The Guidance Office will be sponsoring a workshop for parents PAYING FOR COLLEGE on Tuesday, Dec. 9th at 7:00 pm in the PAC. Heather McDonnell, Director of Financial Aid at Sarah Lawrence College, will be the speaker. The program is designed for parents of college-bound students, grades 9 - 12.

Guidance Notes

As we approach the beginning of the school year and the start of the college application process, we want to give you some information about standardized testing dates and procedures for processing your applications.  For more specific information, please refer to the PVHS College Planning Handbook that you received last spring.  If you misplaced your copy, you can get another one in the Guidance Office.

Standardized testing

If you are planning on taking the SATs this fall, you should register as early as possible.  The fastest way is to register on-line at www.collegeboard.com.  

By setting up an account or using the account you set up last spring, you can register, obtain your scores and make arrangements to send the scores to colleges.  When you take fall SATs you should have your scores sent directly to colleges. If you want to use a paper registration form, it is available in the Guidance Office.

If you are planning to take the ACT this fall, you can register on-line at www.actstudent.org.  You should arrange to have your scores sent to colleges by ACT.

The high school code is 334651.

Remember you must make arrangements to have your SAT or ACT scores sent directly to colleges from the testing bureaus.  Your high school transcript does not include these standardized test scores.

College Open Houses

The Guidance Office receives information about college open house programs.  These flyers are posted on one of the bulletin boards outside of the Guidance Office.  Check those boards regularly for information.

College admissions counselors also come to PVHS to meet with interested students.  Flyers about these visits are posted outside the Guidance Office.
You can check the schedule of visits on the Guidance Office page on the Putnam Valley School District website. 

There will be an evening college fair at Yorktown High School in October.  More detailed information will be mailed home in early September.

Applications, transcripts and recommendations

Since it can take some time to process an application, we encourage you to start them as early as possible.  Teachers need time to complete your letter of recommendation so you want to talk with them early this fall.

All college applications require official high school transcripts and other supporting information.  Early decision or action applications with a November 1st deadline should be submitted to your counselor by October 22nd and applications with January 1st deadline should be submitted by December 10th.  If you apply to a college on-line, make sure that you fill out a request form in Guidance so we know that you have applied and we can send your transcript and letters.  Before we can send your transcript, we must have a signed transcript release form on file.  Many of you gave us this form in the spring.  If you are not sure if you did, please check with your counselor.

The counselors will do classroom presentations in September about applications and the admissions process.

More than 250 colleges use the Common Application.  You can access the application and do it on-line or download a paper copy at www.commonapp.org.   Some colleges that use the Common Application also have supplemental forms which are also available at this site. Even if you aren’t ready to start your applications yet, you can get a preview of the essay topics at this site. 

The SUNY system also has a common application. You can access it at www.suny.edu/student/apply_online.  Some of the SUNY colleges use this common application but also require supplemental information.  You can access information about individual colleges’ supplements at this site.

Essays and resumes

What makes a good application essay?  How do you get started?
Ms. Capodanno and Mrs. Zagorski will be talking to interested seniors about writing your college essays on Tuesday, September 24th at 2:00 in the Guidance Office.

How do you organize your activities and accomplishments to show colleges what you have done?
Come talk about options for your resume and look at samples on Thursday, Oct. 2nd at 2:00 in the Guidance Office.

Scholarships

All scholarship information that is received in the Guidance Office is posted on the scholarship bulletin board outside the Guidance Office.  Information is also posted on the Guidance Office page of the district website.  Guidance Notes will be mailed home during the school year.  They contain information about scholarship opportunities.   You can also do a scholarship search at www.collegeboard.com or at www.finaid.org.

The FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) will be available later in the fall at www.fafsa.ed.gov.  The form should not be submitted earlier than January 1st, 2009.

The High School is sponsoring a speaker on the Financial Aid process on December 9th at 7:00 in the PAC.  This program is open to students and their families.

Counselors: