November 2021 Updates From the AHS Counseling Office

Happy November!  We hope everyone had a blast for Halloween (despite the rain).  Shout out to the seniors for a fantastic Halloween Parade.  Your costumes were great!  We love the creativity, the enthusiasm, and the keeping of traditions!  Heads up juniors: you've got one year to put together an epic Halloween parade of your own through the halls of AHS.

Here are some updates from us at the counseling office.  Have a great November!


* As the weather gets colder and the daylight gets shorter, make sure you are being proactive about taking care of your mental health!  Good habits are the key.  Make sure you are establishing for yourself a good routine, and following it.  Consistent sleep (going to bed and waking up at the same times every day, as much as possible), healthy eating (ease up on the Halloween candy), and a little bit of exercise can go a really long way to make sure you are mentally healthy. Mental health can be managed, but it takes some focus and effort on your part.

* The counseling department continues to add options for X-block for you to do college and career research!  We offer career speakers, college admissions visits, a program learning about cryptocurrency, cupcake decorating, throwing the ball with Huxley, and doing puzzles focusing on positive mindfulness!  Below is a list of the dates for the career speakers and college visits.  Sign up now!

Career Speakers (with more continually being added!):

November 1st: Law and Public Health Policy

November 8th: Nuclear Engineering

December 6th: US Marine Corps

December 13th: US Army

December 20th: Coast Guard


College Speakers (with more continually being added!):

November 2nd: Salem State University

November 5th: University of Hartford

November 9th: University of Maine

November 12th: Penn State University

November 23rd: Worcester State University

November 30th: Mass College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences


* First term ends this Friday! It is very important that you work hard this week to finish strong.  Communicate with your teachers to see if there are any assignments that you haven't turned it that they will still accept, or if there is any assignment that can be redone or retaken.  Grades will be released on Friday, November 12th.  When you receive your grades, give some thought to how or why you received the grades you did.  What will you do differently for term two to make any changes to your grades?  How can you be a more effective or efficient student?  Have conversations with your teacher and/or counselor to see how you can improve!

* Congratulations to all of the students that took the PSAT's last October.  Scores should be released sometime in December, and counselors will be reviewing how to interpret PSAT scores in junior seminars.  For those students who chose to not take the PSAT's (or were unable), don't worry!  It is still possible to prep for the SAT's without having taken the PSAT's.  The best free prep for the SAT's is Khan Academy (https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/sat).  Set up a regular schedule for yourself, doing prep consistently until test day and your scores should go up!

* Interested in looking for scholarships for college?  There are a lot of good (and free!) resources for students looking to get money for college.  Start with local scholarships.  We put all of those right on your Naviance account (click on "Colleges" then "Scholarships & Money" then "Scholarship List" then "Local and Regional Scholarships").  These will be primarily for SENIORS.  Right now there aren't many, but as the year goes on more and more will be added (March/April/May is primetime for local scholarships).  For national scholarships - and ones open to freshman, sophomores, and juniors - there are three good sites to check out:

www.fastweb.com

www.cappex.com

https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/scholarship-search


* SENIORS, if you are applying to colleges and you have already submitted your Transcript Request Form, we will automatically send your first term grades to your colleges.  Nothing you need to do on your end!  As a reminder, it takes time for your colleges to process all of the transcripts coming in, so even if it shows on your portal that they have not received your transcript yet, be patient.  Keep monitoring, but give them time to update their information on their end.

* SENIORS, if you are applying for financial aid for college, be sure to complete and submit the FAFSA form (https://fafsa.ed.gov/). This is the application accepted by all schools if you are applying for financial aid.  Some schools require the CSS profile too.  To see a list of all schools that require the CSS profile, click here (https://profile.collegeboard.org/profile/ppi/participatinginstitutions.aspx

* SENIORS, need help with filling out your FAFSA?  Take advantage of FAFSA Day Massachusetts to get all of your questions answered!  They offer events throughout the year for families to attend (virtually!) to get help completing the FAFSA.  The next event is Sunday, November 14th.  If you are a senior planning on applying for financial aid and you haven't completed the FAFSA yet, we recommend attending!  For more information and to register, go to: https://masfaa.org/fafsaday/

* JUNIORS, if you are planning on taking the SAT's or ACT's this year, you can schedule your test now!  We recommend taking the test at the very end of the year (May or June) as we want you learning as much as possible in your classes this year, as well as having time to prep if you choose to do so.  You can find the test dates and registration information for SAT's here: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/sat/register and the ACT's here: https://www.act.org/content/act/en/products-and-services/the-act/registration.html

* JUNIORS and SOPHOMORES, if you are interested in doing college research, the best way to start is by attending college fairs.  NACAC and NEACAC are two organizations that hold college fairs throughout the year, both in-person and virtual.  The NACAC fairs can be found at https://www.nacacfairs.org/ and the NEACAC fairs can be found at https://www.neacac.org/fall-college-fairs-2021.  The NACAC fairs usually have more schools, and they are from all over the country, while the NEACAC colleges are all New England schools, and often have more smaller schools participating.


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