Is your child a high school senior? Is your home running on essays, deadlines, and the big “what comes after high school?” question?

Join us for an informal evening, parent to parent, at ROCO. Please RSVP on the event page. 

Email 

1. Help the student create a personal email to be used for different applications/registrations. Do this as early as the freshman year of high school. 
   • Use a professional-looking address (firstname.lastname style), since admissions offices will see it.
   • Students typically get accounts created on the College Board by the school when they are registered for PSAT. That is usually the school email, which will be deleted eventually, a few months after graduation. 
   • Suggest they use their new personal email for college visits, seminar/webinar registrations, Common App, etc 
2. Encourage/help the student create subfolders/labels (even rules if they make sense) for their email:
   • There will be emails overflowing the school email and the personal email as well
   • Students are not typically checking their email regularly - it is not an easy thing to learn, and it is really important going forward!
   • So CHECK, SORT, and CLEAN!
3. Teach your student how to consistently "clean up" their inbox(es)
   • Move the emails based on category (like: interesting school, maybe, unlikely) and delete
   • This is a tedious task! The student gets to a point where this is the last thing they care about. However, once they decide on a list of schools, it could be important to ensure the emails from that school are opened, links are clicked (some schools are measuring "interest" that way), and webinars are getting registrations. 
   • Sometimes, the schools are sending a code for a free application fee (saving $80 is not bad!). It might be worth your time to go over the inbox and get some garbage out and some other emails checked. There are days when 20-30 emails may arrive in a Senior's inbox. They hardly have time to sleep sometimes, let alone check marketing email...
   • Sometimes the school invites the students to apply to some special programs they have (ex Integrated Science Program (ISP) at Northwestern)

Start tracking and planning (beginning of high school):

• SAT/ACT Planning:
  • Keep track of the PSAT scores (PSAT 8/9, PSAT 10, PSAT NMSQT) or PreACT, so your student can identify areas they need to improve on.
  • Testing timeline - the seats in the testing facilities are filling up quickly. 
  • Score reporting - save the pdf's and keep the scores from different tests in their own folder.
  • Several selective schools now require SAT/ACT scores again. Check each school’s testing policy.
• Activities/Awards Tracker
  • Start this as early as 9th grade
  • Record extracurriculars
  • Record leadership activities
  • Volunteer work
  • Awards.
• Recommendation letters
  • Encourage your student to think about the teachers that could write a good and honest recommendation letter for them
  • These should ideally be formally requested in the Spring of Junior year.

Talk about $$

1. It is really sad when a kid gets into their "dream" school, but there is no way they can attend it.
2. Having an open conversation in the family and discussing with the student about the limits the family can help with is critical in the choices the student makes on where to apply. 
3. Keep in mind that the application fees could add up significantly. 

Finding Schools (colleges/universities)

1. Very easy for some students, extremely difficult for others. 
2. If the family can afford to hire an admissions consultant, it may streamline the process.
3. Some of the college counselors at the high school could be helpful.
4. Some students are changing their lists in the fall semester of their senior year several times. 
5. See #3 in the Common Application section below.
6. Check the Net Price Calculator (NPC). A lot of info might be needed to get the approx price for a year at that school
7. Register for webinars & attend them - students and parents alike benefit, especially when it is a school of high interest
   • Worth taking notes so it is easier to write the "why us" essay

Common Application 

1. (more commonly known as the Common App) is an undergraduate college admission application platform that applicants may use to apply to over 1,000 member colleges and universities. The decisions are not showing up here! Just the application part. 
2. The advantages of using this platform are
   • mainly to save time by inputting the same info and double-checking and triple-checking that
   • The teachers and counselor are uploading their recommendations there as well
   • has many helpful features like:
     • providing due dates
     • providing the $ for the application fees so the student can budget
     • providing suggestions for additional schools (based on whatever criteria)
     • providing direct-admit lists (see Common App Direct Admissions)
     • scholarship suggestions
3.  Encourage the student to create an account early - even the summer before Junior year. Because:
   • Entering the personal info takes time
   • They get an idea of what they need to provide and start thinking about it. They can see the sections of the application (Personal statement, honors section, extracurricular activities, AP classes, etc.) and might even allow for considering something new - volunteering for ROCO, for ex ;) - that could be fun but also helpful.
   • Start adding the schools, even if they end up not applying there at all! Some schools are asking additional questions (read that as "mini-essays"), and the student can see what they are, so they can think about them in case they get to visit the school.
     • Check the Early Decision vs. Early Action vs. Regular Admission for each school: Understand application options.
   • A list of schools is suggested - "direct admit", for example. 

Financial Aid:

1. FAFSA:
   • The student and each parent (“contributor”) have to create a StudentAid.gov account (FSA ID).
   • It’s worth doing early because identity verification can take a few days. The form itself normally opens around October 1 of senior year, so families can’t see the actual questions much earlier.
   • The Department of Education’s FAFSA preview materials or the Federal Student Aid Estimator are good tools for planning ahead.
   • FAFSA uses tax information from two years before college starts.
2. CSS form - 
   • $ in a savings account is "counted" differently than what you save in your 401k/RothIRA;
   • It’s required by roughly 200+ schools, mostly private but also a few public ones.
   • It opens October 1 of senior year and charges a fee per school
   • Check each school’s financial aid page early to see whether CSS is required, and run each school’s Net Price Calculator.
   • There are different strategies to ensure the financial aid is coming as advantageously as possible and makes enrollment possible. 
   • There are consultants that are helping families. There are also books and plenty of webinars. 
3. Scholarship list -
   • Keep on adding as you hear about them.
   • This is typically for after the applications are submitted in Nov, but it is good to have a list of local (from the school district, even) as well as portals with lists and details.  
   • The universities/colleges also might have significant opportunities - merit-based or talent-based- that the student should take advantage of. Click on the links (time-consuming) included in emails,
   • Check for the scholarship opportunities
     • on your student's College Board account
     • in the Common App scholarship section.  

Spreadsheet with everything

1. It is useful to have a Google Sheet and share access, so the parents can see and help/remind/discuss with the student
2. One general tab with a list of "interesting" schools. Helpful columns:
   1. school name
   2. school's website
   3. school's code (for reporting scores or for FAFSA/CSS)
   4. application due dates
      • • early
        • regular
   5. application fee
   6. US News school ranking 
   7. requires CSS
   8. NPC
   9. (later) applied or not
   10. (later) decision date
   11. (later) UID
   12. (later) URL of the portal where additional material might be uploaded (typically financial aid info about CSS, parents' W-2, etc)
   13. (later) accepted or not
   14. (later, if accepted) scholarship
   15. (later, if accepted) total price of attendance
3. one tab for each school. Helpful columns
   1. additional questions/essay prompts and the word count for each one
   2. school-specific offerings 
   3. Honors Program Y/N and requirements
   4. credits (see the section College credits below)
4. one tab for scholarships

College credits -

Your student can earn lots of college credits (meaning they could skip certain courses in college) while in high school through:

1. AP classes - score-dependent and school-dependent
2. Dual-credit classes - not offered by all high schools - 
3. Seal of Biliteracy - satisfies the language requirement and could also earn credits (here is an ex: at UIUC is worth 8 credit hours; check with each university, since credit varies by school.)

Support

1. Fb group Paying for College 101 - it is NOT just about what you pay. However, it is a rabbit hole and really time-consuming as there are many helpful info. 
2. Watch our events page for informal roundtable support meetings for the ROCO parents. 

Disclaimer 

This is shared parent experience, not professional advice, and policies change. Please check the date this was published on.