A personal note from Lisa Gastaldi:

As many of you may know, last summer my husband suffered a spinal cord injury in a diving accident. He is on the mend, doing very well, and we are hopeful for a full to near full-recovery. Only time will tell. I wanted to thank everyone for their support and prayers. They have meant a lot to me. My step-daughter, Stephanie, a recent college graduate, is now living with us to help take care of her dad. She plans to enter the Peace Corps in June. She is looking for volunteer work! If you have any volunteer work, specifically in the evenings and weekends, she is ready!  Her contact information is (206) 930-2019. She's up for anything!    Thank you again.

October is COLLEGE APPLICATION MONTH!

My goal for our students is for October to be a month of serious college application work. 

Help sessions will be available after school on October 9th and 30th in the computer lab

(Room 242) from 3:00 - 4:00.    

Upcoming Events  

Financial Aid Night  - Wednesday, November 13 - 7:00 - 8:30 - PAC

Come hear about the different types of financial aid and common questions about the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form.   

Our speaker is DJ Simpson from the College of Charleston.

Naviance Night - Thursday, December 12 - 6:30 - 8:00 - PAC

Counselors will be on hand to demonstrate the Naviance Program. Open to all grades. 

College Application Early Action Deadlines

University of South Carolina - October 15

College of Charleston - November 1

Clemson University - December 1

FROM USC'S WEBSITE:

October 15, 2013: Early Answer Application Deadline If you submit your completed application by this date, we will mail your decision letter during December 16 Early Answer Week. It is not uncommon for a significant portion of our applicants to receive delay notification, so don't worry if your decision is delayed. As an Early Answer applicant, you will benefit from knowing all your required materials are submitted in plenty of time to ensure full consideration, and you also have more time to send us updated credentials later if necessary. If you applied by the early answer deadline, you will not receive an advantage in the decision process, just the assurance of an earlier response.

*A completed application includes: an application, $50 nonrefundable application fee (or qualified fee waiver for SC residents only), and all credentials, such as official high-school transcript(s) and official test scores (including an official SAT or ACT writing score) sent directly from the testing service.  

FROM THE COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON'S WEBSITE:

Early Notification Deadline

November 1: The early notification deadline is non-binding and accommodates applicants who wish to know their admission decision by December's end. In order to be considered, the application for admission and supplementary materials must be submitted online, emailed, or postmarked by November 1.

Honors College Priority Application Deadline- Students who wish to receive first consideration for membership in the Honors College should submit their application by November 1.   

Each year, Clemson receives more admission applications than there are classroom spaces available; therefore, the qualifications of students admitted in any given year are related to the number of applications received. There is no set cutoff point for grades, class standing or SAT/ACT scores, but the high school academic record is more important than test scores.

Besides SAT/ACT scores and class standing, other factors such as high school curriculum, grades, choice of major and S.C. residency are also considered. In evaluating these factors, we will make one of the three following decisions when we review your application:

Yes. You have been provisionally accepted. You will have a specified time in which to submit your admission deposit, and your provisional acceptance will be confirmed when you graduate unless your senior grades drop markedly.

No. Unfortunately, your credentials are not as strong as those of the candidates we are accepting this year, and we cannot accept you. However, we want to work with you on a program that will enable you to transfer to Clemson in a year.

Wait list. We will hold your application and make a final decision in mid-May. You will be asked to notify the Office of Admissions if you desire a space on the wait list.

The Bridge to Clemson University Program.  Designed for a select group of academically talented freshmen, the Bridge to Clemson University program is a competitive academic-enhancement transfer program available by invitation only. Beginning with a strong academic freshman year at Tri-County Technical College (two miles from the Clemson campus), the Bridge program includes targeted advising, academic support and residential life to provide a seamless transition to Clemson upon successful completion of academic requirements.

Clemson University offers equal opportunity to all persons without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or status as disabled veteran or veteran of the Vietnam era.

Transcripts 101

In September, students were asked to log into their Naviance Account and update "COLLEGES I'M APPLYING TO".  Some have followed the my request, some have not. It is IMPERATIVE that students add all school to this list.  The list helps me in two ways.  1)  Keep track of what they are doing   2) Keep track of what I'm suppose to be doing.  For the Public Institutions (Clemson, College of Charleston, University of South Carolina) - they would like to receive transcripts electronically.  I send the transcripts using NAVIANCE to the institutions. I can also see when the institutions download the transcript.  This helps ease some of the students anxiety.  On the student account, they can see when I've submitted the documents.  Below is a screen shot of  "Colleges I'm applying to" and how it will look.  Common Application schools are noted with a CA.  If students are using Common Application (mostly private schools, UNC), a teacher (s) recommendation, Secondary School Report, counselor recommendation, and transcript are sent at the same time.

Navigating Quirks in the Common Application

Article By: 

There has been a lot of hoopla since the launch of the updated version of the Common Application, known as CA4 to those in the college admission world. For seniors filling it out this year for the first time you won't notice the difference, but there have been some major changes to the form. The form is smarter, sleeker and less cumbersome than previous years, but there are some quirks with the system that if you don't know from the onset, it could lead you into trouble.

Navigating

Starting out on the landing page of the Common Application there are three tabs: Applicants, Members, and Recommenders. Make sure you have selected the appropriate tab, or you will get a log-in error if you try to log in under the wrong tab.

Question Prompts

The application is a "smart form," which means that based on your answers to certain questions, it will skip some questions so that you only have to answer questions that pertain to your particular circumstance. For example, if you select "married" for your parents, the form won't prompt you for step-parent information. However, it can cause you problems if you answer questions incorrectly as you won't then have an opportunity to provide additional information later on in the form. Most questions do give the student a chance to go back and edit the answers.

College Specific Questions

As mentioned, because a student's responses prompt which questions are asked, no college specific questions or supplemental essays will show up until you list a college in your account. To get a full picture of how many supplements you may need to write for all your Common Applications, you must first enter all the colleges to which you plan to apply. At this time the Common App reports all but a handful of colleges have their supplements in the system. It is a good idea to list even the ones on your "maybe" list, so you will have access to all the possible college questions and supplements. You can always go in later and delete schools to which you decide not to apply. Additional college specific questions and supplements will be listed under the specific colleges listed in the "My Colleges" tab.

Reordering the Activity List

Students may include up to ten activities in their Activity List. Once the information is entered you can reorder the list. However make sure you are in "edit" mode in the specific activity you want to move, then use the up/down arrows to move the item. If you use the arrows when not in edit mode for some reason the form deletes some of the information in that entry. Also make sure when you enter details, awards and accomplishments that you review what you entered as it not an unlimited text box so words will be cut off if the limit is reached.

Essays

As with the text boxes in other areas of the application, the personal essay and additional information section have set limits of 650 words. Formatting has also been an issue within the essay spaces, as what appears in the text box may be different than the formatting viewed in Print Preview. Suggestions for overcoming the Print Preview issue has been to change browsers or to paste the essay from a utility editing program such as Notepad into the essay text box. Extra spaces between words and paragraphs will be removed automatically but the use of bold, underline or italics in the text will not be erased.

FERPA Release Authorization

Before you can have transcripts sent on your behalf, assign a counselor or recommenders you need to sign the FERPA release. If a student does not waive his or her right, it would allow a student after matriculating to the college to view the recommendations in their application. You can find the release by selecting any college in your college list under the "My Colleges" tab. On the left-hand navigation bar for that college, click on "Assign Recommenders" which will put you on the page with the link to the FERPA release. You will only have to sign the release once, however, once you do so, you will not be able to undo it, and it can't be reset, so make sure you understand the ramifications of your answer. It is strongly suggested that you waive your right to see recommendations, because the college receiving the recommendations will know that the recommender was not influenced in their writing by the possibility of you viewing the recommendation. While some students may balk at the idea of giving up their rights to see a recommendation, if the students choose their recommenders wisely they should have no fears about what the recommendation will say about them.

Help Center

With any new system, there will be kinks that need to be worked out. The Common App is aware of many of the bugs in the system and has put up a Known Issues page that will identify areas where users have had problems and the status on each issue. In addition, if users run into difficulties, they should click on the "Help Center" link to find answers to common questions and problems. If you can't find a resolution for your issue within the "Knowledge Base" tab, then you can open the "Ask a Question" tab and email for additional help.

College Visits

**College Visits are updated weekly in Naviance

**Students are expected to sign up for the college visits in Naviance. They are also to check in with their teacher well in advance of the visit to let the teacher know they will be missing class. Teachers have the "right" to keep students in class and not attend the college visit if the teacher feels that the student should not be missing class.  Students are expected to make up any missed work/assignments.

  OCTOBER

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