College Scholarship Plan - September Plan 12th Grade

SEPTEMBER GAME PLAN - 12th GRADE

SAT registration- early Sept. is the deadline.
Visit www.collegeboard.com to register.

Take ACT in addition to or instead of SAT. Some students feel they perform better on one over the other. Kaplan offers a free, short test that will advise students as to whether the SAT or ACT is a better fit for them. Visit www.kaptest.com to find out when this free test is available in your area.

Touch base with your counselor to review your college plans, scores, scholarship aspirations. Point out to your counselor if there are any scholarships that require the counselor's nomination and ask if they will provide that nomination for you. (Note: Some scholarships request that the counselor nominate a student but also allow a student to self-nominate. The self-nomination option is typically there to accommodate homeschooled students. If you are enrolled in a public or private school, it is to your benefit to get your counselor's nomination.)

Pull together all the resources you'll need for your applications and scholarships. (Transcript, test scores, essays). Identify the people you will ask to write your letters of recommendation.

If you need to take the December SAT or ACT, go online and register. For the SAT, go to www.collegeboard.com and for the ACT, go to www.actstudent.org. Begin studying now if you want to bring up your test scores.

Student Athletes- Before talking with college coaches, make sure you are registered with the NCAA Clearinghouse for your sport. Contact the coach for your sport at your prospective colleges to explore your opportunities. Be ready to provide a statement of interest, relevant sports records/stats and a video clip. Finish the e-mail with your contact information and express an interest to meet with him/her. Your high school coach may be able to help you with this. Visit www.ncaastudent.org to see registration requirements for your sport.

Finish campus visits- If there are schools you are considering but haven’t fully investigated, try to schedule a campus visit soon so you can decide if you really want to apply.

Do FAFSA Forecaster- If you would like to get an idea of how your FAFSA application will turn out, you can use the government’s free forecasting tool by going to www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov . You can enter and store your information, review the feedback it provides and later port your data over to www.fafsa.ed.gov to file the real application.