What Every Senior Parent Should Know

The Road to Success is always under construction.

S.O.S.

TAKE A MOMENT TO THINK ABOUT…..

One thought you have about your senior applying to college…..

One concern/comment you would voice about paying for college…..

One thing that you would say to your senior about their senior year….

After tonight, you will know more about:

1. Graduation requirements & GPA/Rank

2. Testing Requirements

3. Transcripts

4. Naviance

5. College 101

6. Important Dates to Remember

7. Ways to Stay In The Know

Senior Staff

Principal- Mrs. Julie Hinson

12th Grade Class Principal – Mrs. Marsh

Class Secretary – Mrs. Karen Reyes

Registrars- A—K Sherri Sceroler

L—Z Marchell Harris

Student Support Retention & Recov.- Mrs.Lindsay Cano

AdviseTX College Advisor- Mr. Darric Ward

Counselors

Mrs. Becky Hickman – A-CL

Mr. Greg Little– CO-GO

Ms. Staci Mack– GR-MAM

Mrs. Brenda Sanders– MAN-PER

Mrs. Jina Miles- PES-SO

Mrs. Shaundra Kiser- SP-Z

- Counselor Request Form (the “Green” Form)

- Purple Packet

- Request Transcript through Naviance that will be uploaded by registrar.

- Request letter of recommendation on Green Form as well ifcollege is requesting one from their counselor.

- When using Common APP please submit your counselors email address so they are emailed by Common APP to upload the documents needed.

- - Counselor request form (The “Green Form”)

- Purple Packet

- Bring the SEND EDU document to your counselor along with:

- Counselor request form (The “Green Form”)

- Purple Packet

-Students are required to give the counselors 21 working “business” days to write letters of recommendation. Please note that this does not include weekends and holidays.

What Graduation Plan is your child currently on?

Graduation Requirements

Graduation Requirements

It’s all Greek to me?

Class Rank is based on the cumulative grade point average for grades 9-12. A student’s grade point average is derived by dividing the total number of grade points by the number of semester courses attempted.

There will be two times this year that class rank will be calculated for seniors. The next official Class rank will be recalculated in September. The last official class rank update will be in May.

Class Rank

HS example–Quarter GPA Range

Senior Class of 2019 Ranking

Quarter Class Rank GPA

1st 1-222 4.7778-3.6552

2nd 223 443 3.650-3.1296

3rd 444-668 3.1250-2.5439

4th 667-890 2.5385-Below

Highest GPA in 2019: 4.7778

Top ten percent is 4.7778 – 3.1429 or the first 89 students (1-89)

Honor/High Honor and Top Ten Graduates Calculation for Graduation

High Honor Grads = GPA 4.0 and above

Honor Grads = GPA of 3.5 to 3.9

All points attempted and courses attempted for high school courses taken in grades 7-11 and the first five, six-weeksgrading periods of the senior year are calculated to obtain the GPA for Honor/High Honor and Top Ten graduates. For purposes of class rank, a tie will be broken in accordance with District policy.

Transcripts provide the following information:

All high school courses taken

Semester averages

Credit earned

Test scores, including EOC, SAT/ ACT

GPA and Class Rank

Remember it is the students responsibility to provide the correct address to the university/campus that the official transcript is to be sent to.

It is a minimum wait time of 48 hours for all transcript requests submitted.

Cost: $2.00 for them to be mailed

Naviance: Free

Parents and students may view the STAAR EOC test results using either the Home Access Center (HAC) or the online state Student Data Portal. The HAC contains STAAR test results and your child’s unique access code for the state student portal.

The new STAAR report card also known as a Confidential Student Report (CSR), is posted at TexasAssessment.com. The goal of this new design was to create a family-friendly report on student progress, specifically highlighting growth and improvement.

Receive MRHS Testing updates on Twitter @KyleKSanchez or visit the MRHS Testing Website at https://sites.google.com/katyisd.org/mrhstesting/home

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Create a résumé

Complete a college search

Develop a prospective college list

Provides access to scholarship search engines; over a hundred national

scholarships are available

Complete school developed surveys (senior survey)

Compare colleges

Links to selected third party resources

(i.e. College Board, Financial Aid, NCAA, Careers, College searches, etc.)

Take personality and career assessments

Request official transcripts for colleges and universities

WHAT CAN STUDENTS AND PARENTS DO USING

NAVIANCE

Mr. Ward

Advise TX College Adviser

• 4-Year Public University• (Texas A&M, UT, Sam Houston State, SFA, etc.)

• 4-Year Private University • (Baylor, HBU, Rice, etc.)

• 2-Year Community College/Junior College • (HCC, Lonestar, etc.)

• Technical/Vocational College • (Texas State Technical College)

• For Profit Colleges- (The Art Institutes, DeVry, Universal Technical Institute, Tulsa Welding School, etc.)

• Be careful- some for-profit colleges do not offer financial aid to students, credits may be non- transferrable to other colleges, and tuition rates can be much greater than public colleges

Admissions Options

Early Decision

Early Action

Rolling/Regular Admission

Open Admission

You can apply to only 1 college.

If the college accepts you and offers you a “suitable” financial aid package, you mustgo to that college.

Although you may apply to additional colleges through the regular admission process, you must withdraw all other applications if you’re accepted by this college.

You can apply to as many early action colleges as you’d like.

If you're accepted, you can say yes right away or wait until spring to decide.

You can also decline the offer.

Large window of time during which they can apply. Application opens in the early fall, and it may continue right through the summer.

Accepts applications for as long as spaces are available.

Applying early improves an applicant's chance of being accepted. Also, while there may be no application deadline, there typically are deadlines for scholarships, financial aid and housing. A late application may make it impossible to get any decent financial aid.

Accepts all applicants

GPA/and or test scores may direct class offerings.

Apply by January

Loan Star, HCC, etc.

Personal vs. Professional email

Capitalizing & Formal language

Using your full, legal name

Keep your Passwords!

Biggest time waster known to mankind.

•Do your research! Find the “best fit” college based on…• your high school GPA and ranking

• the type of college

• cost of attendance

• location and size

• majors offered

• demographics

• extracurricular

•Narrow the list of colleges to between 3 and 5 and know their admission AND scholarship deadline

•Bigfuture.collegeboard.org

Aim to complete at least ONE University application by October 1st!1. www.applytexas.org or www.commonapp.org

Complete required essays

2. Submit SAT/ACT scores (sat.org, act.org)3. Send Official Transcript through Naviance (accessible on the MyKatyCloud)

4. Financial Aid & Scholarships5. Optional: Letters of Recommendation (2-3), resume

The University must receive ALL of the above required items (except financial aid) before the application deadline to consider you for admission

Khanacademy.org

Academy.act.org

Testing & Education Reference Center (TERC) in the MyKatyCloud

• FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid)- begin October 1st, 2019• www.fsaid.gov → www.fafsa.gov• What can I qualify for?

• Federal & State Grants• Scholarships• Federal Student Loans• Work study

• TASFA (Texas Application for State Financial Aid)- begin after October 1st, 2019

• www.Collegeforalltexans.com or www.aie.org• Undocumented students who have been classified as Texas

residents (have lived in Texas for at least 36 months)• Please meet with your college adviser ASAP to receive more

information• What can I qualify for?

• State grants, scholarship, and student loans

• Never too early to begin applying for outside scholarships• Monthly bulletin

• College Webpage

• Search sites:

• www.collegegreenlight.com

• www.Scholarships.com

• www.Scholarships4students.com

• University specific scholarships on Apply Texas or through college website.

• Colleges must receive ALL required materials before the deadline to make a decision

• Universities have deadlines, community colleges have rolling admissions.

• Begin financial aid applications after October 1, 2019.

• Students who will be submitting the TASFA, please meet with your college adviser ASAP to receive more information.

Mr. Ward Advise TX College AdviserMain Counselor Officedarricward@katyisd.orgRemind messaging Band app: @AdviseMRHSTwitter: @AdviseMRHS

Important datesfor

Fall Semester

Sept. 11th - S.O.S. #1

Sept. 25th - S.O.S. #2

Oct. 1st Begin filling out FAFSA for federal student aid.

Oct. 16th - Panoramic Photo (wear purple out shirt or any MRHS purple shirt)

Oct. 16th - Last Day to submit applications to schools with earlynotification deadlines of November 1, 2019.

Dec. 2nd - Last day to turn in college applications to have them submitted before winter break.

Wednesday, October 9, 2019Leonard Merrell Center

5:00 PM to 8:00 PM6301 South Stadium Lane, Katy, TX 77494

Important dates for Spring Semester

Request mid-year report beginning after February 7th . (some colleges require)

May 1st - Deadline to accept offer of admission to most colleges.

May 4th -15th -AP Testing Window

May 17th - Graduation

May 17, 20202:00 PM

We want your student to be a participant and not an observer.

MRHS