Registering for SAT and ACT tests
Seniors! You need to take you SAT and/or ACT by December of your senior year---that means you have three times in the fall to sign up for the SAT (and the SAT Subject Tests if you are applying to UC's or highly selective colleges). Most colleges want your tests to be taken by December, and some want them taken even sooner, so check with the colleges to which you are applying to make sure you are taking your tests on time.
Juniors! Ideally you should take your SAT's and ACT's in the spring of your junior year, and if you are not happy with your scores, you have 3 more chances in your senior year to take them (see above).
Sophomores and Juniors--the best way to get ready for the SAT's is to take the PSAT in October. Check with Ms. Campbell in the College Center about signing up for the PSAT.
You can find out your SAT scores online before they are mailed to you! Scores for the tests you have taken are ususally available about three weeks after the test.
If you are taking the ACT (an alternative to the SAT accepted by most colleges) you need to sign up for the ACT with Writing. Although the SAT and ACT are rival test companies, they never schedule their tests on the same day, so you can take both tests on different Saturdays.
When you sign up to take an SAT or ACT, be sure to list our school code (051615) and choose 4 colleges to receive your scores. If you are applying to CSU's, the code 3594 will send your SAT scores to all 23 Cal States. If you want to play sports in college, send your scores to the NCAA Eligibility Center, code 9999.
If you are on the federal lunch program (you get free or reduced price lunch tickets), you can get fee waivers so that you don't have to pay for your SAT or ACT tests. If you need a fee waiver, see Ms. Campbell in the College Center (room 404) to get one.
The easiest and fastest way to sign up to take these tests is online (www.collegeboard.com or www.actstudent.org) which you can reach through the college counselor website on wwww.hollywoodhighschool.net. You can also mail in a registration bulletin, but it takes longer to find out your test site. Hollywood High is not a test site, but nearly schools such as Marshall, Immaculate Heart, Los Angeles HS, Marlborough, and Harvard-Westlake are test centers. Choose a center that is close to your house, because you will be getting up early on a Saturday morning to take these tests.
There are free test prep sites on the internet that I have linked in College Counselor website (www.number2.com and www.studentedge.com) and study materials can be picked up in the College Center. Also LACER is offering free SAT prep classes beginning 5 weeks before each test in the HHS library after school from 3:13-5:13 Mon-Thurs.
Writing your application essay/personal statement
HOW TO WRITE YOUR COLLEGE APPLICATION ESSAY
Your application essay can be a crucial factor in your admission to the college of your choice, especially if you are marginally admissible. Above all, your essay needs to be a well-organized, clearly presented, and carefully proofread piece of your best writing.
Important points to keep in mind as you are writing your college admissions essay:
•Give yourself plenty of time to think about your topic, to outline your main ideas, and to write and rewrite rough drafts. Don’t procrastinate and throw something together at the last minute! Always have a good writer (like your English teacher, not your best friend) look over your essay for spelling and grammar mistakes.
•Use your own voice and a natural writing style. Don’t try to impress admissions officers with how many words you can pull from your thesaurus or how you can affect an artificial tone that you think makes you sound like someone they want to admit.
•Be honest. Don’t enhance your essay with false accomplishments or life experiences that you really didn’t have. Admissions officers want to admit a diverse student body with an interesting mix of students. Who you really are is more important to them than someone you “invented”.
•Be careful what you write about. Expounding on your political or religious beliefs can put readers off, especially if they are “on the other side” of your issue. If you are writing about an extremely personal issue, come from the angle of how you grew as a person from that experience. Don’t reveal things that will embarrass you or make your readers feel uncomfortable. Don’t imply that they should admit you because you’ve had a miserable life and they should feel sorry for you. Don’t whine.
•Do not rehash information that is listed elsewhere on your application. The essay should not be a “grocery list” of your awards, grades, and activities. Those are usually listed on another part of the college application. The personal essay is a chance to reveal who you really are as a unique person, show your special talents in their best light, and/or tell why you would be an asset to the college.
•Write about the topic that the specific college asks for in its essay instructions. Some colleges have very specific topics and can tell if you are using an essay that you wrote for another college because you were too lazy to address their topic. Some colleges use very open-ended questions that can be used for other colleges, especially if they will accept the Common Application. Read the instructions carefully before you put a lot of effort into writing an essay that is not appropriate for a particular college.
•Grab the reader’s interest from your first sentence. Starting an essay with,
“My name is...” or other boring beginnings can kill an overburdened reader’s interest in you right away. Make your essay stand out from the pile by having a great opening.
But, what should I write about in my personal statement?
If you are given an open-ended topic such as, “Tell us about yourself” or “Write about something that is important to you”, you may feel daunted and not know where to begin. Remember, that your main objective is to reveal yourself as a person and to show admissions officers that you can write well and logically. Although some colleges have unique essay topics, many more tend to fall into a few categories such as:
*If you could have dinner (or meet, or talk) with any person in history or fiction, whom would you choose and why?
*Describe one of your possessions or your room at home and explain what it says about you.
*Tell us about the one event or experience in your life that has had the greatest effect on you and explain why.
*Which person in your own life or in history has had the greatest influence on you?
*Why do you want to go to college (or to our college)?
If you have given yourself plenty of time to plan, you might consider writing an essay on each one of these topics. Even if the colleges you choose to apply to don’t use these questions, it will give you practice in writing and in sorting our your feelings and ideas.
Remember that people love to hear stories. Telling a story about yourself is instantly engaging. Admissions officers know that eighteen year old seniors cannot pontificate on deep philosophical ideas--you haven’t had enough life experience yet! Neither are they interested in your ideas on how to “fix” the world’s problems, why they should convert to your religion, or where you went to kindergarten and elementary school. If you are going to introduce yourself, it is better to reveal yourself anecdotally than to tell your entire life story. Telling a story about a single incident that shows your character is much more effective than using generalities such as, “I have always been a good student, I am active in my community, and I am a well-rounded person.” Showing yourself in a single moment in time where you did some thing that you were proud of, or even where you failed miserably but learned from the experience is very compelling.
To begin planning your essay, ask yourself these questions to “tune in” to yourself as a person: Whom do I most admire? What do I enjoy doing in my free time? What am I really good at? Of what accomplishment am I most proud? What are my greatest weaknesses? Why do my friends like me? What would I like to change about myself? What do I see myself doing ten years from now? How do I want to have an impact on my world? What talents would I like to acquire or enhance? What have I learned from jobs I have held? What is unique about my family? What would I like to do that I have not had the opportunity to do yet? If I had nothing holding me back, and were guaranteed success at whatever I chose to do, what would I like to do with my life?.......... Why don’t you do that anyway? Looking inward is the best place to start writing that essay to get you into college!
Financial aid in brief
What about paying for college?
Financial Aid
is a general term encompassing all different sources of money to help
you pay for your college education. It includes grants, scholarships, loans, and work study. You have to ask for financial aid by filling out applications on time in order to get it.
A Grant
is free money that you get from the federal government (PellGrant), state
government (Cal Grant) or your college. You get grants because your family is needy financially and you qualify academically and/or residentially; you do not have to pay the grant money back.
A Scholarship
is free money that you get from your college or an outside agency because you have done something special--you have great grades, you have volunteered, you are talented in some way, you are an athlete, you are a member of a
certain group, you want to pursue a certain career, etc. You can get scholarships
directly from your college, or apply for them on your own. There will be scholarships available in the College Center through direct applications, books, and the internet. Lists of scholarships will be published every few weeks so that you will be aware of opportunities to apply. You never need to pay any person or company to find scholarships for you! There are many scam operators who prey on needy students. If you are unsure about a scholarship you have heard about, bring it to Mrs. Campbell in the College Center to check if it is legitimate.
College Work Study
programs are jobs that are given to you by the college so that you may earn money while you are attending their campus. You may also choose to find your own jobs or keep jobs that you may already have.
A Loan
is money that is loaned to you by the federal government or the college that
you have to pay back. If taking out a student loan is the only way that you can go to college, take out a loan! Your education is the best investment you can make for your future. Most people do not hesitate to take out a loan for a car or a house, but may balk at taking out a loan for their future success.
Most of the money you will get for college you will get by filling out a FAFSA
form between January 1 and March 2 of your senior year. Some private colleges may require you to fill out an additional form called the CSS Profile.
You will also need to send in a Cal Grant GPA Verification Form which Mrs. Campbell will give you before March 2. You will not be able to get grants, work study, or loans unless you fill out these forms on time.
In order to fill out the FAFSA, you need to have a social security number and be either a US citizen or have an alien registration number. Ms. Campbell will visit you senior English classes and show you exactly how to fill out these forms.
There will also be financial aid workshops to help you and your parents with the financial aid process.
As you apply to each college, be aware of financial aid deadlines for each school.
Some require that your FAFSA's be turned in before the March 2 deadline. If you
need money, you have to ask for it on time!
Applying to Private or Independent Colleges
Applying to Private / Independent Colleges and Universities
The terms “private” and “independent” are used interchangeably to describe colleges and universities that are not supported by state funding, and therefore can be much more wide-ranging in their academic offerings, admissions policies, cost of attendance, and campus life. Although many students think that they will not be able to afford an education at a private college, often they receive financial aid packages that compare favorably with those from public colleges and universities. Applying to a private college is usually more involved, however, than applying to a state college. Usually students have to write a personal essay, fill out a more complicated application form, get letters of recommendation from their college counselor and teachers, and may need to include writing samples from class work. Private colleges have different deadlines for application for admission and financial aid, so it is crucial to be well informed about each college’s policies, and to complete applications in a timely manner. It is also an excellent idea to have visited the college before you apply or once you have been accepted in order to make a decision about whether to attend that college.
If you are going to apply to a private college, here is what you have to do:
•Email or call the college and ask for an application packet. You can find out addresses and phone numbers in the College Center by looking through catalogs or reference books, surfing the web for the college’s home page (check out hollywoodhighschool.net as a great link), or using college resource guides on the internet. Most colleges have on-line applications on their websites or PDF applications for you to download and print. The web has the most up-to-date information on colleges!
•Read the application packet as soon as you receive it to make sure that you have taken the necessary SAT’s or ACT tests required for admission. Most colleges will accept either test, some require SAT Subject Tests, and most want you to have taken these tests by December of your senior year.
•Read the application carefully to find out the application deadlines, the topic for your personal essay, and other requirements such as writing samples or video or audio tapes of performances.
•Find out if you need to have teachers’ recommendations. If there is a specific form included, make a copy of it in case you need more later, then decide which teachers you will ask to write your recommendation. If a teacher seems hesitant or too busy, try someone else. Give teachers plenty of time to write your letter, give them a stamped envelope addressed to the college without your return address on it, and include a brag sheet with the teacher recommendation form so that they will have more information about you. If you are going to be asking the same teacher to write letters to several colleges, ask them to write a general letter for admission to college and for scholarship consideration, and have them give a copy to Ms. Campbell to put in your file, in case you need another letter when the teacher is off track. Do not pressure teachers to let you see what they wrote about you---their letters need to be candid and confidential. Most colleges will want teachers to mail their letters directly to the college, hence the stamped envelope from you. Some colleges want you to include the sealed letter of recommendation with you application--a good reason to give your teachers plenty of time to write for you so that your application won’t be late because of your waiting for their letter!
•Look for a from entitled “School Report”, “Secondary School Report”, or “Counselor Recommendation”. Fill out the top portion with your name, address, social security number, and any other information such as you senior class schedule; sign it, attach a brag sheet, and give it to Ms. Campbell right away, or at the latest before Thanksgiving. Don’t wait until you have finished the application! Look to see if an official transcript is requested to be sent along with the Secondary School Report. If it is, ask Mariam Terharutunyan, the credit clerk in room 408 to send it along to the college. The Secondary School Report and letter of recommendation are sent separately to the college, usually before you have sent your application. If you change your mind and decide not to apply to a college after having given Mrs. Campbell the Secondary School Report, please tell her. It takes an hour to write a good letter and she has many to write! You should have filled out a form entitled College Interest Survey at the that asks extensive questions about you and your plans. Ms. Campbell uses this information on your College Interest Survey and on your Brag Sheet to write your recommendation letter, so the more completely you fill out these forms, the better your letter will be. If you did not fill out a College Interest Survey, pick one up in the College Center and return the completed form to Ms. Campbell right away.
•Include at least 2 Teacher Evaluation forms with your Secondary School Report and Brag Sheet. These are “quickie” evaluations that your teachers fill out to give Ms. Campbell a picture of you as a student. Their favorable comments are quoted in your letter of recommendation, so the more more input there is from your various teachers, the richer your recommendation will be. Also include an autobiography or a copy of the personal statement that you have written for this college in the forms that you are giving to Ms. Campbell.
•Sending out hundreds of letters is expensive for your college counselor. It would be greatly appreciated if you could provide 2 first class postage stamps for each college for which you need a recommendation. Do not put the stamps on an envelope--it looks more “official” if your Secondary School Report arrives at the college in a Hollywood High School envelope.
•It is a good idea to make a photocopy of each private college application to “practice” on. Turning in an application encrusted with “White Out” looks tacky. Read all the directions carefully as you fill out your “practice” copy, then fill out the original application, printing legibly. It is not necessary to type your application unless specifically asked to do so. Another alternative to photocopying your application is to fill it out lightly in pencil, then go over your correct answers in ink.
•Pay careful attention to financial aid deadlines for each college. Look to see if the college requires a CSS Profile form. These can be filed in mid September and will be available in the College Center. The CSS Profile is a form in addition to the FAFSA which you will send in between Jan 1 and March 2. You have to pay a fee for the CSS Profile form. Make sure that the answers that you put on your CSS Profile and FAFSA match. Make a photocopy of each form to keep for reference. Ask about scholarship applications and deadlines for each private college and apply for these on time!
•Pay careful attention to housing deadlines if you will not be living at home. Many students are admitted to college and then can’t go because they didn’t file their housing applications on time! Don’t be left out!
•Always mail your applications at the post office and ask for a Certificate of Mailing. This little piece of paper will cost you 90 cents, but it proves that you mailed things on time. Keep Certificates of Mailing for test registrations, college and scholarship applications, and financial aid forms in a safe place!
•What about applying Early Decision? Applying Early Decision commits you to going to that college if you are accepted. If you really love one college above all others and have a good chance of getting in, applying Early Decision will let you know if you got in usually by December of your senior year. However, by taking this step, you agree not to apply to other colleges or withdraw your applications from other colleges while you wait to hear from your “Dream School.” If you are admitted, you promise to go there. This takes the “sweat” out of worrying where you will go, but also limits your ability to give yourself other options at other colleges. If you are not admitted, you have to hurry to get in applications to other schools. Talk to Ms. Campbell about whether this is a good option for you.
•Always ask Ms. Campbell if you have any questions about college and visit the College Center often!
Applying to College
Applying to College
Now begins the great adventure of applying to college! Here is a list of guidelines to help you through the application process:
If you are applying to a four year college or university:
Make sure you take your SAT or ACT tests in October, November, or December. Some colleges want tests taken by November! If you are applying to any of the Universities of California or other very selective colleges, you also need to take two SAT Subject Tests in subjects of your choice.
If you have been in the United States for less than three years of school, you may also need to take the TOEFL test. Check the catalog of the colleges to which you are applying to see if you need to take the TOEFL. Applications are available in the College Center.
Most colleges accept or even prefer that you apply online on the internet. Our school’s website, www.hollywoodhighschool.net has many links to college websites and search engines to help you in your college quest. The internet is the fastest, most efficient way to explore college options and apply to college.
UC ‘s and CSU’s want you to apply online. You can reach their websites through our school’s website. From www.hollywoodhighschool.net, go under “counseling”, then under “college counselor” to reach all college-related links. If you are applying to any other private or out-of-state colleges, you must contact those colleges (online is the easiest way) and ask for an application for admission.
When you get your applications for admission to private colleges, look for a page entitled SCHOOL REPORT or SECONDARY SCHOOL REPORT. This is the page that you give to Ms. Campbell right away to fill out for you. Read it carefully to see what it requests. If it asks for an official transcript, ask Mariam in 408 to send your transcript to the college. Fill out the top line of the School Report with your name, social security number, and any other information that they request, sign the waiver, then give it to Ms. Campbell along with a COLLEGE INTEREST SURVEY or BRAG SHEET (available in 404) and 2 or 3 TEACHER RECOMMENDATION forms, and a copy of your personal essay for that college or an autobiography. Remember that the more complete your College Interest Survey and Brag Sheet are, the better your letters of recommendation will be.
Private College applications will probably also ask you for teacher recommendations. Be sure to give your teachers plenty of time to write these recommendations for you and also give them a stamped envelope addressed to the college to which it is to be sent. Do not ask teachers to write letters for Cal State or UC or community college admissions, although you may need them later to apply for specific scholarships to those schools.
Pay very close attention to application and scholarship deadlines. Make sure that you have completed all the forms and have mailed them at least a week before they are due. To have proof that you have mailed them on time, get a CERTIFICATE OF MAILING from the post office when you mail them.
If you need an official transcript sent to the college, ask Mariam in 408 to send one for you by filling out a REQUEST FOR TRANSCRIPT form. If the college wants an unofficial transcript, Ms. Campbell can give you one.
Please have all requests for letters of recommendation and School Report forms into Ms. Campbell and your teachers before Thanksgiving.
The time to apply to CSU’s is during October and November, and to UC’s is in the month of November. Most UC’s are very strict about their November 30 deadline and will not accept applications after that date. Most private colleges have either December, January, or February deadlines. Read your applications very carefully to make sure that you meet their application deadlines. Some private colleges have “rolling admissions”—that means that as long as they have space in their freshman class, they will keep accepting applications.
If you are applying to Community Colleges, you do not need to take SAT’s or ACT’s, or have letters of recommendation. If you are graduating in June, you apply to community colleges in March, April, or May or sooner. If you are graduating sooner, check with Mrs. Campbell about application deadlines for community colleges.
Especially during the Fall, there will be frequent visits from college representatives. Be sure to read the bulletins, visit our website, listen to PA announcements, and notice the signs posted in the quad to keep abreast of college rep visits to the College Center. The representatives that visit our campus are the ones who read your application, so come in and meet them and make a good impression by asking them questions that you have about their respective campuses.
Be sure to keep a folder or some sort of filing system for all your college correspondence. It is a good idea to make copies of all the important applications that you send. Use Certificates of Mailing (90 cents at the post office) to prove that you mailed test registrations, college applications and scholarship applications on time.
Be wary of mail from companies that may come to your house offering to help you find scholarships for a fee. You never have to pay anyone to get information about scholarships or financial aid. If you get anything suspicious, bring it to Ms. Campbell to look over.
