Senior News Highlights, March 4, 2015

 Congratulations to Gabe Musselman for receiving the district’s senior of the month award!

Gabe is recognized for his outstanding academic achievements and his contributions to the SLA community.

Scholly App

Scholly is a simple-to-use mobile scholarship app for high school and college students. The app will match students with scholarship opportunities based on search parameters such as field of study, gpa, and more.  In case you missed it, the entire senior class received registration codes, courtesy of Saxby’s Coffee. (Thank you!)  Check with your advisor to get your access code.

Junior News Highlights, March 4, 2015

Next FREE SAT/ACT Prep Class Tomorrow (3/5)

The College Office will be having the last SAT/ACT test prep session tomorrow (3/5) in Room 311.  It is still not too late to sign-up!  Just a reminder, the workshops will be held during X and Y bands.  Mrs. Hirschfield highly recommends that all students registered to take the March SAT attend this class.  Students who are interested, please sign-up for tomorrow’s class here!

Junior Financial Aid Night at SLA

Financial Aid Night will take place Wednesday, March 25 from 5:30 – 7 PM at the SLA Cafe.  Meet with a financial aid expert, Daniel Yannuzzi from Arcadia University, and talk with SLA students, parents, and alumni to learn how to navigate the college financial aid process.  Find out:

• What kind of financial aid is available
• How to apply for federal and state aid
• What happens after you apply
• How to approach parent and student loans
• Helpful hints to make the process go smoothly
• How to avoid problems with completing financial aid applications
• More about scholarships!

SAT Prep with Philly Tutors

Philly Tutors is offering a small group SAT Prep class in the Spring and Summer.  The 8-week course consists of 2-hour, weekly classes.  Participants will receive an SAT prep book and college readiness workshops with each session.  For more information, click here, select tutoring options on the left-hand side, and scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Register for the May SAT and April ACT

Registration dates for the Spring SAT and ACT are quickly approaching!  The deadline for the May SAT is April 6, and the deadline for the April ACT is March 13.

College Prep During 11th Grade– Student and Parent Checklist

For both students and parents, it’s crucial to stay on top of college preparation during the 11th-grade year and the following summer.

Here’s what you should be doing—including looking into careers, searching for scholarships, and keeping the savings account on track.

Checklist

 

Senior News Highlights, February 2, 2015

 Need Mid-Year Grades?

The College Office is now accepting mid-year grades request.  We have a request sheet on Ms. Hirschfield’s door. Please note that we are still waiting for grades to be processed and will be sending them as soon as they become available.

 FAFSA and PHEAA

It was great seeing many of our families complete their financial aid applications at our FAFSA night event at SLA! Make sure to get all requested financial aid applications completed by the schools’ deadlines.  If you still haven’t completed your applications, and need help, make an appointment to see Ms. Hirschfield.

FIBOT Scholarship Deadline Extended to February 15th

Students majoring in STEM careers: Apply for the Franklin Institute Board of Trustees Scholarship: https://www.fi.edu/franklin-institute-board-trustees-scholarship-application

Questions to Ask Colleges

Here are a few scripted questions that Juniors and Seniors can ask when talking to College Admission Representatives:

Around Academics:

-Do you have any professional programs? (eg: does your liberal arts school offer a teaching credential, is your nursing program accredited)

-How many students on campus do research with their professors? How easy will it be for me to find academic mentorship at your school?

Philly Goes 2 College

Looking for college prep resources in Philadelphia?  How about free SAT test prep?  Scholarship information?

Check out PhillyGoes2College for information tailored for Philadelphia high school students.  The Events Calendar has information about upcoming events.

Interested in taking a year off after Graduation?

Preparing for life after graduation could be quite stressful; deciding what college to attend, what you want to major in or even if you want to take a year off to explore your options.  It is typical for students who take a gap year to use the extra time to travel, get an internship, find a job to pay for their expected college tuition or just to decide what career path they are interested.  If you are interested in a gap year see the links below:

SLA Graduation Requirements

SLA Graduation Requirements

ACT/SAT Test Optional Schools

If you’re interested in applying to any test optional schools, click here for a list of schools that may be of interest to you.

Common Application FAQ

 Check out this document for Common Application FAQs!

College Entrance Exam Deadlines Coming Up!

Juniors:

Please be aware of the following upcoming deadlines for the college entrance exams (SATs and ACTs):

Click on the links below to get test date information.

SAT- http://sat.collegeboard.org/register/sat-us-dates

ACT-http://www.actstudent.org/regist/dates.html

Transcript Requests for Non-Seniors

Attention freshmen, sophomores and juniors!

If you want to participate in a summer enrichment program, or want to apply for a scholarship, come to the college office and request a transcript to be sent!

Facebook Posts May Hurt College Plans

We recommend that students read this article to become informed of the impact of social networks in the college process.

Did you know there are many post-secondary options out there?

We encourage all of our students at Science Leadership Academy to have a plan set in place for when they graduate.  We would like to offer this list of trade and technical schools as a resource to help with post-secondary planning.

Introducing the College Navigator

Juniors and Seniors and related parents, the College Navigator should be your second favoriate website of all time–after this one of course. Here, you can browse through real-time data on actual price based on

Navigating the College Financial Aid Process

There are two websites that the College Office wants you to look at today. Have you looked at the College Board’s Net Price Calculator and FAFSA Forecaster?

Want to know how to convert your GPA to a 4.0 scale?

Hey SLA Students,
We’d like to meet all of you in the college office if you’re having trouble figuring out how to write-in your GPA on the common app or any college app. As a general guideline, you can follow this chart. Also, as a general rule all SLA GPAs are unweighted . If you have any questions, please come and talk to us!

Preparing for College Entrance Exams

SAT & ACT PREP RESOURCES

It’s so important for students to begin prepping for their college entrance exams! There are tons of great test-optional schools, but some of them may require ACT/SAT test scores to be considered for merit scholarships.

Here’s a list of Test Prep Resources to help you get started!

SLA’s School Profile

Interested in reading about SLA’s mission and academic structure? Click here to find out more!

Students at SLA have the opportunity to apply to universities and colleges all across the nation! Here is a list of all the schools the Class of 2014 was accepted into!