Welcome to the final chapter of your high school career. For this milestone of a year to find success, make sure you maintain the balance of responsibility, celebration, and preparation. Here’s a practical guide of things to do to make your senior year meaningful, productive, and unforgettable:

Academic Success

• Stay on top of your grades – Colleges do look at your senior year transcript! When your Counselor sends them your final transcript after you graduate, if you completely bombed your Senior year, they do have the opportunity to drop you from your admission to their school!

• Meet with your counselor regularly – Track graduation requirements to make sure you are on-track to graduate and that all your credits will be met by graduation day!

• Challenge yourself – If possible, take AP, CIS, PSEO, DCPP, or any dual enrollment classes to stay engaged. Connect with your Counselor about taking these classes!

• Avoid Senioritis – Don’t slack off after college apps are in. Finish strong!

• Come to school! Take electives that you have always been interested in exploring! TA for the CCRC!

College & Career Planning

• Explore colleges in the summer before your Senior year and by the Fall, narrow down college/university choices.

• Write and revise your college personal essays – Ask teachers, Counselors, or mentors to review them.

• Apply for scholarships – Different scholarships have different deadlines- do your own research! Start with local ones; they’re often less competitive.

• Complete the FAFSA as soon as it opens on October 1.

• Request letters of recommendation from a teacher/staff who you share a genuine connection with, this way they could write you a phenomenal letter.

• Plan campus visits or virtual tours to know if you could see yourself at this school for the next 2-4 years.

Communication with Mr. Billy

• Meet regularly with Mr. Billy to ensure you are on the best path toward your career goal!

• Always keep an eye on Schoology as Mr. Billy posts crucial information there regarding college visits, scholarship opportunities, FAFSA help, and so on.

• Keep an eye out for emails from Mr. Billy regarding planning for your post-secondary goals.

• If you are seeing that there is no communication coming from Mr. Billy, check your spam mailbox, or connect with him to make sure your contact information is up to date; very likely Mr. Billy has a contact of yours that you are not checking and it needs to be changed/updated!

Apply to Colleges/Universities

• At this time, you should really be thinking about what your next step is after high school, and going to college is one of those paths. 

• Something to be mindful of is that, just because you applied and got accepted to a college, this does not mean you are committed yet to going to college.

  • • Some students are afraid that even though they are still not sure if they wanna go to college, that if they apply and get accepted to a college, that means they're 100% going- THIS IS NOT THE CASE! You are not committed to going until you confirm with that college that you are.

      • • Most colleges do not require that you 100% commit until around May-June!

• With that information ^ it is so important that everyone applies to at least 1 community college and 1 public university (and more if you'd like!). You want to get your name into the pile of students accepted to that college, so that when it comes time to decide what you actually want to do after high school, you have the option to.

  • • You can also decline the offer of going to college! And there is no penalty! Colleges will be sad, but they will understand and move on.

• Applying to colleges is actually a lot easier than you might think it is.

  • • You could start with simply googling the college name and their application, example: Century College Application

    • Click through and find the application.

    • From there, it may ask you to create an account with them.

      • • Make sure to write your username and password down and keep it somewhere safe!

    • Then, you'll start the application.

      • • Some colleges have a long and rigorous application and it could take you several days to weeks to complete. However, some colleges have a super quick and easy application process and it could take you just 10 minutes to complete. It varies from school to school.

• To see the full details on applying to college, see this page HERE.

Go on College Campus Tours

• It is so important that before you even commit to a college, that you at least see the campus with your own eyes. Go visit and get a tour! See the students in action, see the professors and staff! See the dorms, the libraries, the classrooms, the environment and more!

• In the summer right before you start your Senior year, go and visit college campuses that you are considering attending! I encourage you to go in August when students are starting to come back to school. This is also usually a beautiful time to see campus life. You don't want to visit a school in the middle of winter- there usually isn't much to see other than lots of snow...

• In the CCRC, there are a few opportunities for students to attend field trips to visit college campuses. These opportunities are limited and fill up fast, so if you'd like to tour a college, make sure you are ready to grab a permission slip to go on these type of field trips! 

Apply to Scholarships

• Paying for your post-secondary program could be really expensive! Applying and winning scholarships could really help you pay for this!

• "When should I start applying for scholarships?"

  • • "RIGHT NOW!!!"

• Connect with Mr. Billy for scholarship opportunities.

• Check your Schoology posts for scholarship opportunities.

• Do your own research on scholarships and apply from there.

• See more details on scholarships HERE.

Apply for the FAFSA

• If you are planning to continue your education, most likely, those programs will be asking you to pay a certain amount of money to enroll into their program.

  • • Don't let this scare you!!!

• To help you pay for these programs, you can apply for the FAFSA, which is available for submissions on Oct 1st.

  • • Johnson will be hosting a Scholarship & FAFSA Night sometime in October. If you want some help with getting started, keep an eye out for this event and make sure you do your best to attend! 

• The FAFSA will ask for personal information regarding you and/or your parent/guardian. They will also need financial information on your family to ultimately see how much financial aid you qualify for help you pay for your post-secondary path. 

• Learn more about applying for the FAFSA HERE.

Meet with your School Counselor

• It is so important that you are always making sure you are on-track to graduate. 

• Just because you have a lot of credits already, does not mean you have taken all of the required credits in order to graduate!

• Make sure to check-in with your Counselor to make sure you are good to go for graduation!

• Not sure who your counselor is? Your counselor is dependent on the beginning of your LAST NAME. Find them below!

  • • Last Names A, B, Vb-Z - Ms. Sone Her

    • Last Names C-J - Ms. Samina Ali

    • Last Names K-Q - Ms. Alex Slezak

    • Last Names R-Va - Mr. Ker Yang

Request for a Letter of Recommendation

• Whether it's applying for a job, a college, a scholarship, etc., you may be asked to provide a Letter of Recommendation to help you receive what you are applying for.

• What is a Letter of Recommendation? This is a letter written by someone who knows you well—like a teacher, coach, boss,  mentor, or counselor—that talks about your skills, character, and achievements.

  • • It’s meant to help you get something, like a job, a scholarship, or into a college or program, etc.

• Make sure to ask your person who is writing the letter for you ahead of time so they have time to write you the best letter!

• Learn more about the Letter of Recommendation HERE.

Write an amazing Personal Essay

• One of the biggest milestones to achieve your Senior year is writing your Personal Essay.

• What is a Personal Essay? A personal statement is a short essay you write about yourself when you're applying to something like a college, scholarship, or job. It’s your chance to tell your story and explain why you’re a good fit for the opportunity you are applying to. A personal essay usually includes:

  • • Who you are

    • What you’ve done

    • What you care about

    • Why you want this opportunity

    • What your goals are

• What makes a Personal Essay strong? A unique and powerful story can be essential to giving you the strongest personal essay. In the past, the strongest essays will usually tell us about a time the student had to overcome something extreme that the usual student wouldn't go through. These stories can be very vulnerable and emotional. These stories are also confidential to only you and whoever you are allowing to read it.

• You are highly encouraged to review your Personal Essay with a teacher, Counselor, Mr. Billy, or anyone you trust can help advise your essay. The first draft will almost never be perfect. 

MUST-DO Milestones!

Don't feel like being ambitious and "doing the most"? Here are some MUST-DO MILESTONES for you to accomplish during your Senior year!

• Apply to at least one public 4-year college

• Apply to at least one 2-year community college

• Maintain at least a 3.0 weighted GPA

• Apply for the FAFSA

• Apply to at least 3 scholarships to help you pay for your college education

• Request for a Letter of Recommendation from at least 2 teachers/staff/coaches/mentors

• Complete a 500-word personal essay explaining what experiences you've had to face or overcome to make you the best candidate for a college

• Continue building up your resume

Celebrate your Successes!

Once you've completed all the necessary milestones, make sure to celebrate your successes! When the time comes to do so in the Spring, you can participate by...

• Submitting a Senior Decision Post to Mr. Billy- this will be posted to the Senior Decision Wall right outside the Counseling department offices; these posts will also be featured at your graduation!

• Signing the Senior Sign-Out Mirror- leave your signature, post-secondary decision, and a final message to your peers on the Senior Sign-Out Mirror!

• Completing the final Senior Survey- this is one of the last and final achievements you can accomplish before receiving your cap and gown for graduation!

Opportunities for Seniors to be part of:

• Various college campus visits and tours - Happens throughout the school year

• National College Fair - Takes place in October

• Scholarship & FAFSA Night - Takes place in October

• Take PSEO and/or DCPP Courses - Here you can earn college/career credits; connect with your Counselor or Ms. Voigt to learn more

• Dunwoody P2C Program - Application opens in the Spring; this is a paid 3-week summer opportunity to learn about careers at Dunwoody College

• Get a job with Right Track - Connect with Ms. Voigt to learn more

• Be part of the Achieve Twin Cities Advisory Board - Connect with Mr. Billy to learn more

• Various clubs and sports - Your Senior year is not yet too late to be part of a club or sport!

• Various internships - Connect with Ms. Voigt to learn more

DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN TO MAKE YOUR SENIOR YEAR GREAT!