Juniors and Parents/Guardians, The counselors are excited to continue our partnership with you and your student through their post-secondary planning. This time of year brings many opportunities and questions surrounding the search and application experience. Please note the following resources and events to aid your family.
Seminars Counselors had/have planning Seminars with all Juniors on: September 18: Resources to navigate post-secondary options, Testing, College Visits December 4: Test prep, Careers/Majors, School Sort tool to craft a college list February 9: Registration and senior year planning March 17: Application steps (2-yr, Military, 4-Yr), Transcripts, Letters of Recommendation, Financial Aid *If a student missed their Seminar, they are archived on the student's Canvas page under Junior Seminar.
College Planning Night March 3, 2021 6:00 p.m. Counselors will present on the college application experience to parents. Watch the Parent Newsletter for details.
ACT/SAT Testing All juniors will take the ACT on March 2, 2021 at WHS during the school day. The landscape of standardized testing is changing by the day for the Class of 2022. Many colleges have already declared they will remain Test-Optional due to the pandemic, while others have not yet decided. Bottom line, prepare and take an ACT or SAT. We can team with you next fall to determine if scores should be sent.
Junior Individual Meeting We encourage every student to schedule a junior meeting with their counselor before the end of the year. Students can click here to schedule that meeting. Then scroll "Student Support Scheduler". Parents are welcome to join but it is not mandatory. *It is beneficial if students have taken the initial steps presented in the Seminar prior to this meeting but not required.
College Visits Visiting a college campus is a great way to get a feel for the overall atmosphere of a particular school. A school may feel very different from what is conveyed through their literature on their website. Currently, many schools are offering virtual college visit experiences, and some are offering in-person visits. Visit each individual college's website to find out more information about college visit details. Spring break is a great time to visit college campuses.
Selective College Night Join the Wayzata High School Counselors and a panel of college representatives from Boston College, Notre Dame, Macalester, MIT, and Northwestern on Monday, March 10 at 6:00 p.m. via Zoom. Representatives will cover topics including trends, essays, recommendation letters, application tips.
College Fairs Attend upcoming virtual college fairs to assist in your college exploration experience.
Virtual College Exploration Fair for all Minnesota Students: March 9-11, 2021 Over 150 reps from two-year and four-year schools will provide helpful tips on:
Registration for this FREE event will be available starting February 16, 2021 at https://www.mn-acac.org.
NACAC Virtual College Fair Join and sign up now at Virtualcollegefairs.org and register for one or more fairs: Sessions cover topics such as how to apply, financial aid, student life, and more. You can watch, learn, and get your questions answered about academics, athletics, diversity, study abroad, and other topics. You can also text chat or meet one-on-one with a college's admission counselor by selecting a virtual meeting date and time.
College and Career Center College Rep Visits Many colleges visit WHS in the spring and fall. Upcoming visits will be listed in the students WHS Hub. Students are encouraged to attend!
Tools Throughout their years at WHS students have access to tools that are helpful in researching potential careers, education required for those careers and college search engines to help hone the list. Naviance students use their Family Access username and password to login. We find the Scattergrams especially helpful when trying to determine if a school is a Target, Reach or Safety school--based on historical data from past WHS graduates.
MCIS students use their Family Access username and password with WHS in front of it to login. We like the Reality Check activity and the School Sort as well as the free Practice SAT/ACT/ASVAB tests offered.
WHS Counseling Website offers loads of information from testing to the college search experience as a whole and financial planning. There is also a great Post High School Planning Guide that you can use to walk through the application experience from start to finish.
College Applications Open August 1 All college applications are open by this date. All applications are online and you will find them on the colleges website. Common App is accepted by many colleges and offers the student the opportunity to fill out 1 application and send it to multiple schools. Click on the link and see if any of the schools you're looking at are accepting CommonApp. A great place to start! *Application Help Sessions - offered in the month of August. Stay tuned for more information.
As always, your counselor is here to help your student in this exciting journey! ~The WHS Counseling Team |