SAT at CHILLS
We are hosting an administration of the SAT only twice this year, with the first one coming up on November 4th. The registration deadline is fast approaching: Thursday October 5. So if you are choosing to take the SAT and want to do so in the comfy confines of your own school, register here
FAFSA Follies
The interesting plot twist with the FAFSA (so “simplified” that its implementation is two months behind) hits home today (October 1), the traditional day that the FAFSA opens for the new admissions cycle.
Usually I am not especially psyched that folks applying to schools with significant endowments have to fill out (and pay for) a CSS Profile, but this year it’s only CSS people that will be able to file as of October 1.
Here’s the list of schools that require the CSS Profile if you want to start using this metric in your decision making.
The Truth About College Admissions Podcast
This week, President and CEO of the Common Application, Jenny Rickard, joins Rick and Brennan to talk about how her career path lead her into admissions, what the Common Application is doing to identify trends in their data sets, expanding direct admissions standards to more colleges, and how they plan to address AI.
The College Application is Not a Form… It’s YOUR Story
“Recently, I have also come to appreciate the massive disconnect between how students approach and complete the application and how it is actually read in admission offices.” Keep reading…
Rick Clark–AVP Enrollment Georgia Tech
If you’re a data person, this one’s for you…
And then there’s this from the Holderness family…
Just Like That…The Honeymoon Is Over?
Brace yourself, it’s about time for many ninth graders to encounter their first end of September “reckoning.” The first few weeks are done and the excitement/anxiety/anticipation/nervousness/(insert your own emotion) has likely worn off, leading many first time high schoolers to entertain some variant of “What have I gotten myself into?”
You took all honors courses. You’re playing a sport. You have a role in the play. You thought you could handle it. You hoped that it would be different than school has been in the past. You feel lost in the big school. You don’t have any friends in your classes. You’re not getting enough sleep. You’re anxious all the time. It isn’t at all what you thought it would be.
Any one of these things can overwhelm you. Add a couple of them together and you can easily feel like you’re off the rails. First, breathe…Then read on. We knew this was coming. We’ve got you.
Now is the time to take a big picture look at your total commitment load (academics, co-curriculars, family, job, etc.) and make your best assessment as to whether you think you can manage it all for the rest of the semester (through January) Signing up for the right classes is more art than science, and we don't always get it right on the first go.
By now, you should have a decent sense as to whether you are properly placed in your academic classes. Take a few minutes to do a gut check--do you feel like you can handle everything on your plate moving forward? It's ok if this self-appraisal causes you a little bit of good stress (called eustress, the kind of stress that makes you want to do something well), but if it causes you DIS-stress then you may want to make some changes.
First of all, the Add/Drop period is over (counselors collectively made over 400 schedule changes in just 4 days...whew!) but that doesn't mean that you can't make changes to your schedule. The most common change at this phase is a level change, sometimes a level up (moving from CP to Honors), sometimes a level down (Honors to CP). If you were feeling like you could tackle Honors Algebra I when you signed up for your classes but find now that the pace is just too fast for you, it might be a good idea to level down. Conversely, you may have underestimated yourself when you picked classes last February and find that you're up for more of a challenge than you thought; in this case, you may want to level up.
The point is to be thoughtful and honest with yourself and to make the right decision for YOU.
If you want to make a change, come see Ms. Dowd in the Counseling Office. She’ll make an appointment with your School Counselor. You’ll chat. If you decide that you want to make a change, you’ll get a course change (yellow) slip for you to get the initials of the teachers involved (the teacher that you are leaving and the teacher you are joining) as well as a parent signature. Return the slip to the Counseling Office and I'll make the change in PowerSchool. Easy peasy.
"BUT WHAT ABOUT COLLEGES?!?" you ask.
I'm glad that you mentioned it.
The truth is that your ninth grade year is a baseline year. The institutions that will be evaluating what you accomplish during high school don’t expect you to get everything perfect right out of the gate; otherwise there would be no point in going to high school. Wherever you start, there is an expectation that you will steadily increase the rigor of your academic program and engagement in your school and community as you move through high school. If you start out with Honors everything, jv soccer, the play, and 5 new clubs, plus Scouts and a babysitting gig, you’re not only overextending yourself in the immediate future you’re establishing an unsustainable baseline moving forward; plus you’re likely to be miserable and exhausted before you even finish up September. Leave yourself some room to grow. Be reasonable about what you take on. Everybody needs some down time.
YES, BUT IS THERE ANYTHING I CAN DO NOW TO PREPARE FOR COLLEGE?
Indeed there is.
Become a more interesting human. This is good news. Colleges aren’t looking for “well rounded” students anymore; rather, they want “angular” or “pointy” kids, kids that have found things that they love to do and go deep with them. They are looking to bring interesting people to campus so that they can have a diverse, eclectic, and invigorating community. They don’t want cookie cutter clones who spend all their time studying in the library or in their rooms playing video games. So work on becoming a more interesting human. Try some new things to ignite your passions. Join a couple clubs. Make mistakes and learn from them. Geek out on the stuff that brings you joy. Become more… you. Not only is it what colleges are hoping for when you apply, it’s good for your overall well being and mental health. You’re the only person that can be you–you may as well be interesting.
Mindful Admissions calls the ninth grade year the “Discovery Year” and recommends five goals:
Develop relationships: build your support system both in and out of school.
Do your best academically: and yes, this includes the aforementioned appraisal of how much you have on your academic plate.
Get involved in the school community: try new things, take “safe” risks. Pick just two of the multitude of options available at CHILLS and give them a try. Many a passion has been ignited by just being open to trying something new.
Plan ahead: in middle school it was totally ok to just go with the flow. Your next step (high school) was certain and fixed. Not so when you leave high school; there are myriad options to choose when you finish secondary ed. Start developing some plans. Plans determine goals. Goals determine actions. Actions become tasks. Tasks get stuff done.
Eat, exercise, sleep-repeat: it legit takes a lot of stamina to keep up the pace of a high school student. Be sure to make healthy food choices (at least most of the time–Ben and Jerry’s is hard to resist…) and ensure that you make time to exercise. Homo erectus didn’t start walking upright two million years ago so that their modern descendants could sit all day long. Humans are meant to move, so make sure that you figure out your favorite way to move that and keep doing it. Finally, sleep. If you think you can get by on just a few hours a night, read or listen to Why We Sleep and it will quickly disabuse you of that notion. Your physical and mental health are largely determined by how much sleep you get. If you cheat on sleep, you’re really just cheating every other aspect of yourself.
Speaking of planning ahead, the next thing up in the School Counseling curriculum is 9th grade visits, which will start THIS WEEK! We’ll be checking in with you to see how your transition is going and to start looking forward to your future. You will be scheduled automatically and will receive a pink appointment slip to notify you of your appointment. If you get a time that isn’t convenient for you, just come into the Counseling Office and we’ll reschedule your appointment.
If you need to see your counselor before your meeting, just come in and make an appointment.
Until then... be interesting; get out there and discover!
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
GET OUT THERE AND START GOLDILOXIN’
The long weekends for Indigenous Peoples Day and Veteran’s Day offer a great opportunity to hit the road and check out some colleges or other postsecondary settings.
Pro Tip: if you contact your/your student’s Assistant Principal in advance and get permission to be out of school, then the absence is excused and will not count towards the Attendance Policy. Provided that you do your part.
Bring our postsecondary visit form with you and get it signed by an Admissions counselor at the school(s) you visit, then turn it into the Admin Office upon your return. Easy peasy!
Take just one day off from school and you’ve got yourself a four day visit window. Take one day of each color and you’ve got five. Just remember, Admissions offices are typically closed on Sunday, so plan accordingly.
Follow these tips for a successful visit experience.
Please send us 10 photos and some narrative about each visit to piet.lammert@fivetowns.net to include on chills.campus.visits on IG.
JOIN US FOR A TRIP TO SMCC AND UNE! on October 21
PSAT/POSTSECONDARY DAY October 18
All grade levels will have alternative programming for the day, all aimed to prepare students for education after high school.
All juniors will be taking the PSAT at no cost.
Other grade level activities tbd.
GREEN ENERGY JOBS
Maine currently has a $4 million initiative underway to develop green energy jobs; we don’t have what we need to successfully meet the demands as the economy shifts greener. Per usual, the Maine Community College System is stepping up. Electrical Vehicle Repair at SMCC. Electric/Hybrid Vehicle Repair Tech at EMCC. Heat Pump Installer at KVCC. Refrigerant Certification/Heat Pump Installing at CMCC. Just to name a few. And more coming online continuously.
WORK FOR ME: A GUIDE TO CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN MAINE
EARLY COLLEGE REGISTRATION S2
Registration for S2 Early College courses will open November 3.
As the mechanical lady used to say when you called directory information for a phone number–please make a note of it.