November College Readiness Tips for Teachers and Lay College Advocates

1.      End of senior year testing reminders.

• November 11 is the new deadline to register for the December10 ACT. http://www.actstudent.org/regist/dates.html).
• November 8 is the deadline for the December 3 SAT. http://sat.collegeboard.org/registerhttp://sat.collegeboard.org/register
• Remember kids can take each test twice for free and send four test scores for free per test.

2. Good news for undocumented students:

• In October, Governor Brown signed AB 131 into law enabling undocumented students to qualify for California financial aid. Bad news. It doesn’t go into effect until the 2013-2014 school. Year.
• Earlier this summer he signed AB 130 into law that allows undocumented students to qualify for private scholarships at public universities. That goes into effect January 1, 2012.
• So tell your undocumented students to have patience and to apply for scholarships from this list. http://www.scholarshipsaz.org/collateral/scholarships.pdf. For high school seniors attending public school in Los Angeles, there is a $500 scholarship available. Students must attend a workshop on November 12.  Students can download the College is For Everyone (CIFE) application and get more info at the CORE website at http://www.ca-core.org/resources.

3.  The UC applications can be submitted November 1- November 30. Remind students to apply for EOP. It doesn’t require an extra application. Just a short explain why. Low-income students (including undocumented students) can apply to four UCs at no charge. Remember, students can send test scores to one UC, and that UC will send the scores to the other UCs on the students’ lists.

4.   The Cal State applications are due November 30. The EOP application is separate. http://www.csumentor.edu/admissionapp/eop_apply.asp/ Please remind them to provide details in the EOP short answers. Low-income students (not undocumented) can apply for four Cal States for free. Students can send SAT scores to CSU Mentor and ACT scores through ACT Score Manager.

5. Essays, essays, essays!!! Tell your students to spend time on their essays. This is the only way they can differentiate themselves in the application process. They need to tell specific stories and make clear their leadership and initiative. I have attached my 10 tips for writing powerful college application essays below. Ideally, in at least one essay, students should describe the world they come from and show how they have made a difference in it.

6.  Scholarship applications. Many scholarships are due this fall. Please beg your students to apply to as many scholarships as possible. The Hispanic Scholarship Fund is a great place to start.  Students can reuse essays that they write for their college applications. http://www.hsf.net/.

7.  Private colleges. Encourage students to apply to four or five private colleges. Again, these applications are free for low-income students. The Center for Student Opportunity has a list of colleges that are friendly to first generation/under-represented students. http://csopportunity.org/. Many private colleges offer full scholarships to top undocumented students. For a list of these schools, go to http://getmetocollege.org

8. Remind kids to keep their grades up. Private colleges see fall grades. The UCs and Cal States don’t see grades until the end of the year, but they take away acceptances from kids whose grades fall and who receive any Ds or Fs.

9. Encourage kids to get ready to apply for financial aid. Kids need to apply for financial aid. Attend Cash for College events in your area and other events to encourage kids to apply for financial aid. The LA Cash for College is December 7 and 8. Book a bus to take your students to this great event. http://www.lacashforcollege.org/home.html

10.  Plan alumni visits. Please invite kids who are attending college to come visit your classrooms in November. Many can come in the Tuesday or Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Ask them to describe what makes college so fun. Ask alumni to mentor a student or two in your class.

1. Help students with their state university applications. In California, the Cal State and UC applications came online October 1. Both must be submitted by November 30. The Cal States can be submitted October 1-November 30, while the UCs can be submitted November 1-30. Both applications have students self-report their course and grades, so they need access to their transcripts. Please help them with their application completion. Other public university systems are all online. Help students!!!

2. Encourage seniors to apply for EOP and other support programs. These programs provided amazing support for low-income students throughout the admissions, college readiness, and college survival process. The Cal States have a separate EOP application with several short responses and two required recommendations. As space is limited, have students apply as early as possible. http://www.csumentor.edu/AdmissionApp/eop_apply.asp

On the UC application, students just have to check that they want to be considered for EOP.

3.  Inform students about college application fee waivers. Students who qualify for free or reduced lunch qualify for fee waivers for most college applications. The Cal States and UCs allow students to apply to four of their campuses for free. Private colleges accept NACAC or College Board fee waivers or will waive fees if counselors, teachers, or students request them for students. http://professionals.collegeboard.com/guidance/applications/fee-waivers

Undocumented students qualify for fee waivers for most colleges, except for the Cal States and public colleges in Arizona and some southern states.

4. Hold college application and college essay workshops before, during, and after school. Your students need help with their essays. These essays make them pop for college admissions officers who are desperate for your students. Make the essays requirements for English or hold workshops after school. Help them read great samples and see ways to use their essays more than once. They need to tell unique stories that grab reads from the first sentence. See our ten tips that we have attached with this email. Read the article about our approach in the New York Times. http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/nacac-essa/

5. Remind seniors of upcoming standardized tests. Yes, students can still take the SAT, ACT, or SAT Subject Tests. They can qualify for two fee waivers per test. Encourage them to keep trying as their scores usually go up.

SAT/SAT Subject Tests (http://sat.collegeboard.org/register/sat-dates)

• Nov 5 (Oct 9 registration). Listening part of foreign language tests offered.
• Dec 3 (Nov 8 registration)
• Jan 28 (Dec 30 registration)

ACT Tests (http://www.actstudent.org/regist/dates.html)

• Oct 22 (Late and walk in registration)
• Dec 10 (Nov 4 registration)

6. Help students learn more about colleges by attending college and non-profit events in your area. Colleges are in your area in October. Find out where they are or take your students to a college fair. If your high school doesn’t have a college night, perhaps you can crash one at a local public high school in your area. The Hispanic Scholarship Fund is holding free Steps for Success on Saturdays this fall in key states. http://www.hsf.net/workshops.aspx

7. Continue to encourage students to research colleges online. Colleges want your students. But students need to apply to match colleges. The Center for Student Opportunity (CSO) has a great guide that features colleges that welcome diverse students and free resources. http://www.csopportunity.org. You University offers great video tours of colleges. http://www.youniversitytv.com/ Take advantage of College Week Live. This free website offers amazing webinars and workshops for students applying to college. http://www.collegeweeklive.com/

8. Write great letters of recommendation. Please write recommendations that make your students pop. Follow our Into-Through-Beyond approach so that you can help colleges see why these students belong on their campuses. Give details about their academic performance if you’re a teacher. Highlight their leadership and initiative if you’re a counselor. If you can’t remember or just don’t know them, have them submit detailed brag sheets. These letters can make or break an admissions or scholarship decision for a first gen student. PLEASE WRITE YOUR LETTERS ONLINE!!!

9. Connect with current college students. Keep ongoing contact with your graduates. Ask these students to write tips for your students and post them around the classroom and college center.

10. A PLEA…Help homesick college freshmen. We send out students away, and in October they begin to get very homesick. Their parents often can’t visit them, and they are beginning to struggle, at times, with their workload. So please keep in touch with freshmen. Send them care packages. Or just FB message or text them. They need your ongoing support.

“There’s a 104 days of summer vacation and school comes along just to end it. So the annual problem for our generation is finding a good way to spend it. Like maybe…”

Phineas and Ferb

Summer vacation is a perfect opportunity to explore and develop your interests. With your months off school, you finally have the opportunity to do the things you wanted to do during the school year but just didn’t have the time. I used my summers well, and now I’m into my top colleges.

Interested in science after sophomore year, I spent my summer learning about stem cell research in a lab in the Texas Medical Center. I enjoyed it so much that the summer before my senior year, I went to Pittsburgh to partake in a cancer research internship. I learned so much about myself and the field of science during those two summers—I was able to see the difference between classroom science and real life science. In a classroom, all your experiments are set up to work—they’ve been done before. In the lab, however, you don’t know what your results are going to look like before you try an experiment. Through my summers I discovered the satisfaction of being able to turn a mystery into a known.

To plan your summer, I suggest you make a list of your interest and priorities. Are you interested in career exploration? Sports camps? Community Service? Animals? Learning a new language? Tutoring younger kids? Once you have that list, do some research online to find opportunities available in your area. You could also ask one of your teachers if they have any suggestions for opportunities. You could volunteer at the zoo, the hospital, or even your favorite museum! You could even do multiple things if time permits.

One thing that I learned early: a lot of these summer opportunities require applications and even teacher recommendations. Start these early! There are a vast number of applications that are due in February and March and some even work on a first come first serve basis—this is no time to procrastinate! These applications will determine how you spend 1-3 months of your life.

Using your summer months wisely could enhance or complement your school curriculum, as my science research complemented my biology and chemistry classes. Summer activities are a great way to learn more about yourself and your interests. What if you also did research in a lab one summer and hated it with a passion? Did you waste your time? Not at all — at least can you rule that career option out. But what if you campaigned for a candidate in a local election and realized you loved politics? All I can say is that the risk might be worth the reward.

Advice to juniors:

Juniors! Start the college admissions process early! Ignore the friends who call you lame and say that you don’t need to start early, because you do.

Once the Common Application comes out (or any online application), definitely take the time to fill in the basic information stuff. When you are close to the end of your application, the smallest jobs will stress you out, so there’s no reason to add that to your list.

Next: Make a list, with all the kinds of schools you can see yourself at. If that list ends up bringing together liberal arts schools with polytechnic institutes and large, state schools, so be it! As your interests change, the list will become smaller. Eventually, it will reflect where you really see yourself, and it’s totally fine to have that level of diversity in type of schools you are looking for.

Don’t be afraid to set standards for yourself. If you want to be in an environment that is at least 40% students of color, then go for it! Find the things that mean the most to you in a college experience. Out of the hundreds of schools to choose from, some of them will fill your needs.

Most importantly—work on essays, and start them early! Your essays really do hold so much potential. It’s your only chance to create something completely individual to yourself, and your slacking off freshman year can’t ruin it (the way we all claim our GPA was lowered). I know if your school requires five four essays, it might cause you to have a mini freak out, but keep this in mind: the more essays they ask for, the more opportunities you have to talk about yourself. The five essays I had to write for my first choice took me a long way. In fact, I got into my first choice! And since then, my admissions officer has sent me letters quoting parts of my essays. So trust me, when you search yourself and find the motivation and effort to write your essays, they will notice, as long as you write the story that  “only you can write,” something a wise woman once told me.

And here’s one more thing. In the midst of your college application process, find something you love doing—whether it’s singing, dancing, or sleeping, and do it. Make sure that your first semester is more than just stress. Try and make it enjoyable for the times when you aren’t working on college apps. It’ll keep you alive.

Good luck guys!

Makshya

Firs generation college goer

Admitted Early Action to Stanford University, Class of 2015

Low-income, latino males, Arthur and Jesus shares their reasons for applying to private four year colleges. Arthur shares financial reasons, while Jesus shares experiential reasons. Going away doesn’t mean they won’t come back and enrich their communities. Even students with grades that are not the top can great full scholarships to great private colleges. They are looking for diverse students.

Martin gives his advice about going to college fairs. He talked with college representatives, made contacts, and even found the college he attends this way. Go to college fairs and tell your story. Start a conversation!!! They want you!!!

Martin is a sophomore at Villanova college. He has a Presential Scholarship!!!

Johanna Villanueva 

University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2014 

Hometown: Los Angeles 

High School: John C Fremont 

 My First Month at Penn

So one month is officially done with, and it amazes me that I have survived. This first month was definitely a difficult one. I remember the first day of class being the most depressing since, unlike high school, you don’t (usually) have classes with your friends. I remember that day feeling really lonely. For me, being in a place where I know no one is particularly hard because it is definitely not my comfort zone.  

 As soon as my classes were official, I started meeting people. I’m actually a really shy person, so the only way this happened was through my friend Gaby who is really outgoing and meets people as a hobby. I have her for my calculus class(large lecture) and writing seminar (about 16 ppl). 

 For my two other classes, Freshman seminar (about 10) and my psychology class (about 300) I don’t know many people. In my freshman seminar, I only know one guy whom I met through my peer advising group. He’s also in my math recitation (really small class). Still haven’t warmed up to anyone since I only see them once a week and then never again. Or I forget what they look like. My psychology class is too big to know anyone. I’m pretty sure there is someone, but I haven’t seen them. I sit alone usually. I sit in the same exact row every time I go to that class and as the weeks progressed I’ve enjoyed it much more. Sure, there is absolutely no personal attention, but the class is interesting and I meet new ppl everyday. (Apparently I’m the only one who likes to sit in that exact same row every time.) One thing I’ve learned this month is that no one tells you to do your work. I’m sure you’ve been told this before, but seriously. If you don’t write an essay, your professor doesn’t talk to you and urge you to complete it. Plus, if you have a question or look like you need help, you have to seek help. Office hrs are really useful. 

 I don’t want to make college sound horrible, it’s actually pretty great. I came here with the preconception that I was going to be overly depressed and that I wasn’t going to meet anyone, but I guess what’s helped me through this is the fact that everyone is going through the same thing. In my suite, I have friends that are always inviting me to eat, watch Glee on Hulu, watch a random movie, play Taboo, buy Penn’s awesomest cookies known as Insomnia Cookies, go to shows,etc. My roommate is pretty awesome and the very first day we set ground rules and so far, things have worked out great. Dorm life is probably the coolest part of being in college.

 My biggest fear coming to college was the whole growing up thing. It still hasn’t sunk in, but I think it is because being in college away from home hasn’t been that different. Sure, I’m away doing my own thing. Not having to ask permission to do anything. But I still feel like I’m near my family and friends. Facebook makes it possible and calling and skype. and having a huge picture wall.  Midterms are coming up, and the only advice I have here is don’t procrastinate. I procrastinate tons, but I am very organized and keep track of what’s due when and when I’m going to do it. Also, don’t procrastinate essays, they don’t turn out that well. There is more I’m sure, but I can’t recall it at the moment.   Can’t wait for fall break this weekend. Going to visit my friend at Princeton. But before that, need to focus on midterms. Yay.