Welcome to Alyson Ryan for Sayville BOE!
My name is Trish Portnoy and I am here to help you apply to college. Luckily, I am an expert. I have helped over 1,000 high school students go through this process, and you, too, will be totally prepared to pick the right college for you…with a little help from your friends…you parents and guidance counselor!
So, through these blog posts, I am going to go introduce you to the same exercises and tasks …so you can make the same great decisions.
Now, it is vitally important that you SUBSCRIBE to Alyson Ryan for Sayville BOE and…if you care about your friends, you should SHARE this information with them, as well. This is perfect timing for you seniors, but really anyone in high school will benefit from it.
Take a look at my website…here we are at www.alysonryan.com and that’s me!
Let’s take a look at the objectives to be covered in this blog:
- Taking advantage of your Guidance Counselor’s expertise
- Knowing which resources your counselor and guidance office have to offer
- Using the resources in a productive manner
Your guidance counselor is your greatest resource during the college research and application process for two reasons. One, he or she has known you for the past 3 or 4 years, watching you grow academically and socially. Two, he or she has a historical perspective on college applications…acceptances and rejections…from YOUR high school.
So, the first thing on your to-do list is to download, print and complete the School Services Questionnaire, Worksheet 6. You can find all my checklists, worksheets and references pages on my website at www.alysonryan.com Just click on College Apps Text, then Companion Files.
The School Services Questionnaire is a scavenger hunt-type assignment. You can get much of the information off of the Guidance Department page of your high school’s official website. Additional information can be found by stopping in the Counseling Office and having a quick chat with the department’s office staff or your guidance counselor, if time allows.
Most of the answers to the School Services Questionnaire will be one or two word answers, but they are very important to completing all your applications and meeting deadlines in a timely fashion.
Once you complete this worksheet, store it in your College Planning Binder…you can refer to it throughout the year.
A few specific resources that I would like to mention are Naviance and it’s alternatives, College Board’s Book of Majors, and Ruggs’ Recommendations on the Colleges.
Naviance is a comprehensive web-based software program to which school district’s purchase access. Students need a username and password to log in to Naviance’s Family Connection web portal. To learn more about Naviance, see https://naviance.com/solutions/parents-students
My favorite features are:
About Me which offers many personality assessments which will direct you to a potential career path and college major, in that order.
Colleges that I am Thinking About which lists colleges and then compares your grades and scores to students’ from years past using the Compare Me feature.
College Maps which uses a map of the United States to visually demonstrate different analyses of colleges’ acceptances and students’ attendance data.
College Visits which list schools that are offering admissions presentations at your high school.
If your high school does not subscribe to Naviance, then you need to speak with your Counseling Department to learn ways to access personality assessments and information about acceptance rates and admissions presentations.
Once you receive feedback on your personality assessments and the questionnaires you’ve completed, you can turn your attention to College Board’s Book of Majors.
Here you will narrow your choice of college majors to two or three. The book is huge, so don’t get nervous. Only two or three pages are dedicated to each college major…it offers descriptions, career paths, and professional association information. You can read about the two or three majors you are considering or just leaf through to find something new!
This will bring you to review Ruggs’ Recommendations on the Colleges which you can view at your guidance counselors office, your public library or download your own copy at http://www.ruggsrecommendations.com/
Mr. Ruggs is the Consumer Reports on colleges. He is independent and unbiased is his analysis of US colleges and their reputations for specific majors.
You can use Ruggs to find colleges that are great for Zoology, Pre-med, Engineering or plenty of other majors by referring to the Table of Contents.
Or you can look towards the end of the book to learn more about a specific college and all the majors that Ruggs recommends.
These three resources are my GO TO when starting the college research and application processes.
Inherent personality traits and talents will lead to a potential career path. The potential career path or paths will lead to certain a college major or majors to pursue. One or two college majors will lead you to certain schools that are highly regarded both of those majors.
From this jumping off point, you will be able to fine tune your list based on admission criteria, cost, distance from home and other “Best Fit” criteria.
Ruggs is a very powerful book. You can take it to “the bank.” Just don’t be fooled by college admissions staff who will say that their school is great for any major you ask about. They get paid to do that…Ruggs doesn’t.
If you or your parents would like additional reading on the topic, please refer to pages 41-45 in College Apps: Selecting Applying to, and Paying for the Right College for You which you can get at your local public library or at Amazon.com by following the link from my website.
Trish Portnoy is a YouTuber, blogger, writer, app developer and high school teacher who helps high school students and their parents research colleges, understand their options, and make choices using resources from the Internet, guidance counselors and other helpful people.
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