River Hill HIGH SCHOOL
BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT
AUGUST 27, 2015
(H-N) Mrs. Coe
(A-G) Mrs. Fairley
(O-Z) Dr. Saunders
AAM Mr. Lauer
Administrative
Team
Mrs. McKinley
Principal
Student Services
A-Da - Mr. Ives
De-J - Mrs. Babe
K-M - Mrs. Pizzo
N-Sm - Mr. Vangeli
Sn-Z - Mr. Krouse
ESOL - Mrs. Miller
Students show HAWK PRIDE
every day in every way!
❑
Punctuality
❑ Respect
❑ Integrity
❑ Determination
❑ Excellence
Student Responsibilities and
Behavior
Student and Parent Handbook, 2015-16
●HCPSS Policies
●Student Code of Conduct
●Safe Schools
●Family Involvement
GOALS OF EVENING
• To provide a clear understanding of how to request a
recommendation from your teacher and how to request
a transcript/letter of recommendation from Student
Services.
• To provide an overview of how to use the Common App
and other electronic applications.
• To provide strategies and input on the admissions
process.
• To understand how Naviance can help students with the
college application process.
Naviance Family Connection
connection.naviance.com/riverhillhigh
• Web based service designed especially for students
and parents.
• Comprehensive website that you and your child can
use to help in making decisions about courses,
colleges, and careers.
• Linked with Naviance Succeed, a service that we use
in our office to track and analyze data about college
and career plans, so it provides up-to-date
information that is specific to River Hill.
7
WHAT CAN STUDENTS AND PARENTS DO
USING FAMILY CONNECTION?
 View guidance news bulletins
 View college visits and sign up
 Create a résumé
 Complete a college search
 Complete a career search
 Develop a prospective college list
 Provide access to scholarship search engines; over a hundred national
scholarships are available
 Maintain journal entries
 Game Plan Survey
 Complete school developed surveys
 Compare colleges
 Links to selected third party resources
(i.e. College Board, Financial Aid, NCAA, Careers, College searches, etc.)
Track deadlines
 View scattergrams
8
THE COLLEGE
TRANSCRIPT PROCESS
REQUESTING
TRANSCRIPTS, LETTERS
OF RECOMMENDATION
Student Services PART
1 . S U B M I T WA I V E R O F R I G H T S F O R M
2. SUBMIT TRANSCRIPT REQUEST FORM
3 . M AT C H C O M M O N A P P A N D N AV I A N C E
Waiver of Rights:
This form must be
completed once by
all students
wishing to send
letters of
recommendation to
college.
Complete and
return to Student
Services before
you invite teachers
on Naviance!
TRANSCRIPT REQUEST FORM
Submit Transcript Request Form
The Transcript request form must be
submitted 20 school days prior to your
FIRST college deadline.
The deadline is October 1st
for the November 1 deadline!
Transcript Request Form
Return to
Student
Services
with $4 per
transcript!
ELECTRONIC SUBMISSION: WHAT GETS SENT?
ALL TRANSCRIPTS, LETTERS OF
RECOMMENDATION FROM COUNSELORS AND
TEACHERS WILL BE SENT THROUGH NAVIANCE
 A certified copy of your high school transcript which
includes your current schedule
 River Hill High School Profile
 Letter of recommendation from counselor (if requested)
Note:
1. Official transcripts CANNOT be released until after the first week
of October.
2. Midterm grade reports will be sent for all students to all schools
included on your transcript request form.
TEACHER PART
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
P E R S O N A L LY A S K T E A C H E R S ( S P R I N G )
COMPLETE TEACHER INPUT FORM
(SPRING)
R E Q U E S T T E A C H E R O N N AV I A N C E
(SPRING)
SUBMIT TEACHER REQUEST FORM
( H A R D C O P Y ) TO T E A C H E R
WRITE A THANK YOU NOTE!
ASK TEACHERS FOR LETTERS
Personally Ask Two Teachers
to Write your Letter of
Recommendation (Spring
Junior Year)
**It is imperative that you ask the teachers
face to face or send them an email
requesting this.
TEACHER INFORMATION FORM
When the teachers agree to
write your letter, complete
the teacher information
form. (Spring Junior Year)
TEACHER REQUEST ON NAVIANCE
Request Teachers on
Naviance (Spring
Junior Year)
INVITING
TEACHERS ON
NAVIANCE
Colleges tab

Colleges I’m Applying To

Under “Teacher
Recommendations” click
in “add/cancel requests”

Use the drop down menu
to select teacher(s)

Click “Update Requests”
button to finalize requests
TEACHER REQUEST FORM
Submit Teacher Request Form
The Teacher request form must be submitted
20 school days prior to your FIRST college
deadline.
The deadline is October 1st
for the November 1 deadline!
Complete
& return
to each of
your
teachers
SUGGESTIONS FROM TEACHERS
 Be sure you are including what you want written in
the recommendation in your teacher input form. This
is your opportunity to diversify your application.
 Be thoughtful of who you are asking to write your
recommendation.
 A thank you note is appreciated.
 Let the teachers know where you got accepted!
PARENT PART
Parents are asked to
complete the parent input
form to help counselors
write the letter of
recommendation. (Spring
Junior Year)
OTHER THINGS TO
CONSIDER
1 . C O M M O N A P P L I C AT I O N
2 . M AT C H I N G N AV I A N C E W I T H C O M M O N A P P
3 . S AT / A C T
4. MAKING A LIST
5 . U S I N G N AV I A N C E
6 . U P C O M I N G D AT E S
COMMON APPLICATION
Create a Common App
Account
Common Application can be used
to apply to over 600 Universities.
MATCH YOUR COMMON APPNAVIANCE
“Match” your Common
App account and your
Naviance account
Matching Common App &
Naviance
REGISTER AND STUDY FOR THE
SAT/ACT
Register for October 3rd
SAT
Deadline: September 3rd
th
24
Register for October
ACT Deadline: September 18th
CREATING A LIST
1-2 Reach schools
•
A school where you fall below the average GPA and SAT
Scores.
3-5 50/50 schools
•
Schools that you meet the GPA and SAT averages.
1-2 Safe Schools
•
Schools where you are clearly above the average GPA and
SAT’s.
BE OPEN MINDED AND REALISTIC
A SAFE SCHOOL NEEDS TO BE FINANCIALLY SAFE AS WELL
NAVIANCE CAN HELP YOU CREATE A LIST
ADMISSION DECISIONS
 Early Decision:
Early deadline, early response, BINDING
 Early Action
Early deadline, early response, NON-BINDING
 Priority Deadline
Students apply by an earlier deadline, and
priority over students who do not
Decisions are usually
receive
meet the deadline.
given by January 31
 Rolling Admissions
Students are accepted/denied as applications are
received
 Regular Admission
Apply by regular deadline (usually Jan 15) and
response by April 1
hear a
UPCOMING DATES
September 3:
SAT Deadline for October SAT.
October 1:
Deadline to request teacher recommendations for
November 1 college deadline.
October 1:
Deadline to request counselor recommendations for
November 1 college deadline.
November 1: Deadline for UMCP, UMBC, JMU, and most early
action
decisions.
December 1: Deadlines for Delaware, Towson
January/February 2015:
Complete FAFSA Form.
Nov - April 2015:
Receive Decisions from Colleges.
May 1, 2015:
Make Final Decision on School Attending
FAFSA = Free Application for Federal
Student Aid - www.fafsa.ed.gov
 First step in the financial aid process.
 Use to apply for federal student aid, such as grants,
loans and work-study.
 Allows students and their parents to borrow money to help
pay for college.
 Usually have low interest rates and offer attractive
repayment terms, benefits and options.
 Generally, repayment of a federal loan does not begin until
after the student leaves school.
 Can be used to pay school expenses such as tuition and
fees, room and board, books, supplies and transportation.
FAFSA = Free Application for Federal
Student Aid - www.fafsa.ed.gov
 Federal Deadline - Online applications must be
submitted by midnight Central Daylight Time, June
30, 2016. Any corrections or updates must be
submitted by midnight Central Daylight Time,
September 15, 2016.
 State Deadline (Maryland) – Must be received by
midnight March 1, 2016.
 College Deadline - Each college may have a
different deadline.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
1. Visit your prospective campuses. (Again.)
2. Make the most of your choice.
3. If money is an issue, see your counselor. There are lots of
ways to access college and many scholarship and grant
programs available.
4. “Don’t forget what you do in college is much more
important than where you go to college.” -- Philip A.
Ballinger, director of undergraduate admissions, University
of Washington, Seattle
HELPFUL HINTS
 Colleges look at your applications as a whole
package.
o
Use different parts of application to highlight different parts of
yourself, ie teacher rec, counselor rec, personal essay, short
answers
 Meet all deadlines.
 Utilize all your resources.
• Counselors, teachers, parents, friends, workshops at school,
admissions counselors, financial aid counselors
 Be realistic when making your list.
 Check the Naviance website for scholarships,
college information.