Greetings from the College Counseling office!
Seniors and Parents of Seniors! At this point in the semester, we are in the countdown to college application deadlines! Most US colleges, although not all, look to the beginning of the New Year as the final deadline to apply to their college. While this is not 100% accurate, because many do continue to accept applications into Feb and, rarely, later, the majority of private institutions in the United States expect students to meet this beginning of January deadline. Think Jan 1st to be safe. Therefore, all students, at this point, should be meeting with me to discuss their final lists and match their accounts to Navianc if they haven't already. While it's true that most deadlines are January 1st, the students need to mindful that Newman closes for Winter Break. I will be on campus during some of these days, but not all. Plan ahead!
As a reminder to all, when students submit their applications, whether through the Common Application, the UCAS system, the university's own application system, or even the Coalition Application, it's worth renoting that the college counseling office is responsible for submitting the following supporting documents: the Newman transcript, any transfer transcripts if applicable, teacher recommendations, the school report, and the counselor statement. The College office is not responsible for submitting standardized test scores. Students must go to the testing agency directly (College Board, ACT, or TOEFL/IELTS) and order their scores to be sent to the colleges to which they are applying. NB: with a few acceptions, colleges will only accept official reports before rendering a decision. These reports often take up to 1 month to arrive at the colleges and processed in their system, so my best advice is to order the test reports to be sent at the time of application. Do not rush scores! Many colleges will not accept them this way. If you have any questions about which tests to send, or whether even you should send test scores, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at my email address,
[email protected].
IMPORTANT:Supporting documents for applications - transcripts/transfer transcripts, school report, teacher letters of recommendation, counselor statement, and school profile - are all being submitted by me. NB: however, colleges often take up to 2 weeks to download and gather every document submitted (despite their being submitted all at once). So if you receive notices saying certain things are missing, please do not worry about these notices as they are completely normal. After 2 weeks, if documents appear to be missing, let me know and we will resend whatever it is that they are looking for.
International Students who are seniors
If you haven't taken a TOEFL or IELTS yet, please do so ASAP. While some colleges will waive this test under certain circumstances, most will request scores. These tests run quite frequenly, however they book up fast. To set up your test date, please go to
www.ets.org.
Also, remember to have your parents get official bank documents for each college to which you are applying. Many colleges require this at the time of application.
Juniors and Parents of juniors! It's your turn now! To that end, juniors will begin meeting with me when we return from break. Meeting reguarly will allow me to get to know you so I can best advise you step by step through this proces, and later advocate for you with the colleges once you've made your application. In our meetings, we'll begin by covering all aspects of your academic, extracurricular and personal lives - at least as much as you'd like to share. We'll start by recommending a standardized testing schedule too. Parents, you are also welcome as well to set up meetings with me. If you'd like to do just that, please email me at
[email protected]
Upcoming information session
NB: Newman will be offering a standardized testing class to our students, taught by Summit Prep, a wonderful company from Newton MA that excels at helping students learn strategies for taking the test and improving their scores. The classes will run at Newman on Tuesday afternoons, from 3:30 pm to 6:30 pm. It will begin on March 24th, with practice tests included. For more information, and costs $575, financial aid available. For more information please see the attached flyer.
Wishing you all happy holidays and a wonderful New Year!
Susan Carlson
