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SAT/ACT/
SAT II
Working
on your
application
Recommen-
dations
The Common Application
Waiving your
rights
The “Extra’s”
The
Follow-up
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- Make sure you take the
SAT and ACT in spring of your junior year and early in your senior year.
Registration information is available in the Counseling Office or you can
register on-line at
www.collegeboard.com or
www.ACT.org. You may need scores to be sent to a college as early as
November, so plan ahead. Most universities take either scores from SAT or
ACT; a very few require you to take one and not the other. Check
university admission requirements prior to registering for the SAT or ACT.
Some colleges require the SAT II (subject tests) as part of the
application process. Please check with each individual school.
- Apply on line if at all
possible. Your application remains a working document until you click
"Submit".
- Complete your
application by yourself. College admissions officers have a good nose for
sniffing out embellished or borrowed work. Approach applications
individually, completing one at a time.
- If your application
requires an essay, always have a reliable person proofread your essay for
you. Always type your document, print and attach when allowed, rather
than writing by hand in the space provided.
- Consider creating
color-coded files, one for each college, as a way or organizing the
enormous amount of material you will receive. Many students have found
this organizational tool invaluable in the past. File a copy of
everything you send to colleges.
- Generally, think in
terms of filing no more than six to eight applications; one to two “reach”
schools, three to four possible “solid shot” schools, and two probable or
“back-up” schools. All schools chosen should be ones that you would be
happy to attend.
- Contact teachers who
will be writing recommendations for you well before the deadline for
submitting the application to the Counseling Office (at least 30 or more
days before the application deadline). Some teachers will be asked
to write 30 or more recommendations so they must be given ample time to do
justice for each student. In addition to your unending thanks, you
should provide those writing your recommendations with a resume of your
school and community activities, job experiences, and other pertinent
information. Also provide them with a stamped, self-addressed
envelope for the school to which they are sending your recommendation.
10. Apply online at
www.commonapp.com
- On both teacher
recommendation forms and on the Secondary School Report forms, you will
see a section stating your rights under the Buckley Amendment. Under the
Buckley Amendment you have the right to review your educational record if
you enroll at a given university. You also have the option to waive your
right of access to specific recommendations.
Consider
waiving your rights of access. It tells your recommender that you trust
them to write a positive recommendation. Furthermore, if you do not waive
your right, you leave yourself open to the suspicion that you are trying to
prevent the recommender from revealing some dark chapter in your history.
Remember that when you sign, you are only waiving your right of access to
specific recommendations; you retain access to the rest of your file.
- When listing your
activities on your application, be sure to arrange them in decreasing
order of importance. Either you can avoid chronology altogether and
arrange all your high school activities in order of importance, or you can
begin with senior year, listing all activities in order of importance, and
proceed down the chronological line from there. Traditionally, student
government, sports, school publications, and community service have been
considered “important” activities; however, importance is by no means
confined to these areas. In general, colleges are looking for leadership,
commitment and longevity, talent, accomplishment, and maturity. A job or
significant responsibility at home would qualify as an important activity;
so too would any recognized work in the arts. Remember that colleges look
for that “spark” in a candidate.
- Colleges make it your
responsibility to constantly check their websites to see if your
application is complete. They do not send reminders.
- If you are applying
Early Action/Early Decision, once you have been accepted, please write a
letter to other schools who have accepted you and ask that your
application be withdrawn. Other students are on the wait list for a spot.
Please do not hesitate to
ask your counselor any question that you may think of throughout this
lengthy and important process. Please notify her once you have been
accepted to any college. We will ask seniors for their final college
choice in the spring so we can plan for our college signs on
Loop 323 late
May.
Robert E. Lee Counseling Department
903-262-2698
TOP TEN PERCENT
AUTOMATIC ADMISSION
In 1997, the 75th
Legislature passed House Bill 588 making college admission guaranteed for
students graduating in the top ten percent of their class. The Texas public
college or university of a student’s choice must automatically admit them
if:
Their grade point
average places them in the top ten percent of their high school class;
They apply no later
than two years after graduating from a Texas high school; and
They submit a
completed application and meet all college or university requirements and
deadlines.
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