And They're Off!
by IRHS Counselor Dave Goldberg
Alright, without too much urgency or fanfare, your children are off to a great start this year. Registration went smoothly and we've worked out so many kinks-thanks to former Principal, Mike Bejarano, and current Principal, Mike Szolowicz.
Those two pulled off a coup of sorts in securing all the resources to make this a great year for registration. And if we get off on the right foot, then the semester begins without a lot of churning, and your kids are better able to focus and address academic content without disruption. Good vibes to IRHS staffers and parent volunteers as well. It takes a village to...well, you get the message.
Okay, with some fanfare and urgency, College Tips urges seniors to strike now while the iron is hot in matters pertaining to college applications. ASU for instance is asking for a complete application by November 1 in order to crown seniors VIP's in their enrollment process. Membership has its benefits.
Lots of colleges and universities began accepting applications August 1. IRHS now charges a buck to send an official transcript, so please equip your senior with some ones and let them know that they may send off transcripts now even if they haven't begun applying. Yellow transcript request forms are in the Guidance Office.
Also, seniors may click on collegeboard.org or act.org and have them send off test scores and older AP exam results. Fours and fives sometimes give your child unit and subject credit, saving you thousands of dollars. For the record, IRHS is driven to have many, many more students taking AP Examinations. A little known fact is that well-prepared students may take an AP exam even if they have not taken the class. Example: our students of Chinese descent, who speak read and write Mandarin well, may take the AP Chinese Language and Culture Exam.
Sitting for an AP Exam w/o taking the corollary class is not the greatest way to score well but it can be done, and a really smart student may purchase a prep book at Barnes & Noble and whack one of these tests a good one. Many roads lead to Rome.
Seniors should be completing their resumes, etc. on:
https://azcis.intocareers.org/materials/portal/home.html
Counselors are going to want those so that we may craft perfect letters of recommendation and blow some life into a letter that would otherwise be a flat recitation of chronologically arranged events. We need to know you so we can fill in the margins. A GPA and SAT/ACT test scores never fully measure heart, drive, determination, fortitude, ethics, etc., so we need to create a narrative that paints a picture and allows an admissions officer or scholarship person to see your child as something more than the run of the mill 3.83 GPA with a 26 on the ACT.
College reps see thousands of that mint every year. They eat saltine after saltine and they hunger for a Ritz. Be the Ritz, seniors.
For our junior class, let's get that PSAT/NMSQT rolling. October 19is your target date. IRHS has secured 300 exam booklets. Juniors get first dibs. Sophomores and frosh go second. Every one of the exams had better be taken because this is a high stakes test.
Yes, the PSAT occurs over our fall break. If you are traveling out of town, you may contact a high school in that region and see about taking the PSAT in that school. We do that here as a courtesy and so do other schools nationwide.
In closing, juniors and seniors need to dust off their bright orange,
College & Career Preparation Guide 2013-2014 (11Edition). Counselors will be coming out to English classes in late August to deliver a PowerPoint on how to get all this college and scholarship stuff in motion. Valuable to parents and frequently requested are the checklists on pages 9-10. These are great organizational tools that make monthly timelines of what you should be doing visible, tangible and manageable. Alongside the AzCIS system we are unstoppable.
Let's have a big year NPO! Let's get it on indeed as they say in the big city.
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