College Prep

College Preparation Resources!

College preparation really begins back in elementary, but steps you take throughout your high school years are vital to your post-secondary options. Here are some resources to help you along the way!

Freshmen & Sophomores:

Take interest & career assessments to help you explore careers options. http://www.careerbridge.wa.gov/ is a good one, or visit your counselor for other options!
Talk with your school counselor about career options and the education required for those careers.
Talk with friends, teachers, counselors and your parents about college.
Review & update your High School & Beyond Plan. Take the most difficult classes you can handle. Stay focused on your schoolwork and grades.
Sign up for classes that will earn college credit during your junior year or sooner. Speak with your counselor about what options we offer at EVHS.
Explore internships and apprenticeships.
Explore internships and apprenticeships.
Enroll in a summer enrichment program at a college.
Participate in extracurricular activities.
Start researching colleges you might be interested in attending and look into their enrollment data. Compare multiple colleges!

Juniors

Attend college and financial aid events.
Take the PSAT in the fall to prepare for the SAT, and to identify areas where you need improvement. (www.khanacademy.org for prep)
Consider possible career options and investigate the type of education that is needed.
Request materials from schools that interest you and visit their websites.
Arrange campus visits to those schools that interest you.
Review your High School & Beyond Plan. Take the most difficult classes you can handle. Stay focused on your schoolwork. Make sure you are meeting your high school graduation requirements.
Sign up for classes that will earn college credit during your senior year.
Register for and take the ACT (www.act.org) or SAT (www.collegeboard.org) in the Spring.
Research public and private scholarship options. See your counselor for scholarship opportunities or visit the scholarship area of our website.
Participate in extracurricular activities.
Get a job to earn and save money for college, or explore your skills through an internship or apprenticeship.

Seniors

Visit the colleges that interest you. It's okay to go more than once.
Select the schools to which you will apply. Make a list of deadlines for each school (include the financial aid and scholarship application deadlines).
Have your high school transcript sent to colleges which you've applied. Our school registrar Mrs. Call will help you with this.
Start requesting letters of recommendation early in the fall. You might need them for college and/or scholarship applications.
Prepare a portfolio if you're interested in the arts. Some fine arts college programs require one.
Take or re-take the ACT or SAT in the fall. Be aware of the dates offers and registration deadlines.
Attend a financial aid event
Search for and apply for scholarships. There are lots of $$$ out there! APPLY!
Complete the FAFSA online. https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa
Meet with your counselor and review your High School & Beyond Plan. Make sure you are on track to graduate.
Participate in extracurricular activities
Get a job to earn and save money for college, or explore your skills through an internship or apprenticeship.

WEB SITES TO HELP YOU WITH YOUR COLLEGE PREPARATION

https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/	Although there's no magic formula for choosing a college, you can start by asking yourself some questions that help most students find the right fit. Use this guide to: Learn about some key college search categories. Answer questions to discover what's important to you. Get advice from college students and educators. It's your journey. We're just here to help you get started.
http://ecos.embark.com	Plan ahead for college quickly and easily by registering yourself on ECOS! ...for EV students, you must have already registered yourself with the Counselors.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu	U.S. News and World Report's college review - At this site, you will be able to: find college rankings, help with finding a community college, financial aid and scholarship guidance, rankings of graduate schools, a career-planning section, read some topical news, and find out how parents can take advantage of the market.
http://www.nextstepmagazine.com	Next Step Magazine - If you are looking for advice for teens, then this is the place for you. Not only does it have advice for teens, but it also has profiles of businessmen and women, and even tips on college preparation.
http://www.collegesource.org	Career Guidance Foundation - At this site, you will be able to look through over 8,100 catalogs of U.S. and international schools online, in their original format. Course information, campus maps, admission requirements, and faculty information are easily accessible through their hyper-linked tables of contents and indexes.
http://www.collegenet.com	CollegeNET - CollegeNET allows you to easily find a college that meets any and all of the criteria you select on their college search-engine. You can select many different types of criteria ranging from region to sports programs. The results from your search will take you straight to the home page of the college(s) found. There is also a "Mach25" financial-aid search engine. Including these search engines, CollegeNET even provides links to Applyweb. Applyweb allows you to submit your college application to hundreds of colleges right from the Internet.
http://www.finaid.org	A very useful site for information about financial aid.
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OPE	Here, you will easily find information regarding federal work-study programs, grants, and loans. Plus, a list of links to state agencies and resources .
http://www.collegenews.com	Anyone planning on attending college or a university may want to check out this site. You will find about 400 campus newspapers, and even newspapers that are run by students. You can even find links and information for internships, financial aid, computer assistance, employment and a textbook exchange. You can also find links to colleges and universities in over about 110 different countries, including the US. There is even a Message Board and chat room to allow you the share your vast knowledge.
http://www.100hot.com/college	At this site, you will be able to find a list of the 100 Web sites that have been most visited on the Net.
http://www.criterioninfo.net/vcd	Here, you will be able to attend virtual college tours, plus be able to find links to information on "all the stuff you need to survive college."
http://www4.usnews.com/usnews/edu	Graduate program and college rankings in many different fields. There is also information on financial aid and careers.
http://www.CampusTours.com	Another tour of colleges. You will find photographs, videos, interactive campus maps, and live cameras.
http://www.review.com	If you are looking for tools and/or advice for choosing the graduate school, college, or career for you, then you'll find it at Princeton Review. There is even in-depth info on law, medicine and business.
http://www.collegiate.net	Another of the many guides to information on colleges, which is organized by subject.
http://www.collegeview.com	More virtual tours of hundreds of schools, and information on over 3,700 colleges and universities. There is also financial information, tools for career planning, and advice on packing for college.
http://www.collegeboard.org	A services directory for guidance counselors, teachers, students and parents... You can even register for the SAT online!
http://www.mycollegeguide.org	There is a "college life" guide, and even a list of "student maintained" Web pages.
http://www.fastweb.com	At FastWeb, you will be able to match your skills, interests, etc. to a list of over 400,000 scholarships, finding the ones right for you.
http://www.ScholarAid.com	A free, internet based scholarship indexing service. ScholarAid.com instantly matches students to national, state, and local level sources of financial aid. ScholarAid.com also conducts free financial aid and motivational seminars at high schools and colleges, as well as online. ScholarAid.com is a centralized resource for students and parents looking for ways to bridge the college financial gap that exists for many families today. By providing access to its database, which indexes over 500,000 national, state, and local scholarship awards, ScholarAid.com offers the most comprehensive and practical financial aid service on the Internet. It's goal is to develop a relationship with guidance directors across the country making them aware of their service so that they may pass the information on to their high school counselors. This site is completely user friendly and a viable source of scholarship information. They can send you material for you to post in your counselors' offices or for them to pass on to their students.