2.  Shrine High School College Counselor  4 th year at SHS  Mom of 3 Shrine students  Counselor and Assistant Director of Admissions- Hillsdale College  Director of Admissions- St. Scholastica Academy Boarding School  7 years as Primary and Institutional Sales Specialist for Upjohn/Pharmacia Corporation  8 years –Director of Sales Annabelle Noel Designs

3.  Help your child plan for life beyond Shrine HS  Provide individualized assistance with the college application/scholarship process  Proof read application/scholarship essays  Identify and remind students of pertinent deadlines  Help identify potential scholarships and scholarship information  Utilize all my resources within the world of collegiate counseling to advocate for your child  Nurture, support, and love your child during a challenging phase of life

4.  “Get your cherub” into the college of his/her dreams  Write application/scholarship essays  Actually force a student to make the aforementioned deadlines  Procure a full tuition scholarship for your child or locate the mythical pot of gold necessary to pay for college  Guarantee that this will be an easy process

5.  March 4, 5, and 6 th Statewide testing Testing will begin each day at 8:00 Testing begins promptly at 8:00. ACT and the State of Michigan clearly state that no student can be admitted to a testing room once the verbal instructions have been read. we recommend, students arrive by 7:30 am All students MUST bring a picture ID to be admitted to the test. An approved calculator may be used for the math portions of the tests. Students must complete all three days of testing to receive their ACT score Students must be in dress code for all three days of testing Bring at least 2 sharpened #2 pencils

6.  Tuesday March 4, 2014  Testing begins at 8:00 am, students will be finished by 12:45 pm  ACT+ Writing  Evaluable test for college admission  Paid for by the State of Michigan  No state funded scholarship directly associated with MME, therefore low stakes testing  Scores will be available by the end of March  All subsequent ACT registration done by student. This is the ONLY ACT that the counseling office completes the registration process  To register for subsequent ACT testing: www.ACTstudent.org

7.  Wednesday, March 5 th 2014 ◦ Work Keys Test ◦ Testing begins at 8:00 am, students will be finished at 11:30 am. ◦ Thursday, March 6 th, 2014 ◦ Michigan Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies testing ◦ Testing begins at 8:00 am, students will report to their D hour class.

8.  Make up dates:  Tuesday March 18 th ACT + Writing  Wednesday March 19 th Work Keys  Thursday March 20 th ◦ Michigan Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. Make up exams are conducted in the Counseling Office during the school day. Students will be responsible for making up work missed while taking the makeup MME.

9.  All students can send their ACT scores to 4 schools free of charge when registering  Post ACT, charge is $12 per score/per school  Students will be responsible for sending ACT scores to their universities of choice as most universities only accept scores directly from ACT or the College Board

10. Test DateRegistration Date April 12, 2014March 7, 2014 June 14, 2014May 9, 2014 September 13, 2014 October 25, 2014 December 13, 2014 Shrine is a test site for the June, Sept, October, and February test dates. We do not register students for these tests.

11.  Many theories on ACT preparation  Many ways to spend your money on preparation  Free ACT practice tests available at MEL. Org  List of Shrine approved ACT tutors/programs  Some students take ACT once during MME and receive score they “need” for a specific school.  Other students can take test up to 12 times and never get the score they “need” for their dream school.  Scores are not the only factor in an admissions decision, but often are limiting factors in scholarship consideration

12.  All Shrine students have a Parchment account.  Vehicle for electronically sending transcript from Shrine to institutions of higher learning, NCAA, and NAIA  Parchment only used for schools NOT on the Common Application  Students can store unofficial transcripts within their parchment account  Transcripts are not automatically updated within the student’s account. They must be requested each semester. Think: Filing Cabinet-only as good a the material you put into it.

13.  Fees ◦ Electronic submission within the Michigan Compact is FREE ◦ Electronic submission outside of the Michigan Compact is $2.55 ◦ Paper Copy via the US Mail is $4.25 ◦ All fees paid to Parchment via Paypal or credit card

14.  Single Application that serves over 500 colleges and universities  Launch of CA4 for the 2013-14 academic year was considered a national disaster  “Common” portion of the application is submitted to all selected schools, but each university typically has a supplement. ◦ Therefore answers in the common portion must be “generic”. Supplement essay should be highly specific to selected university. ◦ Letters of recommendation must also be “generic” because they are submitted to each selected school.

15.  Counselor must be electronically invited to submit transcript and school forms materials  Letters of recommendation must also be submitted electronically via the Common Application.  Give a minimum of two weeks lead time prior to application deadline.

16.  Transcript Review  Opportunity for Mrs. Piazzon to know each student beyond the numbers  Review of Transcript, trends, goals  Discussion of academic resume, academic letters of recommendation, potential schools and application time line  Multiple appointments before June 13 th are encouraged

17.  Rough draft to be reviewed before Spring Break  Helps students organize activities, classes, honors, etc.  Still time to add activities  Fundamentally prepares students to complete the “easy” portion of application  Necessary to provide to teachers who are writing letters of recommendation  Is a dynamic document that will constantly evolve

18.  1 Academic letter is required  Many selective schools will accept 2 academic recommendations.  All letters are sent to Mrs. Piazzon who submits them. This preserves the integrity of the letter.  Too many letters of recommendation make admissions officials suspicious  Fantastically handy to have on file for short dated scholarship opportunities.

19.  Students should solicit them in May to be returned to Mrs. Piazzon before school starts in August.  Students submitting Common Applications must know their recommender’s email address.  Most schools will ask for a counselor evaluation. piazzon@shrineschools.com

20.  College Admissions Representatives will schedule visits to Shrine in the months of September and October  Students must sign up 1 day in advance to be excused from class  Students encouraged to meet visiting representative as this is typically the primary reader for his/her application

21.  Juniors are encouraged to consider a wide range of schools. There are 7000 colleges/universities in the US  There is no “best school” but there are schools which are the best match for specific criteria for each student.  The question isn’t how many schools can I be admitted?  5 applications is a great target number. Some will apply to 1 (not advisable) and others will apply to 15 ( also not advisable). My record is 24. I promise to help every student apply to as many colleges as s/he needs to feel comfortable.

22.  Average application fee is $50  Why spend the time and money applying to a “safety” school in which you have no real interest in attending?  It can be very challenging differentiating between 10 colleges…especially as the student gets closer to the May 1 st deadline.

23.  May 21, 2015 Graduation  Together we will reach the finish line  Amy Piazzon Appointment Hours: Mondays and Wednesdays 8-3 Thursdays 8-12 piazzon@shrineschools.com 248 549-2925 x 2552