Senior Year at Bishop Mcdevitt

Senior year at Bishop McDevitt

1. Gather a list of schools that you wish to apply to. Research these schools. You want to have 4-6 final choices. Use sign-up sheet in Guidance Office to meet with your counselor. a. Bring list of schools when you meet. Go on multiple college visits – see the campus and ask questions! Sign up on Naviance to meet with college representatives here at school. b. Early Decision – BINDING! If you apply ED, you are committing to attend the school upon your acceptance. Typically done only with 1st choice schools. You can only apply ED to one school. c. Early Action- NON BINDING. You may consider other options before deciding. d. See if those schools use the Common Application or their own. Learn more at commonapp.org. e. Apply early to have more opportunities for scholarships, even for HACC! 2. Register for the SAT / ACT. Make sure you look to see which tests your schools prefer. a. SAT- register at Collegeboard.org a.i. The SAT focuses on 3 major areas: Reading, Writing, and Math. a.ii. Scores range from 400-1600 a.iii. Many schools “superscore” and take the highest score from each section if you take it multiple times. b. ACT- register at actstudent.org b.i. ACT focuses on Writing, Reading, Math and Science. Math and Science includes Trigonometry. b.ii. Highest score is 36. c. TOEFL exam (for exchange students only!) Register at www.ets.org/toefl c.i. TOEFL- The TOEFL iBT test measures your ability to use and understand English at the university level. And it evaluates how well you combine your listening, reading, speaking and writing skills to perform academic tasks. d. **PLEASE NOTE**- You need to send your SAT/ACT scores directly to the colleges you have applied to. Sign onto your SAT/ACT account and follow the prompts to do so. When you register for the exam, you have the option of adding them for free – you may do so even if you have not applied yet but are thinking about that school as an option! 3. Be familiar with Naviance a. https://connection.naviance.com/family-connection/auth/login/?hsid=bmcdevitths b. Email the guidance office if you are unsure of your username and password. Look through the college pages- this information is very accurate. Check out the “scattergrams” to see the statistics of McDevitt alumni and their acceptance rates. c. Under Colleges tab, click on “colleges I am applying to”. Once you submit an application in the fall- add those schools to this list and check “Request Transcript”. You must report to the Guidance Office and verbally request that your transcript be sent after you submit your application and pay the $2 transcript fee per school. d. Teacher recommendations- Scroll down to “teacher recommendations”. After you personally request that a teacher writes you a letter (in person or email if over the summer), add their name here. You should receive letters from 1-2 teachers, depending on the college’s requirements. Your counselor will additionally submit one. 4. DEADLINES- Submit applications, Naviance requests, and transcript request at least two weeks before the deadline you are applying for. For January 1 deadlines- you must complete these no later than December 1 to ensure documents are received over the holidays. 5. SAP reminder: Student Assistance Program. How / who to refer! SCHOLARSHIPS You should start looking for scholarship opportunities in the Fall of your Senior year. Sign onto Naviance and look under the Scholarships tab. You will find a list of the opportunities that has come through McDevitt. Note the deadlines! Read the criteria carefully for each one – you may qualify for those you may not even realize. Check out these other resources 1. Local banks / grocery stores / agencies 2. Collegeboard - https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-search 3. FastWeb - www. fastweb .com 4. PHEAA - https://www. pheaa .org 5. Complete the FAFSA after October 1st. File taxes as early as possible. - https:// fafsa .ed.gov 6. Stop in the Guidance Office on a weekly basis beginning in December! New scholarships are always announced and you should be checking through any paper applications we have (near computers). 7. Complete all applications at least three days prior to the application deadline. You must verbally request your transcripts and other documents to be sent. Once you complete the paper applications, bring them directly to Guidance to send out along with your $2 fee. 8. FINANCIAL AID- Each college that accepts you will offer you different award packages. 9. FINANCIAL AID NIGHT- You and your parents should attend! This year’s date: Nov 9th at 6pm

NCAA  If you are interested in playing a DI or DII sport in college, you need to discuss your interest with your coach. You then must be registered with the NCAA at eligibilitycenter.org. You will request that your transcripts be sent from the Guidance Office. Sending your SAT/ACT scores is also mandatory, by signing in to your Collegeboard or ACT account and sending them directly to the NCAA.

Selective Service Reminder  All male students must register with the Selective Service within 30 days of their 18th birthday. The easiest way to do this is to register online at www.sss.gov or go to any US Post Office and complete and send in the “mail-back” registration form that is available.

Trouble selecting a major? Sign onto your Naviance account and review the Personality Inventory that you complete in 9th grade. (Go to Naviance- About Me – Do What You Are). From there, you can browse career fields that are suggested with your personality type. Job-shadow someone in those fields! Trouble selecting a college? Sign on to collegeboard.org and click on College Search at the top of the page. You can go through filters to narrow down colleges that may be a good fit for you based on your expectations of the schools. Also, search through the college information under the colleges tab on Naviance.