “on a U.S. elected official who has chosen to do what is right, rather than what is expedient.” For information, registration and to submit your essay go to www.jfklibrary.org. Essays due 1/5/15. Five $500 awards, one $1,000 award and a first place award of $10,000. This will be presented by Caroline Kennedy at an awards Ceremony at the JFK Presidential Library.
· NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing – This scholarship focuses on girls in grades 9-12 who have at least a 3.0, demonstrated leadership, and demonstrated aptitude and interest in IT/computing. Each national winner will receive $500 in cash, a laptop, and a trip to the Technology Showcase and Awards Ceremony in North Carolina. We’ve had students win this award in the past! Apply at www.aspirationsaward.org by 11/02/14.
· First Freedom Center Scholarship – Research and analyze a religious minority in U.S. history and evaluate how well this group has “fared historically in its pursuit of freedom of religion and equality”. Possible $2500 award. Students must register online at www.firstfreedom.org by 11/17/14 and essays or videos must be postmarked by 11/24/14.
· Jack Kent Cooke Foundation – This foundation will provide up to $40,000 a year for as many as 40 low-income students each year. To be eligible, students must have achieved at least a 3.5 and scored a 1200 or above on the SAT math and reading sections or a 26 on the ACT, and they must “demonstrate significant unmet financial need.” “Phase One applications… will close in early November” so go to http://www.jkcf.org/scholarships/college-scholarship-program/ if interested.
· Mistake from last Senior Bulletin: Although the information page for the HotelsCheap.org scholarship encourages high school students to apply, the scholarship terms require that applicants are “enrolled in an accredited post-secondary academic institution,” and the application asks you to include the college you’re attending. I guess you’ll have to apply for that one once you’re already attending a university next year. Sorry about the confusion.
· Miss any scholarships from the last Senior Bulletin? Go to the Guidance Office – all past scholarships will remain on display until their deadlines have passed.