where do i start? how do i keep going?
How do I begin to choose colleges to explore? How do I keep all the information I discover organized?
back to: College and Career
HOW DO YOU DETERMINE WHAT YOUR CHANCES OF ADMISSION ARE?
Knowing whom a college has admitted or denied in the past is helpful in assessing your admissibility. Naviance provides scattergrams that compile historical SAT/ACT/GPA data of past GHS applicants and plots them on a graph. Students can then measure themselves against that data to get a sense of his/her admissions chances. Using the scattergram data, in collaboration with your research on individual college websites, you can begin to sort your college list into Likely, Target, & Reach Schools.
It is far too common for students to start the COLLEGE SEARCH PROCESS before they have reflected on who they are as a person...
Self-assessment is the critical first step in learning about whether a particular school is going to be right for you. Remember the Strengths Explorer you completed in Naviance? NOW is a good time to review your results. Until you’ve spent time thinking about your own needs (academically, socially, and emotionally), you are not really ready to answer the question of whether a particular school is the right match for you. Once you have answered these questions, you will be better equipped to find the schools that reflect your strengths, values, needs, and interests.
Make a list of questions you can use as a guiding tool to help you find the college that is the right fit:
What makes colleges different from one another?
How do those differences (things like location, size, and academic offerings) affect the college experience?
How might some of those differences make one school a better fit for you than another?
An honest and thoughtful self-evaluation can reveal what qualities you should look for in colleges. If you are willing to look seriously at yourself, you can find the colleges right for you, and then present yourself effectively to them.
Tools you can use to keep you organized and help your college exploration & application process
College Comparison Spreadsheet (Make you own copy and adjust it to your needs)
GHS Counselor Letter of Recommendation Request Packet (Print it, complete it and turn it in to your Counselor by the due date) - updated 2020-21 version will be added in Early September
