Monthly Memo: August - September 2007

We hope you had an excellent summer and are excited to be back at school. This will be an exciting year and we look forward to working with all of you. The first thing to do is schedule an individual appointment with us in College Counseling. Please complete your resume, self-evaluation, and a common application before your first meeting. You also will want to go ahead and register for the October SAT. You can do this in our office or online. If you register in our office, it is free. If you register online, you have to pay a registration fee. We are planning to offer our SAT prep program during the month of October. You should check if you need to take the SAT II Subject tests for any of your colleges and plan ahead (The UC system and Calstate system require SAT IIs). Remember, all application materials are due in the College Counseling Center (CCC) one month before the application deadline. Please study this Web page for testing and application deadlines, college visitors, Senior Newsletters, and Internet resources. You should be using this page and Family Connection frequently. We also will make announcements during assembly and senior meetings. This semester, we also will be working with your class during scheduled X Block meeting times. Here are some early deadlines to add to your calendar:

Juniors:

A big year is ahead of you and we wish you much success. We will start this year with brief individual meetings during the month of October to give you an orientation to the next couple years of college planning. This is the year where you need to make sure that you work hard in your classes and take a healthy dose of standardized tests: there is the PSAT in October, the SAT in January, the ACT in February, and the SAT II in May or June. We don’t envy you with all of this testing, but it is important to prepare for the tests and to keep a positive attitude. You also should create your college list as the year progresses. This means evaluating your grades, test scores, and personal interests and researching appropriate schools. We will come regularly to your junior class meetings to keep you informed of college visitors, deadlines, and special events, but please study this Web page, My Road, and Family Connection and tell your parents to do the same. Our Web page resource answers most of the questions about college counseling at HPA and are helpful resources for college planning. We will schedule your second individual meetings in the spring semester. Have a great year at HPA.