High School Seniors

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER

• Visit college campuses during the fall.
• Continue serious planning on where you plan to go to college, or technical school.
• Discuss your college choices with your counselor.
• Review your senior year course of study plan with your counselor before school begins; see that you are enrolled in the appropriate academic subjects. Do not take a “light load” either semester of senior year. Selective colleges still expect 5 academic courses for each semester of your senior year.
• Call, write, request through the Internet college web site, or download off the Internet every out-of-state college application that you need. (The Post Graduate Center stocks all in-state college applications.)
• Ask colleges about scholarship possibilities and about the financial aid process.
• If applying to selective colleges, check to see if they require the CSS Profile for financial aid. If so, send in the CSS Profile registration form in mid-late September which is available on line.
• If you are applying for an NCAA athletic scholarship, apply on-line at NCAAClearinghouse.net.
• Attend any early Fall College Night programs in our area as well as any Financial Aid/Scholarship Night workshops.
• Review college admissions test requirements; note dates and deadlines given by each college. It is highly recommended that tests be taken early in the senior year. Check to see if you must take the SAT I and SAT II Subject Tests. Most seniors will want to retest in both ACT and SAT I.
• Decide if you will be applying to colleges under the ED (early decision) or EA (early action) plans. Inform your counselor about these November/December deadlines. The military’s academy appointment process has October deadlines.
• OCTOBER
• Continue your college planning efforts.
• Begin completing college applications and bring these to the Post Grad Center. Complete the Request for Transcript form available in the Counseling Office and Post Graduate Center.
• Attend the out-of-state College Night Program and the In-State College Workshop in the Metro Denver area in mid-October.
• Explore special college curricular programs through campus visits, reading, and discussion with students and professors.
• Obtain information on specific college costs and continue discussion about family financial resources for college with your parents.
• Review your college choices with parents and your counselor. Make sure that you are applying to several selectivity categories of colleges: i.e., one “reach” college, one or more “possible/probable admissibility” colleges, and one “safety” college as a minimum.
• Inform your counselor whether you will need teacher letters of recommendation and/or counselor letters of recommendation. Always ask for these recommendations at least three weeks ahead of deadline dates. Give your counselor all the college/school/counselor recommendation forms as well as the LHS Counselor Profile Form.

NOVEMBER

• Continue to turn in college admission applications and note deadline dates. Turn in your complete college applications with the appropriate application processing fees (for LHS and for the college) and the Transcript Request Form to the Post Grad Center.
• Carefully check college deadlines dates and give teachers/counselors a minimum of 3 weeks notice to write letters of recommendation for you.

DECEMBER

• Obtain financial aid forms from the Post Grad Center. These financial aid forms are sent by parents no sooner than January 1 of your senior year, and there is often a “preferred filing date” of February 15 or March 1.
• Begin completing scholarship applications which have winter deadlines (January/February/March).
• Submit midyear report forms to counselor before winter break.

JANUARY

• Turn in your college and/or scholarship applications by the specific January Counseling Office processing deadline this month. C heck with your counselor.
• Submit a Free Application for Federal Student AID (FAFSA) and (if applying to selective colleges) the CSS profile form, part II (Part I should be done in Sept/Oct.)
• Refer to individual college for which financial aid form is preferred or required.
• Submit other scholarship applications to your counselor.
• Take all remaining college admissions tests no later than January as needed for college entrance, including the SAT II Subject Tests, if required by the college.

FEBRUARY

• All college applications should have been given to your counsel by this month. Watch out for scholarship deadlines in early winter. Complete the FAFSA by the beginning of this month.

MARCH

• Visit colleges during spring vacation.
• Check with colleges to determine that all necessary admissions and financial aid application materials have been submitted.
• Return completed supplementary materials requested by colleges.
• Make desired campus housing arrangements.

APRIL-MAY

• Inform your counselor of your final college choice. Send in the tuition deposit to your 1 st choice college by May 1.
• Let all colleges know your college choice decision.
• At your Senior exit interview, request that your final high school transcript be sent to the college of your choice.
• Talk with the financial aid office of your 1 st choice college, about your financial aid award letter in April if you still have concerns about affording college next year.
• Obtain information regarding summer orientation activities on your college campus.