College Application Process
The college application process can be somewhat stressful for students and their families, and represents the busiest period of the year for the Guidance Office, as we process well over 1,000 requests to send supporting materials (transcripts, etc.) to colleges. In order to make the process go as smoothly as possible, parents and students should understand the procedures involved.
How it all works
- Spring of Junior Year: students meet with their counselors to begin learning about the college application process and are given a Naviance account.
- Early fall of Senior Year: students meet with their counselors again.
- Students use their Naviance account to organize their college applications, listing the colleges to which they plan to apply.
- Counselors write a recommendation for the students whose schools require this (most do).
- Ms. Kurose, Guidance Dept. Registrar, prepares the student's transcript of grades and submits it to each college on the student's list via Naviance. The counselor letter of recommendation, school profile, and School Report form are also submitted via Naviance.
- If the student's schools require teacher letters of recommendation, he or she should request these from teachers well in advance of any deadlines. Teachers may either mail their letters or submit them electronically. Students should talk to the teacher to find out which method he or she plans to use. If the teacher will be mailing the letter, the student must provide stamped, addressed envelopes (addressed to the colleges) to the teacher for this.
Deadlines
Students must inform their counselors of their application plans at least 2 weeks before any deadlines. For January 1 deadlines, students must inform their counselors by December 10th. Counselors will ask students to indicate, in their Naviance account, which schools they plan to apply to, and, as a back-up will ask them to sign off on a paper Release and Checklist form; this form will serve as a check and balance to make sure no application destinations fall through the cracks. Telephone calls or hand-written notes will not be considered adequate notice of application plans. If students give the office less than two weeks notice of deadlines, we will not guarantee that we can meet the deadline.
School Report Forms
Many colleges have a form for the guidance counselor to fill out to accompany the counselor's letter of recommendation. This will be done through Naviance for any school that accepts electronic transmission of documents. Students applying to schools that do NOT accept electronic transmission will need to print a school report form to give to their counselor (many of these schools do not require such a form).
Test Scores
Students are responsible for having their SAT or ACT test score reports sent to their schools from the College Board or from ACT. The Guidance Office will not routinely include these with other materials. If students feel that extenuating circumstances exist regarding the cost of having official score reports sent, they may speak to their counselors.
Naviance website for students' accounts
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| 41.95 KB | |
| 53.81 KB | |
| 52.9 KB |
