GLC NEWS AND NOTES ISSUE #9

January 6, 2017

Class of 2017 Students and Parents,        Happy New Year to you and your family. 

Here are a few items of interest for you to review.   PLEASE READ CAREFULLY.

1.      Mid-Year Reports for Universities:  What are they???

a.      Many universities will require a Mid-Year Report to be completed by the student’s high school.  This responsibility falls on the shoulders of the Grade Level Coordinator here at DBHS.  The Mid-Year Report will ask the GLC to submit an academic transcript for the student.  This transcript will include the first-semester grades of the senior year. 

b.       If your student used the COMMON APPLICATION, your GLC will be submitting the Mid-Year Report for each university listed on the Common Application for the student.  The GLC will submit the Mid-Year Reports starting next week, the week of January 9, 2017, once the first semester grades are placed on your student’s transcript.  There is no need to request a Mid-Year Report from your GLC for the Common Application universities.  Your GLC will get this done without your request since we have already submitted our School and Counselor Reports via Common Application earlier in the process.  For Common Application universities, your student DOES NOT need to send a transcript to any university using the Common Application system.

c.       What about Non-Common Application Universities?   If a student has applied to a university that is not part of the Common Application process and that university is requesting a Mid-Year Report or simply an Academic Transcript including senior first-semester grades then one of two things should happen.

                                                              i.      First, the student can send an academic transcript via Parchment.  Parchment is the Electronic process DBHS students use to send their transcripts to universities.  Parchment can be accessed via the DBHS Website under the Pull-Down Menu Titled STUDENTS on the homepage.  Simply follow the steps listed under Transcripts.  There is a $FEE$ for this process which is payable online.

                                                            ii.      Secondly,  if the Non-Common Application university is requesting a mid-year report or a transcript including senior first-semester grades, AND the university has supplied the student with an email address or an electronic link for this process then the student can forward this information to their GLC and we will be able to send the transcript using this email address or electronic link.

Most Non-Common Application schools do not have a Mid-Year Report requirement and or do not request a transcript including senior first-semester grades.  Cal State Universities-(CSU) and the University of California (UC), do not require transcripts to be sent.  There may be situations that a CSU or a UC will request from the student applicant a transcript including senior first-semester grades.  Only send transcripts to a CSU or UC if and when it is specifically requested by the university. 

1.      In the past, Cal State Fullerton has requested transcripts  from students including senior first-semester grades.  Check your Cal State Fullerton account and only send transcript  when it is requested.

2.    College Application Process-Class of 2017-DBHS

Misc. Helpful Topics/Solutions regarding College Applications.

If a student has applied to a four-year university….At any time, students may start receiving admission decisions from the universities to which they applied depending on the admissions plan chosen.  Most admission decisions will be made in March.   As students find out the answers from the universities, it is important to remind our students that whether the answer is yes or no, the decision does not define who the student is as a person.  We need to keep things in perspective. 

What is important for our students to remember is as they learn of their admission decisions from various universities, they should communicate with their GLC and teachers (who wrote them letters) what these admission decisions are.  Many times as a GLC we spend hours working on a student’s application and when students learn their admissions fate, the GLC never hears from the student-this is disappointing. 

o   All Applications:  Changes in your application:  Once you submit an application, if anything changes in regards to your academics, you must notify the universities to which you applied and inform them of the change.  This includes if you placed a course on your application for both 1^st and 2^nd semester and you end up not taking the 2^nd semester of the course-You MUST tell the universities this and keep a record of how and when you sent the notification.  In addition, if you earn a (semester) grade lower than a C- in any senior course you place on your application, you must notify the universities.  This would be shortly after first semester grades are finalized in early January.  This only applies to final semester grades.  THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT PART OF THE APPLICATION PROCESS.  ANY CHANGE IN YOUR APPLICATION AFTER SUBMISSION MUST BE COMMUNICATED WITH THE UNIVERSITIES!

o   All Applications:  Read your emails:  Once you submit your application to a university, it is the student’s responsibility to check emails daily for any correspondence from the universities.  This will be the way universities request additional information etc.  This is CRITICAL.  Students must be diligent and check emails/accounts daily the next few months.  In addition, reacting and following through with university requests is vital. They are only going to ask you to do something if it is important in the admission decision’s process.     CSU/UC:  If you applied to UC or CSU, please make sure you regularly check your Student Portal/Account.  If you have not created your Portal or Account-please do so now for the UCs especially.  The colleges use the student portal to communicate important application/admissions information to applicants.

o    SAT/ACT Scores:  All SAT and ACT scores should haveALREADY BEEN REQEUSTED TO BE SENT TO THE UNIVERSITIES BEING APPLIED TO!!

o   Advanced Placement (AP) Scores:  Students do not need to send their AP scores to the universities at this time.  Students, when asked, should report their AP scores on the university application.  In the spring, after you have chosen your university, then you will send your official AP scores via Collegeboard to your chosen university.  You will need to pay for these scores to be sent.  Save you money and only send your AP scores in the spring to the one university you will attend.

3.      Community College:  Next Tuesday, January 10, 2017, Mt.SAC Community College will have representatives on campus and all senior students will have an opportunity to hear a presentation regarding Mt.SAC during their English class. 

If a senior student is considering the Community College either as their definite choice and destination after high school or simply as a “back up” to the university, it is very IMPORTANT that the student supply his/her name and contact information to Mrs. Rachelle Romero, our DBHS Career Technician.  Mrs. Romero will be requesting this information next Tuesday at the Mt.SAC presentation.  We strongly advise students who have Mt.SAC as their “back-up” plan to follow the steps of admission.  The admission process we ask our students to follow for Mt.SAC is called CONNECT FOUR!  This Connect Four process will allow students to complete their Mt.SAC application, take Assessments Tests etc. right here on our campus under the guidance of Mt.SAC personnel.   If a student follows the Connect Four Steps (or the admission’s process for any community college) and subsequently decides on attending a 4-year university there is “no harm done.”  Their community college application can simply be discontinued with no penalty.  Students should not wait until April or May to start this process as they will miss valuable steps!! 

See additional information on CONNECT FOUR on the Class of 2017 Webpage on the DBHS website.

MT.SAC CONNECT 4 PROGRAM DATES