• Required financial aid applications and deadlines for these

• Make sure you get any recommendations, transcripts, and other necessary material for your application

• When asking for a recommendation make sure you give the person at least two weeks before its due, and give each person all pertinent information about you to write a good recommendation

• If your plan is to play sports in college, and you've already (or should have already) researched the NCAA (National College Athletic Association) eligibility requirements, and made sure you have completed the courses required by the NCAA to be eligible, the next step is to make sure the NCAA has your transcript.  As a Junior the NCAA may have required you to have the Guidance office upload your transcript.  You will then need to let Guidance know to upload your Final Graduate Transcript at the end of your Senior year.  

Applying early action or early decision?

• Note that when applying early decision, if accepted you are locked in at that time

• Colleges may require official test scores, if so you can send them, for a fee, through collegeboard.org

• Early decision or early action applications are typically due much sooner than regular applications, check each college for their due dates

Financial Aid

• CHECK OUT OUR "FINANCIAL AID INFORMATION" PAGE UNDER "COLLEGE PLANNING"!!

• Attend Financial Aid night at the high school in the cafeteria, which is scheduled for September 2017.

• Complete the FAFSA after October 1

• If applying to a private college vs. a state school, talk to your counselor regarding the CSS/Financial Aid profile and learn what to do

• Review the scholarships available and apply!  This is money for college that does not need to be paid back!

• Reducing the ultimate costs for college makes completing scholarship applications well worth the while!

Lendedu is offering a FREE video course entitled Searching for Scholarships 101, see attached link.  And check out all their other information on our Financial Aid Information page!

https://lendedu.com/blog/scholarship-video-course

Included:

- What are Scholarships?

- What Are the Different Kinds of Scholarships?

- How to Find Scholarships

- How to Apply for Scholarships - Essay Tips

- How to Apply for Scholarships - Letter of Recommendation Tips

- Avoiding Scholarship Scams 

Each video is about 1.5 - 2 minutes long. Each video has an accompanying text section as well. This video course will, hopefully, make the scholarship search process easier for students, parents, and families.

Lendedu is also sharing a private student loans guide. The videos are ad free and helpful to anyone planning on going to college. Obviously scholarships are better than student loans, but the information may be useful for the now 7 out of 10 graduates leaving campus with student loan debt. 

Here is the guide:

https://lendedu.com/blog/private-student-loans

The LendEDU Scholarship is a $1,000 scholarship award. This scholarship can be used to cover any and all costs related to the winner's education. The LendEDU Scholarship can be used to cover tuition, textbooks, room and board, and even living expenses. The LendEDU Scholarship will be awarded to 2 students this spring.

With college becoming more expensive, securing a good job after graduation is crucial. How will you consider your future earning potential in choosing a major, while still pursuing something that interests you? What do you think? 

2. LendEDU created quizzes to accompany all of their awesome video courses. They received a lot of requests for quizzes from counselors and teachers... and so created them. The quiz is located at the bottom of each course. As always, they don't ask for any signup or personal information from students and families.

Financial Aid, Scholarships, and Student Loans 101 Course & Quiz

Searching for Scholarships 101 Course & Quiz

Student Credit Cards 101 Course & Quiz

At LendEDU, we've been hard at work creating even more awesome financial aid resources. In our research, we found that 96% of current college students misunderstand the process of refinancing and consolidating student debt. And, we found that over 40% of parents misunderstand the process of transferring PLUS Loans to the student after graduation. We just wanted to let you know that we released a new video course and guide:

https://lendedu.com/blog/consolidate-student-loans-video-course/

This is our first guide and video course related to consolidation and refinancing. In our guide we explain the following programs:

- Federal Direct Consolidation 

- Refinancing 

- PLUS Loan Transfer Info 

We hope that our guide will help students and parents think about the long term impact and cost of student debt.

A Teenagers Guide to Better Sleep

Chronic sleep loss in adolescents has steadily become the norm: 69% of high schoolers report sleeping less than the recommended amount of hours and only 7.6% students report getting optimal sleep. The prevalence of insufficient sleep is highest among female and black students, and students in the last two years of high school.

A 2014 National Sleep Foundation poll found that 87% of U.S. high school students and 59% of sixth through eight graders in the got less than 8.5 through 9.5 hours of sleep on school nights.

Teenagers need more sleep than adults and more than they got as tweens. An average adult needs between 7 and 9 hours of sleep. Doctors recommend that teens get between 8 and 10 hours of sleep, with some well-respected researchers insisting that teens need as much sleep as they got when they were young children.

The good news is that researchers have developed tricks that have been proven to help reestablish a healthier sleep routine.

For a teenager, healthy sleep habits include:

• • Giving up screen time two or at least one hour prior to bedtime.

  • Using an app (see the Additional Resources section below) that helps convert the wakefulness-promoting blue light in a tablet or a phone to a more soothing light.

  • Sleeping in as dark a room as possible.

  • Sleeping in a quiet, cool room, using ear plugs if need be.

  • Going to sleep and getting up ideally at the same time each day—even on the weekends. Yes, it’s asking a lot, but it works wonders in the long run.

  • Sleeping on a comfortable mattress.

  • Getting into a peaceful frame of mind before bed. Explore mindfulness techniques to get help with that.

  • And using other recommended good sleep hygiene tips.

www.bestmattressreviews.com/teen-sleep-help/

VAPING - TIPS FOR TEENS

KNOW THE RISKS!

Online Resources to know the ins and outs of Vaping!  Get in the know!

1. Take action to protect young people from E-Cigarettes/Know the Risks:  E-cigarettes and young people/U.S. Surgeon General's report https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fe-cigarettes.surgeongeneral.gov%2Ftakeaction.html&data=05%7C01%7CJaclyn.Hudak%40sluhn.org%7C399c4b1a8eae4aa2281f08daa22d6cba%7Cef4fd2f84c9645ab9b157831920f55cf%7C0%7C0%7C638000614125756859%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=T1KUdN9uyO2wNfht6htY9CpU%2B2DjXcFu3hCAMO0sPGo%3D&reserved=0

2. Behavioral Cessation Supports for Youth and Young Adults.                                                                             https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteen.smokefree.gov%2Fquit-vaping&data=05%7C01%7CJaclyn.Hudak%40sluhn.org%7C399c4b1a8eae4aa2281f08daa22d6cba%7Cef4fd2f84c9645ab9b157831920f55cf%7C0%7C0%7C638000614125756859%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=EubGjiH5ECCzQSrH7mYsocJ%2BhDY1%2FZ6ZdEX%2BeP39Ago%3D&reserved=0 

3.  INDEPTH:  An Alternative to Teen Nicotine Suspension or Citation / American Lung Association       https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lung.org%2Fquit-smoking%2Fhelping-teens-quit%2Findepth&data=05%7C01%7CJaclyn.Hudak%40sluhn.org%7C399c4b1a8eae4aa2281f08daa22d6cba%7Cef4fd2f84c9645ab9b157831920f55cf%7C0%7C0%7C638000614125756859%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=aEq5j4nBfZqNE%2F%2FVUnEPaksHi5A9IQI%2FI3%2BK2AFyRPE%3D&reserved=0 

4. Quit Vaping / Smoke Free Teen                                                                                                                  https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fteen.smokefree.gov%2Fquit-vaping&data=05%7C01%7CJaclyn.Hudak%40sluhn.org%7C399c4b1a8eae4aa2281f08daa22d6cba%7Cef4fd2f84c9645ab9b157831920f55cf%7C0%7C0%7C638000614125756859%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=EubGjiH5ECCzQSrH7mYsocJ%2BhDY1%2FZ6ZdEX%2BeP39Ago%3D&reserved=0 

5. Talking with your Teen about Vaping:  Parent Brochure                                                                                         https://store.samhsa.gov/product/talk-they-hear-you-talking-with-your-teen-about-vaping-keeping-your-kids-safe-parent-brochure/PEP20-03-01-080 

Flyers and Brochures Regarding Vaping and E-Cigarettes.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bGWwd1YSxMHHlv4k9TRI7zU6cl6ok1jf/view?usp=sharing 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bG07jDLv-2oSqfiMbgBi7gOORh_tUH4I/view?usp=sharing 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bG8qXEGnTOYzUdUFTbFNxWlsaS0MrzBF/view?usp=sharing 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b9v7WqIBJ77R_Un_Rh8usZH5Un90oGWA/view?usp=sharing