College Counseling

Counseling

Senior Families: Will You Have Two Students in College Next Year?

Due to the FAFSA changes, colleges will no longer consider the number of students in a family that are attending college at the same time. Families in this situation should contact the financial aid offices for BOTH students (the student currently attending college and the current SFHS senior) and ask them to re-evaluate their financial aid offers (once offers are available).  If possible, have the student call or submit the scholarship/financial aid appeal. 

Counseling Jennifer Ferrara

Summer: College Essay Writing Workshop
June 10 – 14, 8:00 am to 10:00 am

During the College Essay Writing Workshop, students will commit to drafting, editing, and finalizing their personal statement/Common Application main essay, in addition to selecting at least two supplemental essay topics to finish. With full engagement to the tasks of the week, all students will end the workshop with a plan in place to tackle any remaining writing tasks with support from their peers and the workshop instructor.

Counseling Debbie Austin Naomi Lee

Summer: College Application Workshop
June 24 – June 28, 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Working directly with the SFHS College Advisors, rising seniors will gain an understanding of the functionality of the Common Application, the UC application, and the CSU application. Specifically, students will complete all common components of the Common Application except for the essay and colleges’ supplemental questions. Students will work on the Activities and Honors section of the UC application as well as brainstorm ideas and develop drafts of the UC Personal Insight Questions.

Counseling Debbie Austin Naomi Lee

Summer: College Roadmap for the McQueens
June 24 – June 28, 9:00 am – 11:00 am

This course is for St. Francis students who want to get a head start on their college planning. The course will cover the following topics; self-evaluation, values assessment, deciding what’s important in their future and goal setting. Students will also learn how to maximize their high school experience; making high school count, ie. extracurricular activities, service, involvement, leadership. The SFHS College Advisors will guide students through utilizing Naviance, the resume builder and other college planning-related features.

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College Planning Meetings for Juniors

Ms. Austin and Ms. Lee have been meeting with juniors throughout the month for their one-on-one College Planning Meetings. These meetings will continue until the end of the semester. Juniors should check their email for a Google Calendar invite and respond promptly, especially if the meeting needs to be rescheduled for any reason. 

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FAFSA Delays and Extension to Intent to Register Deadlines

The U.S. Department of Education announced on January 30 that it would begin sending student FAFSA information to universities starting in mid-March – approximately two months later than initially planned. This means that colleges and universities across the country won’t receive the federal data within the timeline needed to deliver financial aid offer letters to prospective students. In response to the FAFSA processing delays, most colleges and universities are extending their Intent to Register deadline from May 1 to May 15 or June 1, so that students have time to compare financial aid offers.

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Does Your College Need CSS Profile?

Due to the FAFSA delays, some colleges and universities have started requesting that families complete the CSS Profile, as schools can instantly receive the financial information from the CSS Profile and start working on financial aid award letters.  Even if a college did not initially require the CSS Profile, seniors and parents should be checking all college websites and emails from colleges to determine if they have temporarily adopted the use of the CSS Profile.

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Seniors: Read your Email and Check College Portals!

The vast majority of colleges have set up a school-specific portal for applicants to utilize. Seniors must check their college portals often, as well as check email often, as colleges will use these two methods of communication to let students know important information. NOTE: your college portal may not show that your FAFSA has been received, even if you have already filed the FAFSA. This is due to the delay in FAFSA information being released to colleges (see newsletter entry above).

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Mid-Year Transcripts for Seniors

We will be uploading mid-year transcripts (which include grades from the first semester of senior year) to Common Application accounts for colleges to access.  Students do not need to make a special request — we will take care of this. If you have any non-Common App schools that require a mid-year transcript, please complete the Google form Mrs. Rivera will email on January 16th. 

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The 2024-25 FAFSA is open

The Department of Education launched the newly streamlined FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form with periodic availability on December 31, 2023. During the next few weeks, you may receive a message on the FAFSA homepage that the form is unavailable due to form or site maintenance. If the FAFSA is unavailable when you or your family members try to access it, please try again later.

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Seniors: Take Action if You’ve Been Deferred

If you applied Early Action or Early Decision, you may receive a deferral from a college or university.  This means that the school will move your application to the Regular Decision pool and they would like to see your first semester grades. Read emails and portal notifications carefully, as some colleges will require you to “opt in” to the deferral process. If you do not opt in, your application will not be transferred to the Regular Decision pool.

Post Sunny Rivera

Scholarship Bulletins

Mrs. Rivera emails a Scholarship Bulletin to the senior class approximately every month. The bulletin includes many local and regional scholarships. Seniors need to be checking their email regularly for communication from Mrs. Rivera and their College Advisors.

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Is Something Missing? (Probably not)

If seniors receive an email from a college stating that something is missing, please see your College Advisor so we can help you resolve this issue.  Colleges are uploading thousands of documents daily and they often get behind in updating portals. 

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Seniors – Check College Applicant Portals and Emails

Portals are the places where colleges keep applicant information and where you can update contact information, monitor application status, upload and track documents, and view the final admission decision.  You need to check your emails and portals daily throughout the winter months. If you miss a request for more information or an additional document, you could jeopardize your admission chances, so check regularly.

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Naviance

Have some free time over break? Spend some time in Naviance! Naviance is a great resource for College and Career exploration and there is so much to check out in there. As a reminder, we assigned some tasks for Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors to complete. We will be going over your results during your 1-on-1 meeting next semester with your counselor. If you have not yet completed these tasks, please do so over break. 

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What is ELEDEF?

Every Lunch, Every Day, Except Fridays – that’s what ELEDEF is!  Seniors will find one or both College Advisors available at tables in front of the Counseling & College Center every lunchtime from September through November (except Fridays, of course). We are available to answer questions, proofread applications, brainstorm ideas for essays and PIQs and anything else that seniors need help with.