| Senior Application Protocol |
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 | You’ll get out of the Application Process what you put into it. If you really care about going to a particular college, your preparation will show. Start early, proofread your essays, READ the entire application. | | | Use Naviance Family Connection (http://connection.naviance.com/waterford) to communicate with your college counselor. This is an internet-based college application that we have purchased as a resource for students and parents, and to coordinate the application process. Seniors need to log on to use the helpful College Search and links to websites, fill in the “resume” and “game plan,” and enter which colleges they are interested in and applying to. Counselors will use Naviance to keep track of applications and to send Secondary School reports and recommendations, and transcripts electronically to most colleges. Students still need to apply via the colleges’ websites or the Common Application (www.commonapp.org). | | | Keep track of what is required at each college, and be organized. It makes the process run much smoother for you, your teachers, your college counselor, and Mrs. Kitchen. As registrar, Mrs. Kitchen has the time-consuming task of preparing transcripts, and helping teachers prepare recommendation letters, among other things. Carefully ponder your final list of colleges, and communicate well with your college counselor about any changes to your list. You’ll likely apply online, but will still have plenty of other parts to coordinate (Official ACT/SAT scores, transcripts, forms to teachers and counselors, supplementary forms, etc.) | | | Be aware of application deadlines. We recommend setting your deadline one month in advance. For example, if an application deadline is January 1, set yourself the deadline of December 1. Give your college counselor the “School Report” part of the application AT LEAST TWO WEEKS, and preferably a month or more, before you would like it to be sent. In addition, it is to your advantage to mail the applications well before the deadline. Admissions officers read them as they arrive. Don’t wait until the last minute. Also, if something is lost in the mail, there is time to send it again. | | | Letters of Recommendation: Teachers consider it a privilege to write letters of recommendation for you. They all have a variety of responsibilities to fulfill at the school and are very busy. In order to give them ample time to research and construct a well-conceived letter for you, ask them in October and November and give them the forms and stamped, addressed envelopes for every college as soon as you know where you are applying (no less than a month before the deadline). They will start your letters as soon as they have forms and envelopes in hand. | | | Your applications are read very carefully. Spend time on them. Don’t leave out important accomplishments or aspects of your personality. Also, Admissions officers are putting together a puzzle with the pieces of your application. If a piece doesn’t fit, they will try to figure out why. If you know that one piece doesn’t make sense, help them out by explaining the reasons for something peculiar, such as a drop in grades one term. Review your application with your college counselor. | | | Senior Fall and even Winter Term grades are the most important grades a college sees. They look for the trend: are the students getting better? Are they putting continued effort into learning their Senior year? The rigor of your Senior year schedule is also noted. Mrs. Kitchen sends your fall and winter term grades to the colleges, at their request. |
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