My Final Project will Involve teaching the Junior/Senior Seminar high school AVID college preparatory class at San Fernando High School in the Los Angeles area. I will teach the class what steps need to be completed after college applications have been turned in. Since the majority of the applications will be done by November 3Oth, and I teach them on December 2nd, this is the perfect opportunity to let the students know what the sequence of events is to come. The majority of parents at this school have not completed 8th grade so support for the college admissions process is very important. Students will read articles, discuss them with each other, ask questions and post comments to a classroom blog for this assignment.
I will be covering topics such as what steps need to be completed after applications are in:
How to pay for college: loans, grants, and scholarships.
Why is completing the FAFSA important?
What kind of loans might be reasonable to take out?
Why out of state colleges cost more.
Why for profit colleges are often a poor choice.
When is it necessary to get SAT/ACT scores to colleges?
Why must one register for summer session with conditional acceptance to a Cal State?
When must students draft a good brag sheet, and collect EOP/EAOP recommendation letters?
When are most final decisions to California colleges due?
(Late march through April. Decisions come in Jan-Mid March usually.)
Why avoiding senioritis is important. What are rescinded acceptance letters and scholarships?
When should one take college placement tests?
When to submit final high school grades to colleges.
The importance of academic advising and registration dates.
Books, rent, buy or Ebook? How much do books cost?
ambrosioidt516 
This sounds like a great training – and very much needed. I believe if more students had access to training like this, it would help with retention rates. It’s sad to see how many students drop out after their first or second semester because they didn’t realize some of the costs involved with getting a college education.
LikeLike
Hi Heather,
I think it’s great that you’re taking a topic most students in any school don’t get any training on- preparing for college, and making it a priority. This would be great for any school, but since many of your students are probably first generation college students, it is even more vital for them! I wonder if it would be helpful to include a section on the various costs of college, and how to budget to pay for these different categories to go along with your theme. I’m excited to see how this turns out!
Katie
LikeLike
I made a separate blog on wordpress to use for the class. The site is: sanfernandoavid.wordpress.com
I’m still a little cluncky with operating it though.
LikeLike
Heather, this is an excellent way to show the kids what it really takes to get things going in the right direction. Dealing with first generation students can be tough. Their parents just don’t really know how to guide them and keep them on track. As their instructors and teachers it’s so important to go beyond whats in the textbooks and show them the way when comes to handling things like this.
Great project and good luck.
Quintin
LikeLike