What’s after high school?

THE FUTURE FOR THE CLASS OF 2022

Life after high school is coming: So, what should seniors be doing?

By Ritika Khanal

The 2020-2021 school year is well underway, and for seniors, so is the quest to figure out what to do after graduating high school.

Under normal circumstances, seniors would have heard all about their options from various sources, from trade schools, to community colleges, to four year institutions. However, as a result of the pandemic and the closure of schools for a year and a half, instead of being guided by the school, students had to do the research themselves.

For those who planned to apply to go to college, the question of the SAT emerged. For years, the SAT had served as the college admissions test, with every student being required to take it if they wished to get into college.

“I took that SAT as a junior, and so much has changed since then,” counselor Amy Wiskerchen said.

As a result of the pandemic, many students were unable to access the SAT their junior year, as they would have normally done. With the inequities this created, many colleges made the decision to make the SAT optional, and some, like the University of Washington, (UW) chose to become “SAT blind.”

“When reading your application, the reviewers will not see your test scores if provided,” the UW website stated.

While most institutions have gone for “test optional,” this can mean different things for each one. In the case of UW, for example, the scores are not considered at all in the application process even if submitted, hence the term “SAT blind.” However, in the case of institutions such as Harvard, if a student submits an SAT score, that score will be considered but is not required in order to get into the school.

“Students should really be looking at the websites of the colleges they are thinking about going to,” counselor Brad Serka said. “Every school is different, and especially now, it’s important that you do your research.”

Throughout the month of October, the four MTHS counselors have made visits to each senior English class with a presentation to help guide seniors. Attending this presentation is mandatory for every senior and counts as one of their Naviance tasks. Those without an English class, or those who were not in attendance on the day of the presentation will be contacted by counselors to receive the information from the presentation at a later date.

Each year, students have completed various tasks on Naviance, meeting graduation requirements in the process. However, Naviance also serves as the connection between students and colleges.

“The process is a little weird, but Common App makes it relatively easy for us,” Serka said. “You have to match your Common App application to Naviance, and that way, we [the counselors] can see what information needs to be submitted to each school and what the deadlines are and everything.”

Common App is one of the programs colleges use for their application process. While it is the most well known program and is used by most colleges, some use other programs or have applications of their own. For example, in order to fill out the application for UW, students must use a program called Coalition.

According to all four counselors, the Common App is the easiest application to fill out for a variety of reasons. Firstly, if a student wants to apply to five colleges, and all are on the Common App, they can fill out the application once and send it to all five. However, with colleges that have their own application process, the steps aren’t quite so simple, and a student might have to fill out a different application for every college they apply to. Secondly, if a student wishes to apply to a private school such as UC Berkeley, Harvard, or Gonzaga University, those schools typically require a letter of recommendation from a teacher or counselor, and regardless of what school a student applies to, transcripts and other information will be called for.

“Also, students can request their letters of recommendation directly through Naviance, and when that Common App application is matched to Naviance, the teacher can submit their letter of recommendation right in there and it makes it nice and easy,” counselor Rebecca Brennan said.

When it comes to letters of recommendations, all four counselors advised that students should request early.

“Don’t ask us for a letter of rec the week before its due, and take into account the holidays,” Serka said. “I’ve had students ask me the day before it’s due, and I do it because I’m a nice guy, but they probably wished they hadn’t asked me since I didn’t have time to put my best work into it.”

In order to receive a letter of recommendation from an MTHS teacher or counselor, students are asked to fill out a brag sheet prior to asking for a letter. As the name suggests, a brag sheet allows students to “brag” about themselves and list their best qualities, activities they are involved in in and out of school and anything else that they think could help their teachers or counselors write the best letter possible. This sheet can be found under the counselor section on the MTHS website.

Each college has an application fee when applying, and for some students, this can be a serious financial barrier. However, if the student is on free and reduced lunch, most colleges have an option to waive that fee.

“If it’s through Common App, I’ll have something where I can just approve that you’re on free and reduced lunch and the application fee can just get waived,” Brennan said.

In addition, once accepted into a college, tuition, books and housing can get extremely expensive. As a result, scholarships and the Free Application for Financial Aid (FAFSA) are here to help.

The FAFSA is an application that all current college students and incoming college students across the United States can fill out to find out their eligibility for financial aid. Based on family income, students may be eligible for some or all of their college tuition to be paid for.

“The sooner you get the FAFSA in, the better,” Serka said.

In addition to the FAFSA, students can apply for a variety of scholarships. On the counselor section of the MTHS website, an MTHS scholarship application can be found.

“Once you fill that out, we can match scholarships to your needs and you’re eligible for a bunch of scholarships,” Hong said.

Along with this application, there are many websites that offer a multitude of scholarships.

“You just have to be careful of scholarship scams. If they’re telling you have to pay money to apply, that’s a scam,” Serka said. “But there are so many scholarships out there. You could literally get one for being left-handed. It’s just a matter of applying.”

Normally, MTHS has a career specialist that can help students with the FAFSA, scholarships and college applications. However, this year, MTHS is still trying to hire someone to take this position on.

“We usually have a career specialist that helps out with all the scholarships and stuff like that, so we’re trying to hire for that position right now,” Brennan said. “Once we get that person hired, they’ll be able to answer all the scholarship questions and help students out with whatever they need. In the meantime, we’re doing what we can.”H

“We recommend that students print this sheet out and give it to their teachers when they ask for a letter of recommendation.” Allison Hong COUNSELOR