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.

In this short and sweet video, one Latina mom lets other parents know it is okay to let their children go away to go. Both her daughters went away to schools.

“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.

Today, I’d like to talk to you about planning your own semester, particularly in terms of testing.

When I was a junior, I took the SAT in March with full intentions of retaking and beating my score in October. After studying and taking the March SAT, I evaluated my scores and set a reasonable goal for the next time I was to take the SAT.

As SAT classes can be expensive, I went to my local bookstore and library to peruse prep books.

If you choose to do what I did and take the SAT in March, be sure to take advantage of the College Board online SAT score reports, which was particularly useful in guiding my studies between March and October. You can use fee waivers to take the test twice at no cost.

The deadline for the March 12 SAT is February 11.  So, you have time. There are no SAT Subject Tests that date.

The other spring dates are May 7 (Register by April 8th) and June 4 (Register by May 6th).

Sign up to take the SAT now!!!

http://sat.collegeboard.com/register/sat-dates

Gabriel in Action

About ten weeks ago I started my first year, and quarter, here at UCLA. I was nervous and a little scared, yet once I got started there was no looking back. I was faced with many challenges along the way, one of which was reading several scholarly level texts that I frankly had no clue what they were about. As time when on I discovered that even though it may seem impossible at times, you can actually do it. I remember reading the same paragraphs over and over, but once I understood it the feeling of self-accomplishment motivated me to go on.

I stayed up several nights reading, writing papers, and rehearsing choreography, but at the end of the day I knew that it would all be worth it. My hard work and sleepless nights paid off because I was able to succeed in all my classes. When my papers were handed back to me, looking at the A’s and B’s showed me that all my efforts were paying off. I was getting the grades that I wanted it was gratifying to see what I have accomplished.

Although college can be stressful at times, it does have a fun side. Living on campus was the best decision I ever made. My floor is really social and I have met the greatest people ever. Whenever I am feeling stressed I usually go to the lounge to relax and have funny conversations with my friends. My floor is really diverse and I have met and befriended many people of different races and ethnicities. We all share things about our own cultures with one another like different foods and even language. I am trying to teach my roommate Spanish and one of my friends is trying to teach me Mandarin. You are all probably wondering about the frat parties and to that I say, GO!!! Have fun and enjoy yourself, responsibly of course. It is always a good idea to let loose every once and a while to relieve some stress.

Now that the ten weeks are over, it is amazing to see how fast it went by. I have made so many memories with my new friends. The theme song for when my friends and I go out is “Memories” by David Guetta because we know that we will always have a blast on our random/spontaneous adventures. The quarter seems to go by in an instant, but the memories you create will last forever.