SCOUT DESTINATIONS
A QUARTERLY GUIDE TO COLLEGE AND CAREER PLANNING
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Happy Fall! This is the second year LFHS Educational Services has published SCOUT DESTINATIONS, an online newsletter dedicated to the college and career discovery process. The purpose of SCOUT DESTINATIONS is to provide the entire Lake Forest High School community with relevant information, tips and timelines, along with diverse insights and voices to 1) help guide families through the college search journey and 2) ease some of the anxiety inherent in the college search and admissions process. Additionally, this newsletter can serve as a resource in learning more about the broad spectrum of careers available today both locally and nationally. We always welcome reader feedback. You can share comments with Dr. Patrick Sassen, Director of Educational Services (
psassen@lfschools.net
).
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Upcoming Events in Educational Services
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Happy, Healthy, Almost Stress-Free College Planning
New York Times Bestselling Author: Harlan Cohen
Monday, November 4 - 7:00pm
Gorton Community Center,
FREE EVENT!
FAFSA Completion workshop (parents of seniors)
Wednesday, November 6 - 5:30-8:00pm
College and Career Resource Center
Financial Aid 101 for Juniors and parents
Thursday, December 5 - 7:00pm
RMA
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When Did College Turn So Cruel? We need more and better graduates. We sure don’t act that way.
Why the College Application Essays Matter
More than 1000 colleges nationwide have gone test-optional, giving students the choice of whether or not to submit their test score(s). Check out this informative article about the growing trend in college admission.
What College Admission Offices Really Want
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“Demonstrated Interest” has become a buzz word in the college admission process. Jeff Schiffman (Director of Admission at Tulane University) provides a clear explanation of what “demonstrated interest” looks like for Tulane admission candidates.
Jon Boeckenstedt, a pioneer for decades in higher education admissions recruitment and marketing, is now Oregon State University’s new vice provost of enrollment management. Formerly Jon worked in admissions at DePaul University. Jon keeps a blog on admissions with lots of very interesting information - often surrounding standardized testing.
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College Rep Visits
Lake Forest High School is continuing to welcome college admission counselors representing schools from across the country. We have had 162 admission counselors visit with our juniors and seniors thus far, and another 57 will visit before the end of the semester. These representatives are eager to visit LFHS as they know how well prepared our students are for college level work. Meeting with the college admission counselors gives our students the opportunity to learn about each school, ask questions, and determine if a particular school might be a good fit for them. Students are required to sign up 24 hours in advance to meet with the college admission counselors, and speak with their teachers ahead of time if the meeting occurs during a scheduled class.
Campus Visits
The best way to determine if a school is the right fit is to visit the campus. Students can make arrangements to visit a school by contacting the admissions office or by signing up through the admissions tab on a school’s website. Some dates are popular for visits due to holiday weekends, and reservations for formal visits on these dates can fill up fast. Colleges typically prefer two weeks notice when reserving college visits so they can be sure to have enough tour guides on hand. When visiting a campus, students can also request to meet with someone from the department in which they wish to major.
Requesting Transcripts
Seniors are busy working on college applications and many will send in completed applications by November 1st in order to reach priority deadlines. In order for applications to be considered complete, transcripts must be sent to all colleges to which a student applies. (Note: some schools have students self-report their grades on their application, and transcripts may only be required if the student is admitted and commits to that particular school. Counselors will help students determine if a school requires a transcript). Seniors request their transcripts through Naviance, allowing 10 school days for counselors to send these and other supporting documents.
Sending Standardized Test Scores
In addition to sending applications and requesting transcripts, seniors may also be required to send standardized test scores to the schools they are applying to. Some colleges allow students to self-report their scores through the application itself, but may still require the official scores to be sent directly from the testing agency (ACT or College Board). Many colleges are now test optional which means that students do not need to report test scores as part of the admission process. Be sure to read through each school’s policy regarding test score reporting. This information can be found on the school’s admission page.
Financial Aid Information
Families that need financial assistance to offset the cost of attending college are encouraged to fill out the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). This form is available now for seniors and their parents and is found at
https://studentaid.ed.gov. The earlier this form is completed, the better! For families that may need help completing the form, a FAFSA completion workshop is scheduled for November 6th from 5:30pm-8pm in the CCRC. Financial Aid experts from the Illinois Student Assistance Commission will be on hand to answer questions. Income and tax information from 2018 will be required to fill out the FAFSA.
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(Photo courtesy of Michigan Technological University website)
Michigan Tech is a public research institution with approximately 6 thousand undergraduate students. The Huskies thrive in producing top notch and highly recruited Engineering students, but they also offer a wide variety of popular majors, including Exercise Science, Biology, and Environment Science. The rural location is ideal for students who like the outdoors. Mt. Ripley has 24 runs, is free to all students (included in their tuition), and equipment is checked out, not rented. One third of the students are in organized broomball leagues, and life is lived outside to a large extent. It’s often snowy, but the temperature stays above 15 degrees. Michigan Tech has a 74% admission rate with an average accepted ACT score range of 25 to 30.
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(Photo courtesy of Oregon State University website)
OSU is a large public research university with a student body of over 18,000 undergraduate students. They specialize in Forestry, Oceanography, Marine Biology, Robotics, and Agriculture. Popular majors also include Computer Science, Business, Mechanical Engineering and Human Development. OSU has an acceptance rate of 79% with an average accepted ACT score range of 22 to 28.
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Places We're Going This Year
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Each year, LFHS Counselors identify areas of the country they want to visit to learn more about certain colleges our students show interest in. They look to visit a wide variety of places in order to diversify their knowledge of the many institutions this country has to offer. Information from these trips are presented to the Counseling team once they return.
A few examples of other schools our Counselors will be visiting:
University of Georgia
Emory University
Georgia Tech
Auburn University
University of Alabama
Tulane University
Louisiana State University
Union college
Skidmore College
Green Mountain College
Middlebury
University of Vermont
Champlain College
Dartmouth
Rensselaer Polytech
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Schools Our LFHS students are Attending
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