Orientation / Overview
A good first step in the college search process is composing the Academic Resume. The Academic Resume is simply a summary of your high school career. It will include a lot of the same information that will be requested on your college applications. Taking the time now to create an academic resume will help you decide which accomplishments to highlight. Maybe reviewing your sports, jobs, piano lessons, etc., will spark an idea that you can work into a Personal Statement. (A job for another day!). Having all the information gathered in one place will make college applications a lot easier. And it will give you a chance to reflect on what's been important to you during high school. You'll find a template you can use here.
It can sometimes be hard to look back on what you've done so far. Maybe you can't think of anything. It might seem like your resume is skimpy. It's okay. Just get the basics organized. You can build from there as we go along. Remember that you can rearrange the resume. If Athletics are your super strength, move that up higher on the resume. If Music or Art are your thing, make a new heading. What's important to you? What's close to your heart?
We also suggest you clean up your email address, if yours is iffy (partyboyz4ever@gmail is iffy), because email is how colleges will communicate with you. Take this time, too, to review your online presence. If there are pictures or comments that don't represent you in a good light, remove them from your social media accounts.
It can sometimes be hard to look back on what you've done so far. Maybe you can't think of anything. It might seem like your resume is skimpy. It's okay. Just get the basics organized. You can build from there as we go along. Remember that you can rearrange the resume. If Athletics are your super strength, move that up higher on the resume. If Music or Art are your thing, make a new heading. What's important to you? What's close to your heart?
We also suggest you clean up your email address, if yours is iffy (partyboyz4ever@gmail is iffy), because email is how colleges will communicate with you. Take this time, too, to review your online presence. If there are pictures or comments that don't represent you in a good light, remove them from your social media accounts.
College Fit / List Building
Maybe you're wondering if college is for you. Please go here for thoughts on WHY GO TO COLLEGE, including 7 wrong reasons to count out college.
Assuming that you're interested in going to college after high school (and please know that there are excellent options other than a four-year college), how do you go about making a list of good-fit (consider location, academics, social life, and financial reality) colleges to which you'll apply? Your biggest challenge will be to reflect on what's important to you now, and to anticipate what will be important to you in the future. This means that you need to spend some time thinking about yourself, what is important to you, and why.
What to do next:
Now is a good time to bring up something important called Demonstrated Interest. Demonstrated Interest is the degree to which you show a college that you are sincerely interested in coming to their school. It has become an important tool that colleges use to efficiently and accurately enroll a target number of students each year. It's a little bit of a performance piece. You're not sure where you absolutely want go, yet, right? Schools don't know much or anything about you, yet, right? Say you think it would be great to attend Oberlin, or University of Arizona, or Kalamazoo. It behooves you to demonstrate your interest so that these schools know you're alive! How do you show demonstrated interest? You can attend a college visit at CHS in room 213. You can travel to the school and take a campus tour, sit in on a class, meet with a professor or a coach. You can go to a regional college fair. You might participate in a local alumni club function.
What can you do if you are not able to travel? Check the schools' websites. If there's a sign-up form to take a virtual tour, fill it out. Is there a regional admissions representative you can contact, to ask questions? Does the school offer any webinars? If so, sign up. If you're really interested in a particular school, contact the admissions office and ask if there are alumni you could talk with.
Assuming that you're interested in going to college after high school (and please know that there are excellent options other than a four-year college), how do you go about making a list of good-fit (consider location, academics, social life, and financial reality) colleges to which you'll apply? Your biggest challenge will be to reflect on what's important to you now, and to anticipate what will be important to you in the future. This means that you need to spend some time thinking about yourself, what is important to you, and why.
What to do next:
- Complete the College Match Self-Survey from Dr. Steven Antonoff's book College Match. To do so, go to Dr. Antonoff's website: schoolbuff.com. Click on the College Match Self-Survey link. There are some other helpful worksheets there, too, so do some exploring!
- Log into MaiaLearning. Use the tools. Set the search filters according to your interests and your answers to the College Match Self-Survey.
- Create a spreadsheet or list of 10-15 colleges that are a potential match. Write down the colleges you've heard of, and the colleges you haven't heard of.
- Now virtually visit some of these colleges. Check out YouVisit virtual tours. There are tons of virtual college tours on YouTube, and colleges offer them on their websites. Nothing compares to a real, in-person college visit, but a virtual tour can help you narrow down your list.
Now is a good time to bring up something important called Demonstrated Interest. Demonstrated Interest is the degree to which you show a college that you are sincerely interested in coming to their school. It has become an important tool that colleges use to efficiently and accurately enroll a target number of students each year. It's a little bit of a performance piece. You're not sure where you absolutely want go, yet, right? Schools don't know much or anything about you, yet, right? Say you think it would be great to attend Oberlin, or University of Arizona, or Kalamazoo. It behooves you to demonstrate your interest so that these schools know you're alive! How do you show demonstrated interest? You can attend a college visit at CHS in room 213. You can travel to the school and take a campus tour, sit in on a class, meet with a professor or a coach. You can go to a regional college fair. You might participate in a local alumni club function.
What can you do if you are not able to travel? Check the schools' websites. If there's a sign-up form to take a virtual tour, fill it out. Is there a regional admissions representative you can contact, to ask questions? Does the school offer any webinars? If so, sign up. If you're really interested in a particular school, contact the admissions office and ask if there are alumni you could talk with.